Best fruits for weight loss: what to eat and why

Best fruits for weight loss: the short answer

The best fruits for weight loss are whole, fresh or frozen fruits that fill you up for few calories. Berries, apples, pears, citrus fruits, kiwifruit, stone fruits and melons top the list because they are mostly water and fibre.

That does not mean bananas, mangoes or grapes are off the menu. Every fresh fruit is a far better choice than biscuits, sweets or sugary drinks, and the difference between two fruits is small compared with the difference between fruit and a pastry.

What matters most is the form. A whole orange, an apple you chew and a bowl of berries help you feel full. A glass of juice, a large pile of dates or peaches swimming in syrup give you more sugar with less of what makes fruit filling.

Fruit works best as part of a wider eating pattern. Our guide to the best foods for weight loss covers protein foods, whole grains and vegetables as well.

Why whole fruit helps you lose weight

Whole fruit helps weight loss because it is bulky, watery and rich in fibre, so it fills your stomach while adding little energy. Most fresh fruits are roughly 75 to 90 % water, according to USDA food data.

Lots of food for little energy

Nutrition scientists talk about energy density: the number of calories in each gram of food. Watermelon has about 30 kcal per 100 grams and strawberries about 32. Raisins, with the water dried out, have around 300.

Earlier short studies had shown that people eat less energy over several days when their food has fewer calories per bite. The question was whether that also works for weight loss in daily life.

A year-long trial by Barbara Rolls and colleagues tested this in 97 women living with obesity. One group was taught to eat less fat; the other was taught to eat less fat and more water-rich foods, especially fruit and vegetables.

Both groups lost weight, but the fruit-and-vegetable group lost a little more, about 7.9 kg compared with 6.4 kg after one year among those who finished. They also ate a greater weight of food and reported less hunger.

Fibre, chewing and time

The fibre in fruit sits mostly in the skin, the pulp and the small seeds. It adds bulk and slows down how quickly you eat. A pear with its skin brings about 6 grams of fibre, a bowl of raspberries about 8.

Chewing matters too. It takes several minutes to eat an apple, while the same sugar from juice is gone in seconds. Our breakfast guide describes a well-known study that compared a whole apple with apple sauce and apple juice; the whole fruit kept people fullest.

What the long-term studies show

A large analysis in PLOS Medicine followed more than 133,000 American nurses and health professionals for up to 24 years. Every extra daily serving of fruit was linked with about 0.24 kg (0.53 lb) less weight gain over each four-year period.

Some fruits stood out. Each extra daily serving of berries was linked with about 0.5 kg less weight gain over four years, and apples or pears with about 0.56 kg. The authors noted that observational studies cannot fully rule out other explanations.

A systematic review by Stephan Guyenet in Frontiers in Nutrition looked at randomised trials as well. Trials lasting 3 to 24 weeks suggested that eating more whole, fresh fruit leads to stable weight or modest weight loss, with moderate certainty.

A review in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition came to a similar view: whole fruit was linked with less long-term weight gain in middle-aged adults, while fruit juice pointed the other way.

None of this makes fruit a fat burner. Fruit helps mostly because it replaces foods that bring more calories and less fullness. Eaten on top of everything else, it simply adds energy, as any food does.

Fruits for weight loss compared: calories, fibre and sugar

The table below lists 23 common fruits in a typical portion, sorted from the most to the least filling per calorie. Obesity Foundation worked out the numbers from the USDA FoodData Central database (SR Legacy). They are approximate and vary with size, variety and ripeness.

How to read the table

• Look at fibre per calorie. Raspberries and blackberries give the most fibre for their energy. A pear and an apple are also strong, as long as you eat the skin.
• Look at the size of the portion. A large slice of watermelon weighs almost 300 grams but has fewer calories than one banana. That makes it a generous, refreshing choice on a warm day.
• Sugar alone does not decide. Mango and grapes have more sugar per portion than berries, but they still come with water and some fibre, and their calories are modest compared with sweets.
• Avocado is different. It is a fruit with healthy fats instead of sugar, so it has about five times the calories per gram of watermelon. Enjoy it, in smaller portions.

Use the numbers to compare and to plan, not to count every gram. Two portions of most fruits in this table come to roughly 100 to 200 kcal, far less than a slice of cake.

What fruits are good for weight loss? Practical picks

Almost every whole fruit is good for weight loss, but some are especially practical because they are filling, cheap or easy to carry. Here is how the main groups compare in daily life.

