Fruit and vegetable diet is one of the ways to lose weight easier. Though it may sound a little crazy but this diet helps you to shed of extra pounds. It also helps to maintain a well-balanced diet with good health. The main goal of this diet is to provide the recommended servings of fruit, vegetables and water each day. In addition, you can get protein from low fat dairy and lean meat.
Simple ways to cut calories and eat more fruits and vegetables throughout the day
Breakfast: Start the Day Right
Substitute spinach, onions, or mushrooms for one egg or half the cheese in your morning omelet. The vegetables will add volume and flavor to the dish with fewer calories than the egg or cheese.
Cut back on the amount of cereal in your bowl to make room for some cut-up bananas, peaches, or strawberries. You can still eat a full bowl, but with fewer calories.
Lighten Up Your Lunch
Substitute vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, or onions for 2 ounces of the cheese and 2 ounces of the meat in your sandwich, wrap, or burrito. The new version will fill you up with fewer calories than the original.
Replace 2 ounces of meat or 1 cup of noodles in broth-based soup with 1 cup of chopped vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, beans, or red peppers. The vegetables will help fill you up, so you won’t miss those extra calories.
Dinner
Add in 1 cup of chopped vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes, squash, onions, or peppers, while removing 1 cup of the rice or pasta in your favorite dish. The dish with the vegetables will be just as satisfying but have fewer calories than the same amount of the original version.
Take a good look at your dinner plate. Vegetables, fruit, and whole grains should take up the largest portion of your plate. If they do not, replace some of the meat, cheese, white pasta, or rice with legumes, steamed broccoli, asparagus, greens, or another favorite vegetable. This will reduce the total calories in your meal without reducing the amount of food you eat. BUT remember to use a normal- or small-size plate – not a platter. The total number of calories that you eat counts, even if a good proportion of them come from fruits and vegetables.
Smart Snacks
Most healthy eating plans allow for one or two small snacks a day. Choosing most fruits and vegetables will allow you to eat a snack with only 100 calories.
About 100 Calories or Less
a medium-size apple (72 calories)
a medium-size banana (105 calories)
1 cup steamed green beans (44 calories)
1 cup blueberries (83 calories)
1 cup grapes (100 calories)
1 cup carrots (45 calories), broccoli (30 calories), or bell peppers (30 calories) with 2 tbsp. hummus (46 calories)
What counts as a cup of vegetables?
What counts as a cup of fruit?
Instead of a high-calorie snack from a vending machine, bring some cut-up vegetables or fruit from home. A 1-ounce bag of corn chips has as many calories as a small apple, 1 cup of whole strawberries, AND 1 cup of carrots with 1/4 cup of low-calorie dip. Substitute one or two of these options for the chips, and you will have a satisfying snack with fewer calories.
Remember: Substitution is the key.
photo of fruits and vegetables
It’s true that fruits and vegetables are lower in calories than many other foods, but they do contain some calories. If you start eating fruits and vegetables in addition to what you usually eat, you are adding calories and may gain weight. The key is substitution. Eat fruits and vegetables instead of some other higher-calorie food.
More Tips for Making Fruits and Vegetables Part of Your Weight Management Plan
- Eat fruits and vegetables the way nature provided-or with fat-free or low-fat cooking techniques.
Try steaming your vegetables, using low-calorie or low-fat dressings, and using herbs and spices to add flavor. Some cooking techniques, such as breading and frying, or using high-fat dressings or sauces will greatly increase the calories and fat in the dish. And eat your fruit raw to enjoy its natural sweetnes- Canned or frozen fruits and vegetables are also good options.
Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables can be just as nutritious as the fresh varieties. However, be careful to choose those without added sugar, syrup, cream sauces, or other ingredients that will add calories. - Choose whole fruit over fruit drinks and juices. Fruit juices have lost fiber from the fruit.
It is better to eat the whole fruit because it contains the added fiber that helps you feel full. One 6-ounce serving of orange juice has 85 calories, compared to just 65 calories in a medium orange. - Whole fruit gives you a bigger size snack than the same fruit dried-for the same number of calories.
A small box of raisins (1/4 cup) is about 100 calories. For the same number of calories, you can eat 1 cup of grapes.
The Best Vegetables That You Can Include In Your Diet To Lose Belly Fat Quickly:
- Spinach And Other Leafy Greens
Spinach and other leafy green vegetables like kale, lettuce, etc. are great for burning belly fat and are very nutritious as well. There have been some studies done on the subject of the fat burning capabilities of spinach and the very healthy veggie has come out a winner in this category. Add a little cooked or blanched spinach to your breakfast or lunch to set your body on track for some major fat burn.
- Mushrooms
Mushrooms are delicious and loved by vegetarians and non-vegetarians, alike. They have even started making appearance as an ingredient in coffees to increase their nutritional value. Mushrooms have been known to promote weight loss and fat burn by regulating the levels of glucose in the blood. Added bonus? They’re rich in protein and can help you increase your metabolism, resulting in fat loss.
- Cauliflower And Broccoli
Apart from high-quality fibre and a host of health-boosting minerals and vitamins, broccoli contains phytochemicals that help enhance fat loss in the body. The same goes for cauliflower. Apart from being filling, cauliflower helps fight bloating and contains phytonutrient sulforaphane, as well as good amounts of folate and vitamin C.
- Chillies
A lot of health freaks swear by chilli peppers for burning fat. Recent studies have demonstrated that the heat generated by consumption of chillies helps utilise more calories and essentially oxidises layers of fat in the body. But, if you don’t like the burn of the chilli peppers, all non-hot varieties of the fruit may also do the trick, as they contain ‘capsaicin,’ which is responsible for burning fat.
