Best foods for weight loss: high protein, high fibre and filling foods

Best foods for weight loss: the short answer

The best foods for weight loss are protein-rich foods, high-fibre foods and foods with a lot of water. Think of eggs, fish, chicken, yogurt, beans and lentils, oats, wholegrain bread, vegetables, fruit and soups.

They do not melt fat away. What they do is help you feel satisfied on fewer calories, so that eating a little less does not feel like a constant struggle.

That matters, because hunger makes any change in eating hard to keep up. A food that keeps you comfortable until the next meal is a food you can keep eating for months.

Before you change what you eat, talk to your doctor first, especially if you have diabetes, kidney disease or another long-term condition, or if you take regular medicines. This page gives general information, not personal medical advice.

Why some foods keep you full longer

Foods keep you full longer when they contain protein, fibre or water, need chewing and have not been heavily processed. Those features slow eating down, stretch the stomach and send fullness signals to the brain.

The calories in a food are only half the story. Two snacks with the same calories can leave you feeling very different an hour later.

Same calories, very different fullness

A classic Australian study gave volunteers 38 common foods, each in a portion with the same energy: 240 calories. The volunteers rated how full they felt every 15 minutes for two hours, then could eat freely from a buffet.

Boiled potatoes were the most filling food in the test, about three times as filling as white bread. A croissant was the least filling, at less than half of white bread.

The more satisfied people felt after a test food, the less they tended to eat at the buffet afterwards. In other words, choosing filling foods can quietly reduce what you eat later, without a rule or a count.

The three things that make food filling

• Protein increases the feeling of fullness after a meal and raises hormones linked to satiety. The effect is modest, but it is consistent across many studies.
• Fibre adds bulk, slows digestion and makes you chew more. Foods rich in fibre usually also contain fewer calories per bite.
• Water inside food, as in vegetables, fruit, soups and stews, adds weight and volume without adding calories.

Researchers call this last idea energy density: the number of calories in each gram of food. Cucumber has about 15 calories per 100 grams, while crisps have more than 500. You can eat a large plate of the first for the price of a small handful of the second.

Why heavily processed food makes it harder

Processing changes how much we eat, even when the nutrients on paper look similar. In a tightly controlled study at the US National Institutes of Health, 20 adults lived on a research ward for four weeks.

For two weeks they ate ultra-processed meals and for two weeks unprocessed meals. Both diets offered the same calories, sugar, fat, salt and fibre, and people could eat as much as they liked.

On the ultra-processed diet, people ate about 500 calories a day more and gained around 0.9 kilograms. On the unprocessed diet they lost about the same amount. It was a small, short study, but it shows how much the type of food shapes appetite.

This is not about willpower. Many cheap, ready-to-eat foods are made to be eaten quickly and easily. Our page on the food environment explains how shops, prices and advertising push us towards them.

Best foods for weight loss by food group

The table groups the most useful everyday foods into protein foods, fibre foods and volume foods. For each one you see a typical portion, the approximate calories, protein and fibre, and why it helps you feel full.

Obesity Foundation calculated the numbers from USDA FoodData Central, the US government’s reference food composition database. Brands, cooking methods and portion sizes differ, so treat the numbers as a guide and check labels where you can.

Two foods for comparison, from the same database: 100 grams of plain crisps contain about 530 calories, and 100 grams of butter croissant about 405. For the same calories you could eat roughly 3.5 kilograms of cucumber, which shows why energy density matters so much.

You do not need to eat every food on the list. Pick the ones you like, can afford and can cook easily, and build from there.

High protein foods for weight loss: a protein foods list

High protein foods help weight loss in two ways: they make meals more satisfying, and they help you keep muscle while you lose fat. Good choices are fish, poultry, eggs, low-fat dairy, tofu, beans, lentils and lean meat.

Muscle is worth protecting. It keeps you strong for everyday tasks such as climbing stairs, getting up from a chair or carrying shopping, and it matters even more as you get older.

What the research shows

A meta-analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition pooled 24 trials with more than 1,000 adults on reduced-calorie diets. People on higher-protein diets lost on average about 0.8 kilograms more weight and 0.9 kilograms more fat over roughly three months.

They also kept about 0.4 kilograms more lean mass, which is mostly muscle, and their resting energy use fell less. Three of the five trials that measured fullness found people felt more satisfied on the higher-protein diet.

