Filling foods

As dull as it sounds - you HAVE to drink your water. It will make your brain quit telling you that you need something in your stomach. I add lemon to mine, or I drink unsweetened decaf tea. I am having MAJOR Dr. Pepper withdrawals, but am trying to hang tough 'til I get used to not having one all the time... I'm chomping a lot of ice too.

As for foods that are especially filling - I don't know, but I know that meals/snacks that include all the essential food groups throughout the day will keep cravings at bay. Just make sure to get your fruits and veggies in -

It's all about re-training the brain - so keep sugar free jello on hand, dried fruits, a few nuts... that way you can munch troughout the day and not feel like you are starving yourself - nothing feels worse than hunger - but if you think about - a coke won't stop hunger, it just raises your blood sugar and stops the craving...:flowerforyou:

Hi all-

My name is Kelly and I just started keeping journals on this website yesterday. I'm actually a registered dietitian who works for a weight management program in San Diego. I think this is an excellent resource for my patients and thought I would try it out myself.

That being said, the most "filling foods" tend to be high volume foods. Our brain actually tells our stomach we are full based off of the volume of food we eat, not the calories. Thus the idea is to eat high volume, low calorie foods. People that eat a bowl of vegetable soup before a meal were found to eat ~450 calories less at that meal. Why? Because the water content of the soup and veggies took up space in their stomach, thus displacing the amount of calories left to consume in the meal.

High volume foods include fruits, veggies, nonfat dairy products, high fiber foods and water based soups.

The perfect example of this is raisins vs grapes. In a small box of raisins there are about 80-90 raisins(yes I counted!). I'm positive I can fit an entire box of raisins in my mouth at once, swallow and not really think twice about it. But could I eat 80-90 grapes?! Probably, but I would be much more full than if I ate the dried fruit. It's all about the water content in food.

Hope this helped.
Kelly

I like beans--they are very filling and have lots of fiber and protein. There are many different kinds of beans and you can eat them plain, make bean salads, puree them, etc so they're very versatile.