When it comes to setting health and fitness goals, weight loss is among the most common aspirations. However, it can be easier said than done to shed the pounds.
We are well aware that two of the most important factors for weight loss are diet and exercise.
In general terms eating less and exercising more will get you closer to your goal weight.
While you may feel therefore like you need to cut back on everything you eat, one expert advised that certain foods could actually aid weight loss.
Nutritionist and personal trainer Luke Hanna revealed nine foods that can help blast fat – including one that may surprise you.
It is not that these foods themselves will lead to weight loss directly but that they will leave you feeling full up for longer, meaning you don’t need to eat as much throughout the rest of the day.
Speaking on social media platform TikTok, he explained: “These are foods that will help keep you feeling satiated, which means you feel full for a longer period of time.”
These foods include:
- White fish
- Chicken
- Oats
- Greek yoghurt
- Fruits
- Popcorn
- Whole grain pasta
- Fibrous vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and cauliflower.
However, he also recommended eating potatoes for this reason – a food some of his followers had been told to skip.
In the replies, one person commented: “Wait potatoes? I’ve always been told to avoid them for weight loss!”
Luke responded: “Yeah that’s nonsense. Obviously if you are frying them or eating them in the form of chips it’s a bit different.”
His advice is supported by a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which analysed a variety of foods to create a satiety index – to work out how full they would leave you after eating.
White bread was used as a baseline for the score with most foods scoring equal or higher in terms of satiety.
Potatoes were found to have the highest satiety index (SI) score.
Study authors said: “The highest SI score was produced by boiled potatoes which was seven-fold higher than the lowest SI score of the croissant.”
If you are concerned about your weight you should speak to your GP.