5 foods a bride should be eating on her wedding diet

5 foods a bride should be eating on her wedding diet

Most brides would like to tone up a little and drop a dress size or two before their wedding, and while fitness plays a part, diet is the real contributor to changes in your shape and size.

In this article, I'd like to go over 5 foods that really help towards your weight loss goals.

While there are no magic foods that make you lose weight, there are foods that keep you fuller for longer, so stop you eating more than you need.

No need to feel hungry...

When most people drop their calories to lose weight, they end up eating less too, which makes them feel hungrier. Being hungry on a diet is the last thing you want - especially if you're a bride trying to remain sane while planning your wedding day! 

However, eating fewer calories doesn't necessarily mean having to eat less food - you just have to be smart with your choices.

Some foods are really calorie dense and have little volume (e.g. a chocolate bar), where they take up little space in your stomach even though they have a lot of calories. This isn't going to satisfy you for long.

Other foods are calorie sparse and have a lot of volume (e.g. an orange), where they take up much more space in your stomach for the number of calories they contain. This will help keep you much fuller for longer.

The voluminous foods give you much more "bang for your buck" in terms of calories, so you can eat more, feel fuller, and ultimately get better results out of your diet.

So the moral of this is to eat more foods that fill you up.

So which 5 foods do fill you up the most?

Back in 1995 there was some research done on the satiety of different foods. Hundreds of different foods were tested on subjects and given a "satiety score".

If you want to feel as full as you can while dropping calories to tone up for your wedding, you should consider including as many of the following foods as you can in your diet.

1. Potatoes:

These came out as number 1 on the list of foods that fill you up. Potatoes contain around 90 Calories per 100g and almost 2g of fibre which is part of what helps keep you full.

Potatoes are also really cheap and you can buy them anywhere. They can also be cooked easily either in the microwave, boiled or in the oven.

2. Oats:

Oats are another great food that will fill you up on your diet. They contain about 380 Calories per 100g and almost 10g of fibre! Obviously, 100g of oats will be quite a lot. A typical portion may be around 40g.

Oats again are really cheap, and you can buy them anywhere. They can be cooked in so many ways, from simple porridge to oat pancakes and cookies.

3. Oranges:

Oranges are another good option to keep you full. A single orange will contain about 60 Calories and 3 grams of fibre. They are also easy to carry around, and a great option for on-the-go!

Definitely consider including more oranges in your diet if you want to lose weight.

4. Lean beef:

Lean beef came out as another awesome food that keeps you full. A 5% beef mince will have around 140 Calories per 100g and a whopping 21g of protein which is what helps keep you full.

Beef can be included in many cool recipes, especially with potatoes (mentioned above) to create a great stomach-filling, weight busting meal!

5. Beans:

Another great option to full you up. These can include kidney beans, black beans, baked beans or any type of beans. Kidney beans will have around 80 Calories per 100g, 5g of fibre and 5g of protein!

Beans can be included in loads of different recipes, or even eaten on their own (baked beans).

Summary

So these are 5 great goods to include in your diet to keep you fuller for longer, get you eating more food and get you better results.

If we think about these foods around a typical day, you could have porridge oats for breakfast, a black bean salad for lunch, an orange as a snack, then a beef and potato stew for dinner.

A plan like this will keep you from getting hungry while still losing weight, which is in my opinion, what a successful diet should aim to achieve. 

Plus, of course, you're not limited to eating only 5 foods. My list here was only 5 foods on the satiety index. There are many foods that keep you satisfied. As a general rule, look out for lean meats, fish and dairy, fibrous vegetables, pulses and fruit.

About the Author:

Harry Snell is a body transformation coach for brides. He runs the BrideBodyProject program which helps brides lose up to 2 dress sizes before their wedding.