A later review by Heather Leidy and colleagues came to a balanced view. Higher-protein meals reliably make people feel fuller, but they do not always lead to eating less at the next meal. The benefits were clearest in people who managed to stick with the diet.

So protein is helpful, not magical. A modest shift towards protein at each meal is more realistic than a drastic high-protein diet you cannot keep up.

Protein foods list: animal and plant sources

• Fish and seafood: cod, haddock, pollock, salmon, mackerel, sardines, tinned tuna, prawns.
• Poultry and lean meat: chicken or turkey without the skin, lean beef mince, pork loin. Keep processed meats such as bacon, sausages and salami for occasional use.
• Eggs: boiled, poached, scrambled or as an omelette with vegetables.
• Dairy: plain or Greek-style yogurt, skyr or quark, cottage cheese, milk, and a little hard cheese for flavour.
• Soya foods: tofu, tempeh, edamame beans and unsweetened soya drink or yogurt.
• Pulses: lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, split peas and butter beans. They bring fibre too.
• Nuts and seeds: useful, but energy-dense, so a small handful is a portion rather than a main protein source.

Plant proteins are lower in one or more of the building blocks of protein, called essential amino acids. Eating a variety of them over the day solves this, according to the US National Kidney Foundation.

To compare chicken cuts, fish and steaks by calories and protein, see our guide to meat and fish for weight loss.

How much protein is enough?

Leidy’s review found benefits in diets with about 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, often with about 25 to 30 grams at each main meal. In practice, that is a palm-sized piece of fish or chicken, or a bowl of lentils with some yogurt or cheese.

For people living with obesity, a calculation based on your full body weight can give a number that is far too high. Our macro calculator works from your height instead, which gives a more sensible estimate.

Older adults usually need a little more protein than younger adults. An international expert group on ageing advises people over 65 to eat at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram per day, unless they have severe kidney disease.

The simplest habit is to include one protein food at every meal. For many people breakfast is the meal with the least protein, so eggs, yogurt or cottage cheese in the morning make an easy first step.

High-fibre foods that help you lose weight

High-fibre foods help weight loss because they fill your stomach, slow digestion and usually bring fewer calories per bite. The best sources are pulses, whole grains, vegetables, fruit with the skin, nuts and seeds.

HealthLink BC, the health information service of British Columbia in Canada, mentions advice of about 25 grams a day for women and 38 grams for men.

What the research shows about fibre

A large set of reviews in The Lancet combined 185 long-term studies and 58 clinical trials. In the trials, people who ate more fibre had a lower body weight, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol than people who ate less.

In the long-term studies, the lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer was largest at about 25 to 29 grams of fibre a day, and more fibre may bring even more benefit. The researchers rated the certainty of the evidence for fibre as moderate.

Pulses stand out. A meta-analysis of 21 trials found that adding about one serving of beans, lentils, chickpeas or dried peas a day led to a small extra weight loss of about a third of a kilogram over six weeks, even when people were not asked to cut calories.

A third of a kilogram is not much on its own. But it came from one simple, cheap swap, and it adds up with other changes.

Easy ways to eat more fibre

• Swap white bread for wholemeal or rye bread. Look for breads and cereals with at least 4 grams of fibre per serving.
• Add a handful of lentils, beans or chickpeas to soups, curries, pasta sauces and salads.
• Start the day with porridge oats, and top it with fruit or a spoon of chia seeds.
• Eat fruit whole, with the skin where you can, rather than as juice.
• Try brown rice, pearl barley, bulgur or wholewheat pasta instead of the white versions.
• Fill half of your plate with vegetables at lunch and dinner. Frozen vegetables count.

Increase fibre slowly over a few weeks and drink plenty of water, because a sudden jump can cause bloating, wind and stomach discomfort. If you have irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease or have had bowel surgery, ask your doctor or a dietitian which fibre foods suit you.

Foods that keep you full for fewer calories

The foods that keep you full for the fewest calories are water-rich vegetables, fruit, salads and broth-based soups, especially when you combine them with a protein food. They let you eat a satisfying amount of food while the calories stay modest.

When a good part of your plate is vegetables, fruit or soup, the meal still looks and feels like a real meal, but with fewer calories.

Start with a salad or a bowl of soup

In a study in the United States, 46 women ate a pasta lunch on several days. When they also had to eat a large salad of about 300 grams and 100 calories, they took in about 11 % fewer calories at that meal overall.

