Calorie Density: Key to Losing Weight

While many diet plans focus on restrictions, such as “cut calories,” “don’t eat carbs” and “don’t fill up your plate,” a growing body of research is finding that additions, specifically nine or more servings daily of fruits and vegetables, is the best strategy for shedding pounds.

The key is that fruits and vegetables have a low calorie density, explains new NIH-funded research from Pennsylvania State University.* Low-calorie-dense foods are full of water and fiber, making them big and heavy and therefore more filling, “allowing people to lose excess weight without having to live with chronic hunger,” states Dr. Jay Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at Pritikin.

Analyzing 658 overweight, hypertensive men and women, all of whom were attempting to shed weight over a six-month period, lead author Jenny Ledikwe, PhD, and colleagues found that those with the greatest reductions in the calorie density of their diets lost the most weight, an average of 13 pounds. Those who made the smallest reductions in calorie density lost the least amount of weight, averaging just 5 pounds.

Controlling hunger

Though they shed the most weight, the low-calorie-dense eaters ate the most food – “and the greatest increases in both fruit and vegetable intake,” noted the authors, which “may have helped to control feelings of hunger and to promote feelings of satiety while reducing energy [calorie] intakes.”

Healthy diet

An additional benefit of adopting a low-calorie-dense diet was a healthier diet. The men and women with the greatest decreases in the calorie density of their diet had the highest increases in fiber intake, the highest increases in intakes of many vitamins and minerals, and the greatest decreases in fat and saturated fat intake.

At the start of the study, the subjects were divided into three different diet groups. The first group received a single 30-minute session on general lifestyle tips to reduce weight and blood pressure and improve overall health.

The other two groups attended 18 sessions (14 group meetings and 4 individual counseling sessions) over six months. The first group was taught to cut calories by adding 9 to 12 daily servings of fruits and vegetables and 2 to 3 servings of low-fat dairy foods, also known as the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). The second group was simply told to cut calories.

Fruits and vegetables

Overall, the scientists found that the DASH group cut down the most on calorie density, and the DASH dieters who ate the greatest number of fruits and vegetables shed the most weight of all the other dieters.

In summary, wrote Dr. Ledikwe and team, “participants with diet patterns characterized by the largest decrease in the energy [calorie] density had the greatest decrease in calorie intake and the largest declines in body weight. Even modest reductions in calorie density that accompanied increased intakes of fruit, vegetables, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and of the total weight of food consumed were associated with reduced body weight.”

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