10 foods to help you lose weight

Bad news first! There's no miracle food stuff that'll make the weight drop off. If there were we'd all be slim and the diet industry wouldn't exist.

The good news is there are certain foods which will make you feel fuller, help keep hunger at bay and control cravings. So they make it easier to eat fewer calories without feeling hunger pangs.

So stick a few of these top ten on your shopping list if you're trying to lose weight:

1. Beans

Beans are a great source of protein.
They are high in fibre and slow to digest which makes you feel fuller for longer and may help reduce the urge for between-meal snacking.
"Foods such as beans, peas and lentils are cheap, nutritious and delicious. They are a really helpful tool for weight loss and management because they are low in fat and a good source of filling protein," says registered dietitian, Helen Bond.

2. Soup

Tinned, fresh or homemade - soup is comforting and filling. For a lunch choice it usually has far fewer calories than a sandwich. Vegetable soups also provide at least one of your ‘five a day’ fruit and vegetable goals.
Research at the University of Pennsylvania shows if you start a meal with a bowl of soup it helps to fill up your stomach and curb your appetite.
"Psychologically, eating a starter makes you feel like you are eating more, while physiologically it gives your brain time to recognise you are filling up," says Helen.

3. Chicken breasts and salmon steaks

Both are great sources of lean protein. Studies have shown that protein is good at making you feel full.
"One of the main reasons why people break a diet is because they feel
hungry," says Dr Alex Johnstone, an expert in obesity from the Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health in Aberdeen.
"Dietary strategies that can promote satiety and satiation to promote feeling fuller, can help maintain a calorie controlled diet. High protein diets are one effective strategy for achieving this," she says.

4. Vegetables

Green vegetables are lower in calories and packed with more nutrients than their more starchy relatives like parsnip and potato.
Fill up your plate with green beans and asparagus and it'll take you time to chomp through your veggies. You'll also psychologically feel fuller if you can see you've eaten a whole plate full.
Research in 2011 published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition has suggested if you load up your favourite meals with additional vegetables, you get fewer calories with the same great flavours.
For example when pureed cauliflower or courgette was added to macaroni cheese in one test, people liked the dish as much but ate 200 to 350 fewer calories.
Grated carrot and finely chopped onions cook quickly in a Bolognese sauce base, adding more healthy vegetables to your meal, making your meat portions go further and lowering the calories-per-serving of the final dish.
Use vegetables in place of other more calorific ingredients. Make pretend pasta by cutting courgettes lengthways with a vegetable peeler or have a chilli loaded onto a mound of shredded up lettuce rather than rice.

5. Eggs and porridge

Stocking up on healthy, breakfast foods is essential if you want to feel full and stick to your healthy eating plan.
Forget the cartoon character cereals that are usually packed with sugar and opt instead for porridge made with milk or poached eggs on wholemeal toast. "Countless studies have shown that breakfast eaters are slimmer than those who skip it," says Helen.
Eggs in particular are good for dieters. A US study found people who have two eggs for breakfast eat 400 fewer calories during the rest of the day as the feelings of fullness remain for longer.

6. Sausage

It doesn't sound as though sausage should be on anyone's diet shopping list but studies have shown that a protein rich start helps you resist snacks for the rest of the day.

In one small study of a group of obese young women, those who started the day with 35 grams of protein as part of a 350kcal breakfast felt fuller right away compared to those on a standard, modest protein breakfast.

The effect of the high-protein breakfast seemed to last into the evening, when the women munched less on fatty, sugary goods than the women who had cereal for breakfast or who had skipped breakfast entirely.

7. Nuts

A small handful of nuts like almonds, peanuts, walnuts, or pine nuts although quite high in calories does make you feel fuller.
Research shows that when people munch on nuts they automatically eat less at later meals.
"They contain an unsaturated fat called oleic acid which has been shown to help to curb hunger," says Helen.
She says you only need a golf ball size portion (1oz/25g) to get the benefits.

8. Apples

Stick a bag of apples into your shopping trolley.
Research in the Journal Appetite in 2009 shows that whole fruit blunts appetite in a way that fruit juices and purees don't. One reason is that raw fruit contains more fibre. Also chewing sends signals to our brain that we've eaten something substantial.
A study in Brazil found women who ate an apple or pear before a meal lost more weight than those who didn't.

9. Yoghurt

There's plenty of choice down the yoghurt aisle but as a dieter pick plain Greek style yoghurt as it contains more protein and less sugar than other varieties and will fill you up more.
A study from the University of Washington found that people who had a yoghurt snack felt less hungry and fuller than if they'd had a juice or a fruit flavoured milkshake of the same calorific value.

10. Brown rice and whole wheat pasta

Forget the white carbs if you want to feel fuller for longer.  Wholegrain carbs like brown rice and whole wheat pasta have a naturally lower glycaemic index, which means it takes longer for your body to extract their carbohydrates, resulting in a steadier rise and sustained blood sugar level. They are slower to release energy so help reduce hunger between meals, making snacking less likely.
"Increasing your intake of fibre is one of the best plans for weight loss because high fibre foods are harder to digest and therefore help to keep your digestive system in tip-top condition and running smoothly" says Helen.

And finally one for luck - chocolate

It sounds too good to be true, but a study of healthy, normal weight men showed that after eating 100g of dark chocolate the calorie intake from a pizza meal 2 hours later was reduced by 17%. Milk and white chocolate didn’t have the same effect. Whether the effect would be similar for dieters, or women with chocolate cravings, has yet to be demonstrated. Probably the best advice is to have a little of what you fancy when it comes to chocolate, and leave the 150g bars on the supermarket shelf.  
http://www.webmd.boots.com/diet/features/foods-to-help-lose-weight?page=3