When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, there are many things that you should pay attention to. As a priority, many people mention the nutritional content of the food. Something that is processed or unnatural is considered a bad choice for your diet. Removing such foods can mean a lot when it comes to your weight loss journey. However, there are cases when this simply doesn’t help. You eat healthy and natural foods, but still, have trouble losing weight. Why does this happen? What seems to be wrong?

The answer is calories. If one wishes to lose excess weight, he or she needs to cut down on calorie intake. Losing weight is no rocket science, it’s just simple mathematics. By offsetting your body’s calorie needs by eating fewer calories, you cause the body to burn fat tissue. Not only will you start losing weight, you will stop gaining it too. Just because something is natural, it doesn’t mean that you should overindulge in such foods. Nuts and various other natural-occurring substances are high in calories. This makes them a hurdle to your weight loss goals.

This begs the question – what foods are ideal for weight loss? An ideal answer would be – foods that are incredibly low in calories. Fortunately for everyone, such foods do exist and they are pretty abundant everywhere. In order to help you reach your goals, we’ve compiled a list of all the essential weight loss foods. Each one of the 10 foods on this list has an abundance of health benefits to go alongside its low-calorie content. We’re sure they will be a worthy addition to your mission to lose weight.

Watercress

When it comes to creating the ideal, low-calorie snack, vegetables and plants are essential. They provide you with all sorts of healthy nutrients. By ingesting these micro-nutrients and minerals in sufficient quantities, you reinforce your immune system. This is also why many people deem vegetarianism to be an ideal choice. Due to an abundance of vitamins and minerals, you can maintain optimal health. Even if it means just eating non-animal foods.

Of course, there is an even bigger advantage when it comes to vegetables. Most of them contain no calories whatsoever. Therefore, it can be said that they make an ideal diet addition. They really are, mostly due to the feeling of fullness they give you. One of the most notable examples is the miraculous herb named watercress. Its low-calorie count is something legendary nowadays. Apparently, a cup of chopped watercress has a staggering 4 calories.

This is good news for your weight loss plan. This means that you can eat as much of it as you want without gaining weight. For a plant like watercress, this is excellent news. It can be used as an essential part of a salad, or even a spice-like addition to some dishes. If you are in a hurry and you don’t have time to eat it, don’t worry. You can always mix it up with other ingredients and make a healthy smoothie.

Also, watercress has some lesser-known nutritive properties. It has one of the richest vitamin combinations in existence. Vitamins A, B6, C, and E are all over the leaves of this healthy herb. In addition to that, you can enrich your diet with some useful minerals. Magnesium, calcium, phosphorous and other elements are there.

Arugula

When it comes to fatty acids, many of us become too liberal with our daily intake. So many times, we hear about good fatty acids and overindulge in foods that contain them. This often leads to very serious health consequences and metabolism issues. When you ingest too much fat, your organism’s metabolism tends to slow down drastically. This may mean bad news is you’re on that weight loss plan. If you’re aiming to reform your diet, search for a food that boosts the way your metabolism work.

One such food is arugula. This beneficial herb often gets shunned when we talk about the best weight loss solution. Such an occurrence happens very rarely and many people get to miss out on its benefits. If you intend to eat arugula, the best ways to prepare it is to take fresh and tender leaves and put them into a salad. The best thing about arugula is its taste. This means that you can mix it up with anything you want.

Aside from the low fat count, arugula is famous for one other thing – an almost complete absence of calories. One cup of arugula leaves contains as much as 6 whole calories. Such a property offsets the fact that arugula leaves make you full when you eat them. By introducing arugula to your diet, you get to have a proper meal, only without the excess calories you want to avoid.

Aside from the beneficial low-calorie content, arugula is full of valuable nutrients. On the forefront are Vitamins A and several variations of the B vitamin. Calcium, iron, and zinc also form a formidable trio that makes arugula the superfood you’ve always wanted.

Spinach

Carbohydrates are always identified as one of the chief culprits in cases of weight gain. They are used by the body as an energy source. Many people make the mistake of eating them before bed. This leads to increased fat tissue accumulation. Basically, energy gets stored and not used. Because many foods contain lots of carbohydrates, we don’t have many choices for meals before bed. As it is often the case, these carbohydrate-loaded foods are big in the calorie department too.

If you’re looking for the best solution that mixes nonexistent carbohydrates and almost no calories, you’re in luck. Spinach has always been a popular solution for complex meals that don’t upset the body. Because it is strong in nutrients, spinach is recommended for often consummation. Its best characteristic is the meaty leaves. They are so good as meal fillers and can eradicate hunger in a matter of minutes.

