8 Foods That Help You Lose Weight and Satisfy Your Stomach

There are lots of reasons to put beans on your shopping list. Beans are an excellent source of fiber, and any food that’s high in fiber will be filling, says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, author of Doctor’s Detox Diet: The Ultimate Weight Loss Prescription. A ½-cup serving of black beans has 8.6 g of fiber, or 31 percent of your daily value (DV), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) nutrition database; ½ cup of red kidney beans has 6.9 g of fiber, or 25 percent of your DV, per the USDA; and ½ cup of garbanzo beans has 8 g of fiber, or 29 percent of your DV, notes the USDA.

Plus, fiber helps to fill you up without adding any calories to food (since our bodies can’t digest fiber), explains Kelly Kennedy, RD, staff registered dietitian nutritionist for Everyday Health. Fiber also takes longer to digest and adds bulk to food, she adds. A small study found that a high-fiber, bean-rich diet increased satiation and reduced hunger.

Beans also stimulate the production of the gut hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), which slows gastric emptying and can help to suppress appetite, research has shown. All of these benefits may lead to weight loss. One study showed that a high-fiber, bean-rich diet was as effective as a low-carbohydrate diet for losing weight.

Meal Prep Inspiration A veggie chili or a bean-based stew will fill you up without weighing you down, suggests Kennedy. She also loves the convenience of canned beans, which can be rinsed (to reduce the sodium content) and added to a rice dish or on top of a salad for more protein and fiber.

Why put salmon on your list of foods for weight loss? Among its many health benefits, salmon is a great source of protein — 3 ounces (oz) of wild Atlantic salmon has about 16.8 grams (g) of protein, per the USDA.

And your protein choices do matter: Researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health have noted the connection between proteins and weight loss as part of a broader study of the diet and lifestyle habits of more than 120,000 people over 20 years. Specifically, the researchers found that those who got their protein primarily by eating red meat, processed meat, and chicken with skin gained more weight over time than people who got their protein primarily from lean options like seafood and skinless chicken.

Protein-rich foods are filling foods because protein is metabolized more slowly than fats or carbohydrates, explains Dr. Gerbstadt. Salmon is also one of the best sources of heart-healthy fats known as omega-3 fatty acids, adds Kennedy.

Meal Prep Inspiration Try baking or grilling salmon — you can have a 3-oz portion for dinner and flake the leftovers over salad greens for lunch the next day, says Kennedy.

Eggs can help with weight loss because they are high in protein (two large eggs have 12.6 g), and it requires more energy to break down a protein than it does a starch, which many breakfast foods, including bagels, cereals, and muffins, are made up of, says Dr. Kantor.

If you’re worried about high cholesterol, you may want to consider eating more egg whites than yolks, but odds are you don’t have to worry too much. Some people are considered “hyper-responders” to dietary cholesterol (cholesterol in the foods we eat), but it’s a small percentage of the population, says Kennedy. For the majority of people, eating foods with cholesterol does not significantly affect their blood cholesterol levels. The American Heart Association’s guideline is that most people can eat one whole egg or two egg whites per day as part of a healthy diet.

Meal Prep Inspiration Add hard-boiled eggs to your salad for a low-calorie protein, or try egg whites and cucumber with salt and pepper for a snack, says Kennedy.

Nuts pack in protein and fiber, according to the Mayo Clinic, which makes them filling foods. A daily serving may also help you lose weight, according to another study from Harvard researchers. And a separate study found that people on a 12-week diet that included a handful of mixed nuts daily had higher levels of serotonin (a hormone that can decrease appetite) than those who didn’t eat nuts.

However, the calories from nuts and nut butters can add up quickly because they are such a rich source of healthy fats, says Kennedy. While this fat is not a bad thing and is actually good for you, it’s important to keep an eye on portion size when eating nuts. Kennedy recommends keeping your portion size to 1.5 oz, or a small handful of nuts, each day. (The amount of fat differs from nut to nut; for example, 1.5 oz of whole almonds have about 21 g of fat, notes the USDA). If you find that you’re not losing weight, take a look at your portion of nuts again and see if you need to make adjustments. It’s also important to choose nuts without any added fat, sugar, or salt, which can decrease the overall healthfulness of the nuts, Kennedy advises.

