How to eat more food for fewer calories

Yes!

It really is possible!

More food, fewer calories. Who isn’t interested in that?!

To understand how this works, you first must learn how many calories are in different types of food.

These are called “macronutrients”. Or “macros” for short.

This simply means how many fats, carbohydrates and proteins are in food.

Here are some examples of different foods that are predominantly high in each type of macronutrient and how many calories it contains per gram:

Healthy fats (9kcal per gram):

Raw nuts, seeds, olives, oils, oily fish, avocado, cheese, eggs, dark chocolate (70% and above), peanut butter (no added sugar, oils, salt or additives), full-fat milk/plain yoghurt.

Carbohydrates (4kcal per gram):

Bread, rice, pasta, cereal, grains, crackers, beans, legumes, chickpeas, popcorn, starchy vegetables (parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes), sweetcorn, peas, fruit (higher content in dried fruit, less in frozen), soda, sweets, desserts.

Protein (4kcal per gram):

Lean meats (chicken breast, turkey breast, 5% minced beef), egg white, fat-free Greek yoghurt, whey protein isolate (from milk), cottage cheese, soybeans, tofu.

The majority of salad and vegetables (and some fruits) contain very few calories as they’re mainly made up of water. The rest of their calorie content is made up of a mixture of all 3 macronutrients and micronutrients. Micronutrients are essential for the human body to grow and develop normally. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals such as vitamin a, b, c, d, e and k. Calcium, magnesium, chlorine, phosphorus, potassium and sodium are also some examples of minerals. Without these, the body won’t run efficiently.

You can now fill your plate with “inexpensive” food items AND bump up vitamins and minerals.

All food packaging will show you its calorie and macronutrient breakdown in 100g servings as shown above. This is a good way to compare food in theory. Comparing food by eye, next to one another will look totally different as its density is drastically different from food to food. For example, 100g of apple will look nothing like 100g spinach. 100g of beef won’t look like 100g of broccoli and so on.

For example, 100g of potato (roughly 2 small potatoes) will be around 90 calories, but 100g of mushrooms (roughly half a box of mushrooms) will only set you back by 20 calories! You won’t get a lot of potato for 100g, but you will if you choose a food “less expensive” in calories.

Here are some examples for reference:

Based on knowing this, you can now construct your meals with a better understanding of how many calories your meal will contain and therefore eat more food for fewer calories. There are also many calorie counting apps available for free to widen your knowledge of food and its calorie content. My Fitness Pal is a very popular app with a great database of food.

Alternatively, you can search the food lists available on this website: http://www.calories.info/