Best Weight Loss Foods - Diet Food List To Lose Weight

I recently got an email from someone who asked me for a list of what they referred to as the best weight loss foods.

At first, I honestly wasn’t sure what they meant. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized there’s probably two different things this person could have been looking for…

A list of foods that will make you lose weight.
A list of foods that are high quality, nutrient-rich sources of the protein, fat and carbs that will comprise your daily diet.

Since I always try my best to answer the questions I get as thoroughly as possible, I wrote back with a list of foods that fit BOTH descriptions. And since I figure many other people would be interested in seeing these lists, I decided to turn my reply into a full article. Here it is…

Which Foods Cause Weight Loss?

Alright, get your pen and paper ready. I’m going to give you a list of the best diet foods that will actually cause you to lose weight. Ready? Here they are:

There
aren’t
any.

No seriously… there really aren’t any. There is no such thing as a food that magically causes weight loss. There are no fat burning foods. Nothing like this actually exists.

I know, you’ve probably seen or read or heard otherwise, but trust me, whatever you saw/read/heard was pure bullshit. Here’s why.

There is only ONE thing that causes fat loss, and it’s a caloric deficit. As I explain in my guide to losing weight, a caloric deficit is when you eat less calories than your body burns. This then causes your body to burn your stored body fat for energy instead, and this is the one and only way fat actually gets burned.

Sure, the foods you get those calories from each day definitely matter in terms of your health, getting enough protein, fat, carbs and other important nutrients, hunger control, and so on. In fact, I recommend you try to get most of your daily calories from high quality healthy foods.

However, above all else, weight loss always comes down to calories, not the sources of those calories. Healthy or unhealthy, the “best diet foods” or the “worst diet foods,” total calories are what matter most for losing weight.

Which means, if you’re looking for the the best weight loss foods in terms of which burn fat or cause fat loss… you’re wasting your time looking for a silly myth. You might as well look for Bigfoot or a unicorn. You’ll probably find them before you find an actual list of fat burning foods that isn’t complete crap.

Which Foods Are Best For My Weight Loss Diet?

Now that the first possible meaning is out of the way, it’s time to cover the second… a list of high quality, nutrient rich sources of protein, fat and carbs for you to choose from when putting together your weight loss diet.

None of these foods will actually cause you to lose weight (only a caloric deficit will do that), but they will help control your hunger, keep you full and satisfied, and supply the various vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs on a daily basis for optimal health and performance.

High Protein Weight Loss Foods

As you should know by now, a sufficiently high protein diet is an extremely important part of every person’s diet plan. It plays a key role in appetite control and is the #1 dietary requirement for maintaining muscle while losing fat. For these reasons (and dozens of others), eating enough protein each day is crucial.

Here now is a list of some common high quality sources to choose from:

Chicken
Fish (all kinds)
Turkey
Meat (all kinds)
Eggs/Egg whites
Nuts
Milk
Cheese
Protein supplements

High Carb Weight Loss Foods

Despite all of the low carb diets and various crazy things you’ve heard about carbs… they’re really not that bad. Like I said before, there are no actual weight loss foods (meaning foods that cause fat to be lost). There also aren’t any foods that cause fat to be gained. People incorrectly think carbs somehow magically do this, but they don’t.

Eating too many calories is the sole reason for fat gain, and it doesn’t matter if those calories come from protein, fat or the supposedly “evil” carbs. Which means, as long as your calorie intake remains what it needs to be, carbs are perfectly fine to eat when trying to lose weight.

Here now is a list of some common high quality sources to choose from:

Vegetables
Fruits
Oatmeal
Brown Rice
Beans
Yams
Sweet Potatoes
White Potatoes

High Fat Weight Loss Foods

Even though carbs took the place of fat as the nutrient that scares people the most in recent years, there are some people who are still afraid of it. Well, don’t be.

Like carbs (or any other nutrient for that matter), fat doesn’t make you fat. Eating too many calories does. And like protein, fat is an absolutely crucial part of every diet no matter what your specific goal is (lose weight, build muscle or just be healthy). It’s required by the human body in order for it to function properly.

There are however different types of fat that you need to pay attention to when choosing the best foods for your weight loss diet. Specifically, trans fat should be avoided completely, saturated fat (which is less scary than you think) should be eaten although minimized to some degree, and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (especially the omega-3 fatty acid) should comprise the majority of your daily fat intake.

Here now is a list of some common high quality sources to choose from:

Fish (salmon, sardines, etc.)
Fish Oil Supplements (One of the few supplements I recommend to everyone.)
Nuts and Seeds (all kinds)
Nut Butters (peanut butter, almond butter, etc.)
Olive oil
Avocados

Put It All Together

So, there’s your list of some of the best foods to choose from when putting your weight loss diet together. Will they burn fat? Of course not. Are there any so-called “weight loss foods” that will? Nope, that’s just silly nonsense.

Ignore that stuff, and instead figure out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight (explained here: How To Lose Weight) and then pick your favorite foods from the lists above to get those calories from. Make sure you don’t exceed that ideal intake, and positive results are guaranteed to follow.

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