• Berries: very low in calories and, in the case of raspberries and blackberries, rich in fibre. Frozen bags are cheap all year and thaw in minutes on yogurt or porridge.
• Apples and pears: crunchy, slow to eat and easy to keep in a bag. Leave the skin on for the fibre.
• Oranges, mandarins and grapefruit: juicy and satisfying, and peeling them slows you down. They are better eaten than squeezed.
• Kiwifruit: small, cheap and tangy. Cut one in half and scoop it out with a teaspoon.
• Melon and watermelon: the largest portions for the fewest calories, helpful when you want something big and sweet.
• Peaches, plums, apricots and cherries: seasonal favourites with moderate calories. In winter, tinned peaches in juice do the same job.
• Bananas, mango and pineapple: a little higher in energy, still excellent choices. Bananas are especially handy as a filling snack before a walk.

The best fruit is the one you will actually buy and eat. A family that loves bananas will do better with bananas than with expensive berries that go off in the fridge.

Fruits to avoid for weight loss? A myth-check

There are no fresh fruits you need to avoid to lose weight. No fruit is fattening on its own, and the idea that bananas, grapes or mango will stop weight loss is not supported by research. What deserves attention is how fruit is processed and how much of it you eat in one go.

Myth: “Fruit is full of sugar, so it makes you gain weight”

Fresh fruit does contain sugar, but the amount per portion is moderate and comes packed in water and fibre. In the reviews above, whole fruit was linked with stable weight or less weight gain, not more.

Our page on weight loss myths checks more popular claims, such as the idea that carbs as a whole make you fat.

Watch out: juice

Juice keeps the sugar of fruit but loses most of the fibre and the chewing. A 250 ml glass of orange juice has about 113 kcal and 21 grams of sugar, almost twice the energy of a whole orange, and it does little for fullness.

We explain the evidence on juice and whole fruit in our guide to breakfast for weight loss. The short version: eat your fruit, and if you love juice, keep it to a small glass with a meal.

Watch out: dried fruit portions

Drying fruit removes the water, so the same sugar and calories fit into a much smaller handful. Dried fruit still has fibre and nutrients, but it is easy to eat a lot without noticing.

A small handful of raisins has about the same calories as 175 grams of fresh grapes, nearly twice the amount in the first row. Two Medjool dates equal more than one banana.

So use dried fruit as a topping or a small, planned snack: weigh out 30 to 40 grams once to see what it looks like. Our page on portion control has more tricks for judging amounts by eye.

Watch out: fruit in syrup and fruit-flavoured products

Tinned fruit is a good, cheap option, but the liquid matters. Peaches in heavy syrup bring about 35 kcal and 10 grams of extra sugar per portion compared with peaches in juice. Choose “in juice” or “in water” on the label, and drain the syrup if that is all you have.

Fruit yogurts, fruit bars, fruit drinks and fruit-flavoured sweets often contain little actual fruit and a lot of added sugar. A product with a picture of strawberries on the front is not the same as a bowl of strawberries.

What about smoothies?

Blending keeps the fibre in the glass, so a smoothie is closer to fruit than juice is. Still, it is quick to drink and easy to make very large. Our guide to smoothies for weight loss shows how to build one that is filling, with protein and sensible amounts of fruit.

Fruit sugar vs free sugars: what the difference means

The sugar inside whole fresh fruit is not counted as “free sugars” by the World Health Organization, so it does not fall under the WHO sugar limit. Free sugars are the ones that health bodies ask you to cut back on.

WHO defines free sugars as sugars added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. WHO advises keeping them below 10 % of daily energy, and ideally below 5 %, roughly 25 grams a day for an adult.

WHO explains that it leaves out the sugar in fresh fruit and vegetables and the sugar naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of harm from them. One glass of orange juice, on the other hand, already uses most of that ideal 25 grams.

The UK applies a very similar definition. A paper in Public Health Nutrition explains that sugar in juices, smoothies and purées counts as free sugars because the cell walls of the fruit are broken down. Sugar in fresh, frozen, stewed, dried and tinned fruit does not, as long as you leave out the juice or syrup.

To find where free sugars really hide, and for a gentle plan to cut them, see our guide to the no sugar diet.

Is fructose from fruit a problem?