Whether the salad came before or with the pasta made little difference; what counted was eating the whole portion. When the salad was optional, the effect on calories was not clear.

Starting with the salad did lead people to eat more vegetables. A bowl of vegetable soup before your main meal may work in a similar way.

Watch the extras. A creamy dressing, croutons or cheese can turn a light salad into a heavy one, so use a lighter dressing or a squeeze of lemon and a little olive oil.

Simple ways to add volume

• Replace a third of the pasta or rice with extra vegetables, such as courgette, peppers or cauliflower.
• Add grated carrot, chopped mushrooms or lentils to mince dishes, so the same meat serves more people.
• Make soups and stews in big batches and freeze portions for busy days.
• Mix berries or chopped fruit into yogurt instead of granola or sugar.
• Keep washed salad, cherry tomatoes and cucumber ready in the fridge, so they are the easiest choice.

Build a filling plate in three steps

A filling plate combines a protein food, a fibre-rich carbohydrate and a large portion of vegetables. Each part fills you in a different way, and together they tend to keep you satisfied for longer.

The Healthy Eating Plate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health gives half the plate to vegetables and fruit, a quarter to whole grains and a quarter to healthy protein. It adds a little plant oil and water, tea or coffee to drink.

Our free 7-day eating plan explains the plate method and portion sizes in detail. Here we focus on one question: will this meal keep me full?

1. Anchor the meal with protein. Choose one protein food from the list above: fish, chicken, eggs, tofu, yogurt or a generous portion of pulses.
2. Add a fibre-rich starch. Potatoes in their skins, wholegrain bread, oats, brown rice, barley or wholewheat pasta, in a portion about the size of your fist.
3. Fill the rest with volume. Vegetables, salad or a bowl of soup, as much as you like, cooked with only a little oil.

Harvard does not count potatoes as a vegetable on its plate, because of their effect on blood sugar. Even so, boiled potatoes scored as the most filling food in the satiety study, so they can sit in the starch quarter of your plate, as long as they are not fried.

If you get hungry between meals, our page on healthy snacks uses the same protein, fibre and volume idea for smaller bites.

Budget-friendly foods for weight loss

Many of the most filling foods for weight loss are also among the cheapest. Pulses, eggs, oats, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, frozen vegetables and tinned fish cost little and keep well.

Healthy eating does not have to mean expensive superfoods, special products or organic labels. The foods that do the most work for fullness are plain and familiar.

A budget shopping list

• Dried or tinned pulses: lentils, split peas, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans and baked beans.
• Eggs: one of the cheapest sources of good-quality protein.
• Porridge oats: a large bag lasts for weeks of breakfasts.
• Potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage: cheap all year and easy to store.
• Frozen vegetables and fruit: peas, spinach, broccoli, mixed vegetables and berries, with no waste.
• Tinned fish: sardines, mackerel, pilchards and tuna in water.
• Tinned tomatoes: the base for soups, stews and sauces.
• Plain yogurt and milk in large tubs and bottles, portioned at home.
• Own-brand wholemeal bread, brown rice and wholewheat pasta.

Are frozen and tinned foods as good as fresh?

Yes, frozen vegetables and fruit are a good choice. A two-year study in the United States compared vitamins in fresh, frozen and fresh produce kept in the fridge for five days.

In most comparisons there were no significant differences in vitamin C, provitamin A or folate. Where there were differences, frozen produce did better than the fridge-stored fresh produce more often than the other way round.

Tinned beans and vegetables are fine too, but they often contain added salt. Choose versions without added salt or sugar where you can, and drain and rinse beans before use.

More ways to save money

• Cook a big pot of lentil soup, chilli or curry once and eat it over several days.
• Replace half the meat in a recipe with lentils or beans: cheaper, more fibre and still filling.
• Buy fruit and vegetables in season, from markets or in the reduced section, and freeze what you cannot use in time.
• Write a shopping list based on your meals for the week, so fewer extras end up in the basket.

Foods that make it harder to feel full

Foods that make it harder to feel full are those that pack many calories into a small, soft or liquid portion. Examples are sugary drinks, pastries, biscuits, crisps, sweets, fried snacks and many ready meals.

No food is forbidden, and banning favourite foods often backfires. It simply helps to know which foods give a lot of calories for little fullness, so you can plan them in smaller portions or less often.

