If you’re trying to lose weight through a sensible combination of increased exercise and reduced calorie intake, you might feel like there’s almost nothing you can eat.
However, it turns out that there are plenty of tasty, delightful foods that actually contain less than 100 calories (making them perfect snacks or components of light meals). Here are seven of the very best, along with some of the unique health benefits that make them excellent parts of your diet.
1. Eggs
While you might initially picture eggs as part of a fried breakfast, they can be eaten in much healthier ways (such as scrambled or combined with bell peppers to make an omelet). A single egg contains a mere 72 calories but provides you with an impressive 6 grams of protein. Protein is not only a great supply of energy but also makes your digestive system work harder as it breaks down your food. Meanwhile, eggs also off plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, cutting your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and their vitamin A content promotes healthy skin while enhance immune system function to protect you from disease.
2. Broths
A bowl of broth can be full of exciting flavors without being high in calories. As you may be aware, some people even follow a broth-based diet when trying to get rid of excess weight. Broth is easily for your stomach to digest, and its high liquid content leaves you feeling fuller for longer. You can make your own delightful broth by using any of your favorite vegetables. Add them to a pot of water, seasoning them to your satisfaction, and then simmer the mixture for 60-90 minutes. You can add lean meat as well if you like, and strain the liquid when you’re ready to drink it.
3. Popcorn
Don’t get too excited—that massive tub of sweet, buttered popcorn you want to order at the cinema won’t exactly help you lose weight. However, popcorn is a whole grain food that can made in a healthy way. Without any additional ingredients, one cup of air-popped popcorn is roughly 30 calories. If you don’t like the taste, spice it up with a pinch of flavored sea salt. As a bonus, popcorn provides you with plenty of fiber, which promotes satiety and helps to discourage you from snacking on unhealthier foods throughout the day.
4. Asparagus
With the right seasoning and some careful grilling, asparagus becomes so delicious that you might even forget that it’s one of your daily servings of vegetables. The tips are especially delicate and tasty, and asparagus also comes with some fantastic health benefits. For example, it is a diuretic that helps to remove toxins from your body, it boosts your metabolism, and is bursting with folate (which is especially important for pregnant women, as it helps to protect developing babies from common birth defects).
5. Chips And Salsa
This may be a surprisingly entry on the list, but if you choose the right chips and salsa then you can enjoy a tasty snack that comes in at under a hundred calories. In particular, look out for natural blue-corn tortilla chips—ten of these amount to just 90 calories. Meanwhile, you can make your own homemade salsa fresca that contains less than 10 calories per serving. Simply combine four tomatoes with jalapeno pepper, some chopped garlic, 1tsp of lime juice, a quarter of an onion and a little salt and pepper.
6. Organic Beef Hot Dogs
Hot dogs are another surprisingly low calorie snack, provided you take the time to buy the healthiest type. An organic beef hot dog is around 100 calories, and is guaranteed to be made from meat that wasn’t pumped full of hormones or antibiotics. However, always check out the fat content and ingredient list before making your selection, and opt for something low in both fat and sodium (as the latter promotes high blood pressure, increasing risk of heart disease).
7. Diet Root Beer Float
A homemade root beer float can be satisfying and low in calories at the same time. Simply find a tasty diet root beer, and pour it over a quarter cup of reduced fat, low sugar ice cream. Created this way, a root beer float is only about 50 calories and can contain as little as 2 grams of fat—a wonderful way to satisfy your sweet tooth without breaking your diet.