Fructose, one of the sugars in fruit, gets a lot of bad press online. A meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials in Annals of Internal Medicine found that fructose did not cause weight gain when it replaced other carbohydrates at the same calories.

Weight went up only in trials that added very large amounts of pure fructose on top of a normal diet, which the authors linked to the extra calories. The amounts in a few pieces of fruit are far below those doses.

Is banana, watermelon or grapes good for weight loss?

Yes: bananas, watermelon and grapes can all be part of a weight-loss diet. They are among the fruits people worry about most, so here is a closer look at each.

Bananas

A medium banana has about 107 kcal, 3 grams of fibre and 15 grams of sugar. That is a little more energy than an apple, but much less than a cereal bar or a biscuit.

Bananas are cheap, need no washing and travel well, which makes them a good snack before or after a walk. In the large Muraki cohort study, people who ate more bananas had a slightly lower risk of type 2 diabetes, not a higher one.

Watermelon

Watermelon is more than 90 % water and has about 30 kcal per 100 grams, one of the lowest values of any fruit. A large slice of 280 grams has around 84 kcal.

That slice holds about 17 grams of sugar, a moderate amount spread through a lot of water. Eat watermelon as a fruit portion, not by the half melon, and pair it with a meal or some yogurt if you have diabetes.

Grapes

Grapes are easy to keep eating, because they are small, sweet and have little fibre. A portion of about 15 grapes has around 69 kcal.

Put a portion in a bowl rather than eating from the bag. Frozen grapes take longer to eat and many people find them a satisfying sweet treat. In the Muraki study, grapes and raisins were among the fruits linked with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Grapefruit and avocado

Grapefruit has a reputation as a slimming fruit.

In a small 12-week trial, people living with obesity who ate half a fresh grapefruit before each meal lost about 1.6 kg, compared with 0.3 kg in the placebo group. The study was small, and Guyenet’s review suggests that fruit in general, eaten before a meal, tends to reduce how much people eat.

Grapefruit can interact with more than 85 medicines, including some cholesterol-lowering statins, according to a review in the Journal of Food and Drug Analysis. Seville oranges and pomelo can do the same. Check the leaflet of your medicines or ask your pharmacist before eating them regularly.

Avocado is nutritious and filling, but at about 160 kcal per 100 grams it is closer to nuts than to apples in energy. A third or half of an avocado on toast or in a salad is a good portion.

How much fruit should you eat a day when losing weight?

For most adults, around two portions of fruit a day, alongside plenty of vegetables, is a good target while losing weight. A portion is roughly what fits in your hand: one apple, two small plums or a bowl of berries.

National dietary guidelines point the same way. A global review in Advances in Nutrition found that about a third of countries advise five or more portions of vegetables and fruit a day; Austria, for example, spells this out as three of vegetables and two of fruit.

Many guidelines also say that whole fruit should be preferred to juice, or that juice should count for no more than one portion a day.

A large analysis in the International Journal of Epidemiology found lower risks of heart disease, stroke and early death with higher intakes of fruit and vegetables, up to about 800 grams a day. Most people eat far less than that, so more vegetables and fruit is a safe direction.

Can you eat too much? If fruit replaces sweets and snacks, three or four portions a day are fine for most people.

If it comes on top of everything you already eat, the extra calories still count. Vegetables are the best way to fill the rest of your plate.

Fruit and diabetes: whole fruit in sensible portions

People with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes can eat whole fruit; there is no need to cut it out. Spread fruit over the day in normal portions, and talk to your doctor or diabetes team about how it fits your medicines and glucose targets.

The Muraki study in the BMJ combined data from three large American cohorts with about 187,000 people. Eating more whole fruit was linked with a slightly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while more fruit juice was linked with a slightly higher risk.

A randomised trial in Denmark looked at people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Those advised to eat at least two pieces of fruit a day and those advised to eat no more than two improved their long-term blood sugar (HbA1c), weight and waist size, with no difference between the groups after 12 weeks.

Fruits also tend to have a low glycaemic index, according to the international glycaemic index tables published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In practice, these tips help keep blood sugar steady:

• Have one portion at a time rather than a big bowl of mixed fruit.
• Eat fruit with or after a meal, or pair it with yogurt, cheese or a few nuts.
• Choose whole fruit over juice, smoothies and dried fruit.
• Check your glucose after a new fruit if you use a meter, and share the results with your care team.

