I’m popping in between cleaning and the back-to-school hub bub (my oldest is going to public school this year!), to talk to you about one of my “secrets” to my weight loss. I’m trying to get back into the mode of posting, and instead of creating long posts, I think little, mini-posts will have to do for the time being.
So today’s mini-post:
#1 key to successful weight loss and weight maintenance
F-I-B-E-R.
Not the powdery, icky, globby stuff you mix into drinks (ie. Metamucil or pysllium husks).
I’m talking straight up fiber. From plants. Animal foods have zippo fiber. So you’ve gotta get it from your fruits, veggies, and starches.
Why is fiber important? It’s not absorbed by the body, so it contains no calories but it adds to a feeling of fullness at your meal, and then helps to curb your appetite for hours to come as your body processes and digest the food.
The RDA recommends 25 grams of fiber a day. I say, fooey. That’s not enough.
I get about 90-100+ a day, depending on my caloric intake. I don’t aim for this number, it’s just what it works out to when I eat 2,000 or more calories of whole, unrefined foods.
1 cup of canned pumpkin for example (one of my favorite “desserts,” more on this later) delivers only 80 calories (I’m going off of the Libby’s brand) and 10, yes 10 grams of fiber.
100 grams of fiber in a day is a lot, I know. But not for me, it’s perfectly normal for me. And it helps keep me going in more ways than one.
As mentioned all plants have fiber, some more than others. And if your diet is mostly unrefined plant foods, well, you can see it’s pretty easy to get more than enough fiber.
Some of my favorite higher fiber plant foods:
1) Pumpkin (I eat mine from a can usually, I admit)
2) Beans! (super weight loss foods for sure, as they pack a nutritional whammy with protein, fiber, and many more good things!)
3) Bran. Kellogg’s All-Bran cereal is a fave of mine. Great sprinkled on top of my pumpkin blueberry oatmeal breakfast.
4) Oatmeal. Delivers soluble and insoluble fiber. Both important for your health. Soluble fiber, not present in all plant foods, acts like a sponge, and helps to soak up cholesterol in the body.
There are many, many benefits to fiber, I’m not going to spend much time discussing here. Only to say, think of fiber as your #1 fat, cholesterol fighting friend. Eat foods that have fiber. Most or all of the time. You’ll notice you need less calories to feel full, helping you to maintain or lose unwanted pounds. It’s that simple.
Here’s a recent meal, high in fiber:
Steamed veggies, raw salad, cooked winter squash, cooked collard greens and onions. For weight loss, eat this meal alone (and have seconds or thirds) or for weight maintenance, eat more of the squash, less veggies and add a side of hearty whole grain bread.
These kinds of meals, if I make sure to eat enough, keep me full and satiated for hours on end, and deliver lots of nutrients for very little calories. Talk about a caloric “steal”!
Comments