• Sugary drinks and juices: they add calories without the chewing and bulk of whole fruit. Water, tea, coffee and sparkling water are better everyday drinks.
• Pastries and white bread: the croissant was the least filling food in the satiety study.
• Crisps, biscuits and sweets: very energy-dense and easy to keep eating from the packet.
• Large portions of fried food: frying adds a lot of fat, and so a lot of calories, to otherwise filling foods such as potatoes.
• Alcohol: drinks add calories too, so count them as part of your day.

If you often eat when you are not hungry, for example when stressed, tired or low, the answer is usually not a different food. Our page on emotional eating looks at what helps.

Are protein shakes good for weight loss?

Protein shakes are not necessary for weight loss, and they are not better than ordinary food. Some people find a shake convenient now and then, but most people can get enough protein from meals with fish, eggs, dairy, soya or pulses.

It helps to separate two kinds of products. Protein powders and protein drinks mainly add protein. Meal replacement products are designed to replace a full meal, with a set amount of calories, vitamins and minerals.

What the evidence says

Most research looks at meal replacements, not at protein powders. A systematic review in Obesity Reviews combined 23 trials with nearly 7,900 adults living with overweight or obesity, followed for one year.

People whose diet included meal replacements lost on average about 1.4 kilograms more than people on other diets. In trials where the meal replacement group also got more intensive support than the comparison group, the difference was larger, about 6 kilograms.

So meal replacements can help some people as part of a structured programme with support. That is different from adding a protein shake on top of normal meals, which simply adds calories.

Things to think about first

• Food first. Meals with protein foods also give you fibre, vitamins, minerals and the habit of cooking and eating real food, which you need for the long term.
• Calories still count. Some shakes and protein bars contain as many calories as a meal. Read the label for calories, sugar and portion size.
• Supplements are not checked like medicines. In the United States, for example, the FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are sold. The maker is responsible for their safety and claims.
• Ask first if you take medicines. The FDA advises talking to a doctor or pharmacist before using a supplement, because some interact with medicines.
• Kidney disease: extra protein from shakes may not be safe for you. See the next section.

We do not recommend any brand or product. If you are unsure whether a shake fits your situation, talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian.

Who should check with a doctor before changing foods

Most people can safely add more vegetables, fruit, pulses and whole grains to their meals. A few groups should talk to their doctor or a dietitian first, especially before eating much more protein or fibre.

• Kidney disease. If you have chronic kidney disease and are not on dialysis, a lower protein intake is usually advised, according to the US National Kidney Foundation. On dialysis you usually need more. Ask a kidney dietitian for your personal amount before trying a high-protein diet or protein shakes.
• Diabetes. If you use insulin or other medicines that can cause low blood sugar, changing the amount or type of carbohydrate you eat can change your blood sugar. Talk to your diabetes team before big changes.
• Bowel conditions. With irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease or after bowel surgery, some high-fibre foods may need to be introduced carefully.
• Medicines. Some medicines interact with certain foods or supplements. Your pharmacist can tell you whether this applies to you.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Your needs change; ask your midwife or doctor before changing your diet to lose weight.
• A history of eating disorders. Focusing on food rules can be risky. Support from a professional comes first; see our page on psychological support.

Our doctor visit checklist helps you prepare questions for that appointment.

Good food works best with walking and suitable exercise

Filling foods make it easier to eat a little less, and movement helps you keep the weight off and protect your muscles. Together they work better than either one alone.

Walking is the easiest place to start. Our page on walking for weight loss shows how to build up slowly, even with sore knees or a heavier body.

When you are ready for more, gentle low-impact cardio and our workouts in the levels Start, Build and Strong help you get fitter at your own pace. Protein from food supports the muscle you build.

If you want to know roughly how much to eat for steady weight loss, our calorie deficit calculator gives a starting point. Many people also want to know about the middle of the body; our page on belly fat explains what helps.

How Obesity Foundation helps you lose weight with good food

We help people lose weight and get healthier with good food, suitable exercise and walking. Everything we offer is free, because we are a non-profit.

• A free personal eating plan built on filling, affordable foods you like: ask for your free eating plan.
• Free workout videos at your level, starting gently with seated options: get the free videos.
• A free video meeting (in English) to talk about food, hunger and your goals with someone who listens without judgement: book your free video meeting.
• The free Obesity Foundation Club, a personal account to keep track of your progress and ask for help: create your free Club account.

Start small. Add one protein food to breakfast this week, or one portion of beans or lentils to a dinner. Small, filling changes that you can keep are worth more than a perfect list you cannot follow.