If you have insulin resistance or prediabetes, our separate page explains how food, walking and sleep work together to improve it.

Fruit on a budget: frozen, tinned and seasonal

You do not need expensive fruit to lose weight. Frozen berries, tinned fruit in juice and seasonal local fruit are just as useful and often cheaper per portion than fresh imported fruit.

• Frozen fruit: berries, mango and mixed fruit keep for months and nothing goes to waste. Our page on foods for weight loss summarises research showing that frozen produce keeps its vitamins well.
• Tinned fruit in juice: peaches, pears, pineapple and mandarins are cheap, last for a long time and need no cutting. Avoid syrup.
• Seasonal fruit: apples, pears and plums in autumn, citrus in winter and berries and melon in summer are usually at their cheapest.
• Ugly and reduced fruit: soft bananas, bruised apples and overripe berries are perfect for porridge, stewed fruit or the freezer.
• Bananas and apples: among the cheapest fruits in many countries and easy to share in a family.

Stewing fruit without sugar is another cheap trick. Apples, pears or plums cooked with a little water and cinnamon keep for several days in the fridge and make a sweet pudding with no added sugar.

Practical ways to eat more fruit

The easiest way to eat more fruit is to make it visible, ready and part of meals you already eat. Small habits work better than a sudden fruit-only diet.

1. Keep a fruit bowl in sight. Put it on the kitchen table or counter, and keep biscuits in a cupboard.
2. Wash and cut fruit once. A box of melon cubes or washed grapes in the fridge is ready when you are hungry.
3. Add fruit to breakfast. Berries on porridge, a sliced kiwifruit with yogurt or an orange next to your eggs.
4. Use fruit as pudding. Baked apple, stewed plums, frozen berries with yogurt or a few pieces of pineapple after dinner.
5. Eat a piece of fruit before a meal you tend to overeat. Guyenet’s review found that fruit eaten before a meal tends to reduce how much people eat at that meal.
6. Carry one piece of fruit. An apple, a mandarin or a banana in your bag stops an emergency snack from the shop.
7. Swap one sweet snack a day. Choose fruit with a little protein, such as an apple with cheese; our page on healthy snacks has more combinations.
8. Replace juice with water and whole fruit. Try sparkling water with a slice of orange or a few frozen berries.

For a full week of meals that includes fruit at the right moments, our free 7-day eating plan is a good next step. Our weight-loss recipes use fruit in breakfasts and puddings too.

When to check with your doctor about fruit

Most people can safely eat more whole fruit. A few situations call for personal advice from your doctor, pharmacist or a dietitian before you change how much fruit you eat.

• Diabetes treated with insulin or certain tablets: your medicines may need adjusting if you change your carbohydrate intake a lot, in either direction.
• Kidney disease: you may have been asked to limit potassium. Bananas, oranges, dried fruit and some other fruits are high in it, so ask your kidney team or renal dietitian which fruits and portions suit you.
• Medicines that interact with grapefruit: check with your pharmacist or doctor before eating grapefruit, Seville oranges or pomelo, or drinking their juice.
• Irritable bowel syndrome or bloating: some fruits cause more wind than others. A dietitian can help you find the ones you tolerate.
• Problems with chewing or swallowing: soft, ripe or stewed fruit may be easier and safer.

Not sure what to ask? Our doctor visit checklist helps you prepare for the appointment.

Fruit, walking and moving more

Good food works best together with moving a little more each day. A banana or an apple is an easy snack before a walk, and a bowl of fruit afterwards is a pleasant way to cool down.

Our guide to walking for weight loss shows how to build up from a few minutes a day. If you prefer to move at home, our free workout videos start with gentle seated sessions.

How Obesity Foundation helps you lose weight with good food

We help people lose weight and feel healthier with good food, suitable exercise and walking. Everything we offer is free. Talk to your doctor first before you start any new eating or exercise plan.

• A free personal eating plan with fruit, vegetables and meals that suit your taste, budget and culture: request your free eating plan.
• 150 free workout videos in three levels, from seated beginner sessions to real fitness: sign up for the free videos.
• A free video meeting (in English) to talk through your eating habits and goals with someone who listens without judgement: book a free video meeting.
• The free Obesity Foundation Club, your own account to track your progress and ask for help: join the Club.

Start with one piece of fruit today, in place of something less filling. Small swaps you can repeat every day add up to real change over the months.