Are you searching for the best carbohydrate foods for satiety and fat loss? Carbohydrates are a great macro-nutrient for fueling training performance, building muscle, and supporting the satiety hormone Leptin. Over the past few decades, carbs have been blamed for every health condition from type 2 diabetes to obesity.
The truth is you can’t put all the blame on carbs. You must assign some of the blame to the excessive amounts of proteins and fats people eat. Over consuming calories in general leads to obesity or disease.
You can build your fat loss diet on eggs, meats, butter, and olive oil. Sure, these foods have 0 carbohydrates, but if you eat 4,000 calories a day of these foods you can still store fat like crazy.
It is the processed low-quality carbs we often consume in western society that gives carbohydrates a bad name. These are carbohydrate foods like:
- Things made from bleached white flour.
- Most Breakfast cereals
- Sodas
- Fruit juice
- Candy
These kinds of carbs are fast digesting, deficient in nutrients, and not very satiating. These groups of carbs would be classified as empty calories.
In this article, we are going address the best and most satiating carbohydrates you can eat on a fat loss plan.
1. White Potatoes
You may be wondering why in the world white potatoes are number 1 on this list. Aren’t they high on the glycemic index?
In context of fat loss, the glycemic index is not important. The satiety index is far more important because satiating foods makes it easier to maintain a caloric deficit. You must maintain calorie deficit over time to achieve fat loss.
White potatoes are very high on the satiety index. They are low in calories, high in nutrients, and very delicious. A medium size white potato contains about 110 calories.
White potatoes are very versatile to cook with. You can make:
- Mashed potatoes with butter mixed in
- Roasted potatoes season with extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and parsley
- Homemade Patatas Bravas, which is a dish native to Spain.
- Your own healthy French Fries recipe
White potatoes are a staple dinner carbohydrate in many cultures. Its not one of those health foods that are generally hated by the public. White potatoes are one of the most beloved foods in the world.
2. Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of fiber, vitamin A, and antioxidants. It’s slower digesting and lower glycemic compared to white potatoes. There are plenty of good recipes with sweet potatoes that include:
- Sweet potatoes cooked in olive oil.
- Sweet potatoes baked in brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and oil.
- Sweet potato fries
- Healthy sweet potato casserole
Of course, you can pair sweet potatoes with chicken, beef, fish, pork, turkey, and vegetables to make healthy macro-friendly meals.
3. Oats
Oats or oatmeal is considered a staple carbohydrate breakfast food for anyone looking to lose fat or improve their health. It contains a dense amount of fiber along with other micro-nutrients. A half a cup of dry oats contains roughly 150 calories and 27grams of carbs.
Oats might be one of those healthy foods you don’t particularly like or care for. However, if you learn how to utilize them as a cooking ingredient, you may grow to love oats.
Some tasty recipes with oats include:
- Oatmeal, ground cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, and maple syrup
- Oatmeal, ground cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, and chocolate chips
- Oatmeal with banana splits mixed in
- Oatmeal sweetened with brown sugar.
- Oatmeal with berries mixed in
- Healthy oatmeal cookies
- Oatmeal with raisins mixed in to sweeten it.
- Oats used in a collagen protein pancake recipe.
Oatmeal compared to most other breakfast carbs like muffins, toasts, and bagels are slow digesting. You can eat a 200-calorie bowl of oatmeal and be full for several hours. Whereas you can eat a 200-calorie donut and be full for only 20 minutes.
With oatmeal you can pair it proteins such as boiled eggs, Greek yogurt, or uncured turkey bacon to make a really satiating small meal.
4. White Rice
White rice is one of those foods that are typically demonized by the health and fitness community due to its high glycemic index. It’s also demonized because it’s stripped of some of its nutrients during processing.
White rice is still a very low-calorie, filling carbohydrate food that is easy to digest. A serving of cooked white rice contains about 210 calories. It is a staple food in many cultures around the world and relatively inexpensive.
People are concerned about the glycemic index of white rice, but if you consume it with a protein source along with vegetables, the glycemic index becomes irrelevant. The added protein and fiber in the meal would slow down the digestion of the white rice.
Some good brands of white rice to invest in would be Basmati or Jasmines.
5. Brown Rice
Brown Rice is praised by the fitness community for being a healthy, slow-digesting, low-glycemic, nutrient-rich carb food. It has slightly more fiber than white rice and is not processed.
Brown rice is amazing, but it’s not a well-liked healthy food. It could be hit or miss depending on the individual.
Brown rice can be hard to digest for some people. It does contain more nutrition than white rice, but it also contains more arsenic, which is a toxin that occurs naturally in soil. You don’t want a lot of that in your body.
The best way to reduce some of the arsenic content in brown rice is to properly wash and soak the rice.