Smart Snacking Tip Thinly spread 1 tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter on a piece of whole-wheat toast for breakfast and add a sprinkle of slivered almonds on steamed green beans at dinner, says Kennedy.

Your brain lags behind your stomach — it takes about 20 minutes for digestive hormones to send the signal to your brain that you’re filling up, says Kennedy. That’s one reason popcorn is high on Gerbstadt’s list of filling foods that can help you lose weight: It takes a long time to eat popcorn, and the more slowly you eat, the more likely you are to start feeling full before you overdo it.

Popcorn is also a good source of fiber, making it a filling food, too, says Kennedy. One cup of air-popped popcorn has 1.2 g of fiber, per the USDA, but since a serving of popcorn is usually considered to be more than 1 cup, the fiber adds up. To be considered a good source of fiber, a food has to contain just 2.5 g of fiber, which can be reached at just about 2 cups of popcorn (and just 62 calories plain).

Smart Snacking Tip Use a hot-air popper and you’ll save on fat and calories, Gerbstadt says. Or pop your corn on the stove with a minimal amount of oil, suggests Kennedy.

Greek yogurt is another chart-topper on the list of smart foods for weight loss, says Kantor. It’s a great choice because it has more protein and less sugar than most other yogurts. While the amount of protein can vary from brand to brand, one 7-oz container of plain, low-fat Greek yogurt has about 20 g of protein and 7 g of sugar, according to the USDA. And this sugar is naturally occurring from the lactose in the milk, and not added sugar.

Greek yogurt is also a good source of calcium, with about 230 milligrams per 7-oz container (about 18 percent of your DV). A study in the journal Diabetes Care found that a diet rich in dairy calcium intake enhances weight reduction in people with type 2 diabetes.

Meal Prep Inspiration Make a parfait of Greek yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast or as a dessert, or use Greek yogurt as a base for thick and creamy smoothies, suggests Kennedy, who recommends using plain Greek yogurt without any added sugars.

The higher your metabolism, the more calories you burn, even when you’re at rest, says Kennedy. Various studies, such as one in the journal Bioscience Reports, have suggested that capsaicin, the active ingredient in chilies and other peppers that makes them spicy, may help boost metabolism (although no individual food has been proven to increase metabolism to the point of leading to weight loss, Kennedy notes). One small study found that people who added capsaicin to their high-fat and high-carb breakfasts decreased protein and fat intake at lunch, and felt more satisfied and less hungry.

Meal Prep Inspiration Try spicing up your morning eggs with chili peppers, fixing a breakfast burrito or tacos with chilies, or making yourself a bowl of piping hot chili with red beans for an early lunch, says Kennedy.

Water should be a staple on your list of foods for weight loss (even though it isn’t a “food” per se), as research has consistently shown. For example, one study reported that drinking more water (more than the usual intake) reduced weight and body fat and suppressed appetite in overweight female participants. Another study found a significant association between inadequate hydration and both elevated body mass index (BMI) and obesity.

“I recommend you drink a glass of water before you eat and between servings,” Kantor says. And if you’re drinking alcohol, he suggests having a glass of plain water between drinks. “Your intestines can only hold so much volume,” Kantor says. “Water will fill you up quickly and prevent you from overdoing it on foods and drinks that don't help with weight loss.”

Also, some people overeat because they mistake thirst for hunger. The parts of the brain where the body assesses hunger and thirst are very close together, explains Kennedy. For this reason, it’s very common for someone to feel hungry when they’re really just dehydrated. Staying well-hydrated is the best way to make sure that any hunger pangs are actually hunger.

Meet Your Daily Quota In general, people should drink a lot more water than they actually do, says Kennedy. If you feel thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. Fluid needs vary by age, gender, weight, and activity level. While the recommendation of at least eight 8-oz glasses is easy to remember, it isn’t the most accurate. The National Academy of Sciences recommends 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of total water for women and 3.7 liters (125 ounces) of total water for men each day. This water should come from both beverages and food.