Calorie Density: Weight Loss Secret

Paying attention to calorie density can be the secret to finally losing those extra pounds. This video with Dr. Lim shares his experience with helping people through the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa.

Dr. Lim had patients that claimed they were strictly following the program but just couldn’t lose the weight. He had them keep a food journal and discovered they were eating things like hummus that actually had oil in it.

If you didn’t know, oil has a ton of calories! With olive oil, just one TB has 120 calories with very minimal nutritional value. It’s better to add a few olives to a salad than pour olive oil over it.

Here are a few of the comparisons from the video above. Here is what 200 calories look like. You can eat four Chicken McNuggets or 2 big bowls of lentil soup. Which do you think would fill you up?

How about an afternoon snack? Dr. Lim used to love fig bars but look at the comparison. Would you rather eat 2 fig bars or eat an entire cantaloupe? Which would leave you feeling more full? Do you know which has more nutrients?

Here is what 500 calories can look like. Compare a bag of gummi bears to eating an entire 7 pound watermelon!

And the last comparison is 1 cup of cashew nuts is the equivalent of eating 5 big potatoes.

When you think of calorie density it can change how you view food. That is why John McDougall always says you can eat all you want. When the food choices are very low-calorie density, it will fill up your stomach and give you the nutrients that your body needs.

In addition to calorie density, fruits and vegetables contain thousands of phytonutrients that our bodies need.

Watch the video above for the comparisons of different kinds of foods. I was surprised by how high dried fruit is on the scale. It’s better to eat them fresh.