- Pumpkin
Low in calories and high in fibre, pumpkin is one of the best vegetables to include in your weight loss diet. Whether you like to blanch it and eat it in salads or add pumpkin powder to your smoothies and vegetable drinks, pumpkin can help you reach your body goals quicker.
- Carrots
Carrots are one of the best low-calorie vegetables to include in your weight loss diet. Carrots are rich in both soluble and insoluble fibre and, hence, fit the bill perfectly when it comes to healthy weight loss. Blend it with other fruits or vegetables to make a healthy, nutrient-rich fat burn juice, or stir-fry it along with your meat dishes to make this veggie work its magic on you.
What’s the Truth about fruit and Veg?
Eating more fruit and veg is essential both for good health and to help us lose weight, plus, according to recent research, it can make us happier.
Most fruits and vegetables are low in calories and fat, and high in fibre – three essential ingredients for successful weight loss.
They also contain plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, all of which are important for helping us to look and feel our best and to protect us from disease.
Research also shows we tend to eat the same volume or weight of food every day, regardless of its calorie content.
So if we want to lose weight, it’s crucial to stick to lower calorie foods to make up this volume.
That’s where fruit and vegetables play an important part in a weight loss diet.
Many fruits and veggies actually weigh a lot, adding bulk to our diet, but they don’t provide that many calories.
For example, a meal consisting of a 150g grilled chicken breast, a 300g jacket potato, 20g of butter and 30g low fat cheese provides a total weight of 500g and provides 790 calories.
Swap that meal for a 130g chicken breast, a 200g potato, 5g of butter, 80g broccoli, 45g carrots and 40g green salad, and you still have an overall weight of 500g, but for just 480 calories.
Bottom line: you will feel just as full as you’ve eaten exactly the same amount of food, but you’ve saved 310 calories.
In a week, that’s enough to help you lose 1/2lb without even changing the quantity of food you’ve eaten!
But what about foods like bananas, avocados, sweetcorn, carrots and peas?
These foods are certainly higher in calories than most other fruit and veg. See our fruit and vegetable calorie counter pages for comprehensive listings.
For example, you could eat two small apples for around the same amount of calories as a banana. Similarly, you could eat six times more spinach to provide you with the same amount of calories provided by sweetcorn.
Meanwhile, avocados are higher in fat than most other vegetables, but most of this fat is heart-healthy monounsaturates, which comes in a package with plenty of vitamin E.
Even though these fruit and veggies contain more calories, you don’t need to avoid them.
They are still an important source of many different nutrients and the fibre they contain will help to fill you up so you’re less likely to want to snack on fatty and sugary foods.
The key is to add them to your food diary so that the calories they provide are included in your daily total. (If you don’t have a diary you can try the wlr one free.)
As for foods like celery and grapefruit, they are certainly very low in calories, but there’s no conclusive evidence that eating them will actually help you burn off calories or make you lose weight.
While some studies have shown that adding grapefruit to your diet will help shift those pounds, the health jury is still out. And as for it taking more calories to digest a stick of celery than it actually provides – well, most health experts agree it’s a myth!
Tips to eat more vegetables and fruits each day
Keep fruit where you can see it. Place several ready-to-eat washed whole fruits in a bowl or store chopped colorful fruits in a glass bowl in the refrigerator to tempt a sweet tooth.
Explore the produce aisle and choose something new. Variety and color are key to a healthy diet. On most days, try to get at least one serving from each of the following categories: dark green leafy vegetables; yellow or orange fruits and vegetables; red fruits and vegetables; legumes (beans) and peas; and citrus fruits.
Skip the potatoes. Choose other vegetables that are packed with different nutrients and more slowly digested carbohydrates.
Make it a meal. Try cooking new recipes that include more vegetables. Salads, soups, and stir-fries are just a few ideas for increasing the number of tasty vegetables in your meals.
Vegetables, fruits, and disease
Cardiovascular disease
There is compelling evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
A meta-analysis of cohort studies following 469,551 participants found that a higher intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, with an average reduction in risk of 4% for each additional serving per day of fruit and vegetables.
The largest and longest study to date, done as part of the Harvard-based Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, included almost 110,000 men and women whose health and dietary habits were followed for 14 years.
The higher the average daily intake of fruits and vegetables, the lower the chances of developing cardiovascular disease. Compared with those in the lowest category of fruit and vegetable intake (less than 1.5 servings a day), those who averaged 8 or more servings a day were 30% less likely to have had a heart attack or stroke.
Although all fruits and vegetables likely contributed to this benefit, green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and mustard greens, were most strongly associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, and kale; and citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit (and their juices) also made important contributions.
When researchers combined findings from the Harvard studies with several other long-term studies in the U.S. and Europe, and looked at coronary heart disease and stroke separately, they found a similar protective effect: Individuals who ate more than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day had roughly a 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease [4] and stroke, [5] compared with individuals who ate less than 3 servings per day.
Blood pressure
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) study[6] examined the effect on blood pressure of a diet that was rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and that restricted the amount of saturated and total fat. The researchers found that people with high blood pressure who followed this diet reduced their systolic blood pressure (the upper number of a blood pressure reading) by about 11 mm Hg and their diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by almost 6 mm Hg-as much as medications can achieve.
A randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health (OmniHeart) showed that this fruit and vegetable-rich diet lowered blood pressure even more when some of the carbohydrate was replaced with healthy unsaturated fat or protein.
In 2014 a meta-analysis of clinical trials and observational studies found that consumption of a vegetarian diet was associated with lower blood pressure.