One of the advantages of consuming white rice over brown rice is it has significantly less arsenic, so white rice may be a better option for you.
6. Ezekiel Bread
Ezekiel Bread is a sprouted bread made from organic whole grains and legumes. It doesn’t contain refined white or wheat flour. Ezekiel bread is a “flour-less” bread. It also has a pretty good nutritional profile.
One slice of Ezekiel bread contains 80 calories, 15grams of carbohydrates, 5grams of protein, and 0.5grams of fat. Even though carbohydrates are the dominant macro-nutrient in Ezekiel bread, you still get a good amount of supplemental protein from 1 slice.
You can use Ezekiel bread to make macro-friendly meals which include:
- Whole eggs, egg whites, and turkey bacon
- Peanut butter or almond butter spread on Ezekiel bread.
- Avocado toast Ezekiel bread
- Tuna fish sandwiches made with Ezekiel bread.
Another great thing about Ezekiel bread is it contains all 9 essential amino acids. These are amino acids you can only get through food sources. The body can’t make them naturally.
If you want to read more about amino acids, check out this article Amino Acids for Muscle Growth. If you want to learn more about the amazing benefits of Ezekiel bread, click here
7. Beans
Not enough great things can be said about beans. They are a complexed carbohydrate food rich in fiber and dense in protein. Beans also contain many cancer-fighting nutrients. This is one of the reasons why cultures around the world that regularly consume beans have low rates of cancer.
Beans are also an affordable health food. You can buy them frozen, in a can, or in a bag. People that tend to be on a tight money budget use beans to make their meals more satiating.
Some incredibly tasty dish combinations with beans include:
- Stews
- Ground beef, beans, and BBQ sauce recipes
- Rice and beans
- Stew chicken, beans, and potatoes
- Spinach with beans cooked in
One big misconception about beans is they are a “high protein” food. The dominant macro-nutrient in beans are carbohydrates. Yes, beans contain protein, but the amount of protein is not that much.
For instance, a serving of black beans may contain 15grams of protein, less than a gram of fat, and 40grams of carbs.
Beans are not the first thing you should think of when choosing protein sources for your fat loss diet.
If you are looking for foods where protein is the dominant macro, check out this article 11 Best Sources of Protein for Promoting Fat Loss.
8. Green Vegetables
It should come as no surprise that green vegetables are on this list. They are packed with vitamins and minerals and considered to be a dietary staple in the fitness community. Adding green vegetables to your meals can make a significant difference in how satiated you are.
Vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and kale are among some of the lowest carbohydrate foods.
You can make green veggies tasty and delicious by:
- Seasoning them well
- Cooking them in soy sauce or Szechuan sauce
- Mixing them in seasoned ground turkey
- Mixing veggies in seasoned ground beef
- Adding veggies to chicken or pork stew
People don’t really appreciate the value of green veggies until they start dieting for fat loss. When you add veggies to your meals you better promote leptin, which is your satiety hormone.
If you want to learn more about hormones, check out this article 7 Hormones You Must Manage on a Weight Loss Program.
9. Fibrous Fruits
Fruit should defiantly have a place in your diet. It is typically high in antioxidants and vitamin C. High fiber fruits like apples, bananas, and berries are great contributors to a fat loss plan.
You can add fruit to your:
- yogurt bowls.
- Oatmeal bowls
- Healthy dessert recipes
One thing to note is even though fruit is a healthy snack food, you still must be cognizant of its caloric value. You can’t just be snacking on a bunch of fruit throughout the day or eating large fruit smoothies and expect to be in caloric deficit.
You still must track calories from fruit if your goal is fat loss or even weight maintenance.
1 or 2 pieces of fruit per day is recommended or 1 or 2 cups of berries is fine depending on your calories.
A smart way you can utilize fruit in your diet is at the end of a waking fast.
For example, if you are on an intermittent fasting plan and you fast for the first 6 hours after waking up in the morning, break your fast with an apple or 2 just to blunt your hunger and delay the time you have your first meal.
The first sign of hunger when fasting is a depletion in liver glycogen. You can replenish liver glycogen with a little bit of fruit at the end of a fast.
If you are curious about intermittent fasting and want to learn how to make it a lifestyle, then check out this article Intermittent Fasting Windows.
The article discusses the different intermittent fasting windows, and the health benefits you get.
Conclusion
If you implement more of these carbs into your diet, sustaining a calorie deficit will be very easy. You will feel fuller. You can still have processed or refined carbs in your diet, but it should be the minority of your diet. The 80/20 rule is good to follow when it comes to healthy carbs and bad carbs.
It cannot be stated enough that carbs alone don’t make you fat. An over consumption of calories or food energy makes you fat over time.
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