Dieting & Always Hungry? Try This…
High Volume Foods
A common misconception when dieting is that you’ll be hungry all the time as you’re eating less. Whilst this can be true, there are many tools we can use to keep hunger at bay.
To lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit, and being in a deficit can take a little while to get used to; so yes you may experience hunger particularly at the beginning of a diet, but rarely after that if you follow the tips in these next few blogs
Have you heard of the term high-volume foods or maybe volume eating? It means that you get a large quantity of food for a low number of calories. Some examples of high-volume foods are:
Salad
Vegetables
Fruit
Legumes
White fish
Chicken Breast
Eggs
Oats
Potatoes
The benefits of prioritising high-volume foods will be that
You will have larger portions of food. If you eat with your eyes or often compare your plate to your partner’s, you can feel deprived before you have even started eating, especially if you’re looking down at an empty plate. Seeing a full plate helps us psychologically feel satisfied that we have an adequate serving, and the extra food will increase the time it takes to eat your meal and the amount you have to chew. This, again, helps us to feel that we have had a decent feed.
You’ll stay fuller for longer. High volume foods like fruits and vegetables are full of water and fibre, which slows digestion and in turn helps control blood sugar levels as the energy from the food is released more steadily. The physical size of this amount of food also signals that your stomach is literally full, a powerful signaller for satiety. This means that cravings due to energy dips are less likely to strike.
You’ll be nourishing your body with all the extra vitamins, minerals, and fibre! Helping your digestive system, supporting your immune system, and reducing your risk of disease.
Prioritising high volume foods most of the time is a great tool when you’re in a deficit and when you’re maintaining. (Of course, this changes if you’re trying to gain weight, as the volume of food will make It harder for you to eat enough calories!).
Low volume foods give you a smaller amount of food for a higher number of calories. They are commonly hyperpalatable, high in fats/sugars and less filling. On top of this, many high calorie foods are refined, meaning that much of the fibre is removed. This means there is a less complex food for the body to break down and therefore digestion is faster, leaving energy dips and cravings to follow. The smaller volume also means it’s much easier for us to eat more of it before we get full. This is why it’s hard to gain weight by accident if you eat only vegetables and beans, but if we have unlimited ice cream the story might be different.
So how can you start to implement more high-volume foods in your diet?
Aim to fill half of your plate with veggies/fruit/salad. If it doesn’t compliment the meal, could you have it on the side, or as a snack? Maybe you could hide it in the meal. Grating carrot or courgette into mince, rice or oats. Mashing some vegetables in with your potatoes.
Make some simple swaps – frozen chips for homemade chips or jacket potato, chicken thigh for breast, cereal for porridge oats, pot noodles for soup.
Buy frozen – it’s much easier to implement if you’ve actually got it available and you don’t have to worry about it going off.
Try slow cooker or batch cook meals to maximise the amount of veg whilst reducing the amount of cooking you have to do. I like Mediterranean veg tray bakes, 3 bean chilli, stews, soups, sausage and bean casserole.
Aim to add colour to every meal, this makes it visually more appealing too… this is something that M&S have nailed. Look at their fridge section and tell me you don’t want to eat it all.
Aiming to eat more high-volume, low-calorie foods will help you feel fuller for longer and feel hungry less often. Be careful, though, because this doesn’t mean to never eat lower volume, or more calorie-dense foods. Food volume is important, but if you go too far and start to avoid higher calorie foods like nuts, seeds, avocados, some meats, and non-low-fat-dairy you can find that your diet becomes bland. This blandness leads to cravings and the whole things gets self-defeating. Volume is important but it’s not everything.
Instead of thinking about avoiding these higher calorie foods, think about creating a diet mostly of less calorie-dense, more high-volume foods with some other bits here and there in your meals. If you’re not sure how to strike this balance, reach out and I can help you!
If you learnt something from reading this blog, do me a favour and share it with your friends! Thanks for reading!!