Sailor Popeye didn’t have spinach as his secret weapon without a reason. The creators of the show got inspired by the superfood in real life. Iron and calcium are abundant in this beneficial veggie. Doctors around the world recommend spinach to their patients. It contains only seven calories per cup. If you want to get rid of excess weight or anemia, don’t hesitate to try spinach.

Another benefit of this low-calorie food is the plethora of ways you can prepare it. From smoothies to raw-spinach sandwiches, the possibilities are truly endless. Unlike many veggies, spinach doesn’t lose the creaminess when prepared via cooking. Smoothies are especially tasty when mixed with other veggies.

Swiss Chard

Searching for low-calorie foods is always a fun quest. You get to explore new dishes, all while enhancing your dieting program. Because there are many healthy options, you get to choose the best one and experiment with it. If you aim to create the best meal combination, search for the most adaptable solution. This especially works if you’re new to healthy eating or if you’re lazy. You want something that can prepare in a million different ways, in a short period of time. It is essential that you don’t get bored in the beginning.

One option for fast and diverse preparation is Swiss chard. Many people mix it up with beet, but it’s a completely different plant variety. It also offers much fewer calories. With seven calories per cup, it gives you an incredible weight loss boost.

Unlike many of its competitors, Swiss chard contains an abundance of dietary fiber. On top of the calorie count, it also accelerates your metabolism. If you love junk food too much, this can be a good way to introduce cheat meals. By eating Swiss chard, you ensure that your organism will digest junk food better. This means it will do less damage to your diet plan.

Romaine Lettuce

Aside from the metabolism perk, Swiss chard is far from short on nutrients. Micro-nutrients are the theme here, as this beneficial herb contains loads of vitamins A, C, K and even E. Many naturals, core minerals are found in the leaves of Swiss chard, too. Copper, iron, and magnesium – are all essential building blocks of a healthy organism. By ingesting it on a daily basis, you will see your weight go down, more and more every day.

When on a hunt for low-calorie foods, there is an important list of things you should check for. This includes availability, ease of preparation and many other factors. In this myriad of things on your to-do list, you usually omit one thing. That property is usually water content. How much H2O a food contains dictates how your body will digest it. The more water it contains, the easier will it be for the body to comprehend the composition of the food itself. If you’re on that road to lose pounds, you may find things such as romaine lattice very useful. But why exactly?

It’s rather simple. When you take the calorie count into consideration, the numbers pop up immediately. Eight calories per one medium-sized bowl is an incredible achievement. This means that you can basically eat it several times a day and feel fuller. Romaine lettuce uses its high water content to compensate for the biggest problem people face – a lack of fullness. By biting on its juicy leaves, you will feel fuller and slowly abandon your old junk food cravings.

On top of all the calorie talk, there is much more to this miraculous veggie. Like all green-leaved plants, romaine lettuce contains an incredible array of useful and beneficial nutrients. Something like this is pretty much unseen in the whole nutritional world. With its high vitamin A content, romaine lettuce can improve your vision and stop ocular deterioration.

On the other hand, it also boasts a sufficient amount of all the important nutrients every food should contain. Zinc, manganese, and potassium definitely fall under that category. They’re just three of the reasons why you should add romaine lettuce to your dieting plan. You won’t regret such a wise and calculated move.

Celery

Fiber content is an important facet of every efficient low-calorie food. Why does it hold so much significance? It’s fairly simple to comprehend the almost magical properties of dietary fiber. This substance regulates the way you digest food. It serves as a motivation to your intestinal flora in order to decompose food much more efficiently. By doing this, you may even afford to eat some junk food every once in a while. While this may be a luxury for most, it doesn’t have to be for you. Accelerated digestion can allow you to grab an overly-caloric bite every once in a while.

Psychologists and nutritionists have proven that a complete absence of junk food does you no good. By stripping what you love from your diet completely, you will only crave it much more. A good way to beat these cravings with quality fiber is celery. We’ve seen people add it to dishes because of its taste, but its properties often stay unnoticed. It’s time to put an end to this criminal underrating of celery.

First and foremost, celery contains just 16 calories per cup of the chopped substance. On top of that, it is consisted almost entirely out of the water. This does wonder for your skin and the general rate of your metabolism of functions. When combined with fiber, water plays an essential role in melting away those annoying and pesky pounds.

Despite the usual stigma around dips, they can be a part of your diet with celery. Because it is so low in calories, you can dip celery in just about any sauce you want. By doing that, you allow yourself to have a good meaty and juicy basis for your dip. It’s all about experimenting, right?

Cucumber

Some vegetables are simply gold mines of health benefits. The reason they remain shunned to the side is the laziness the majority of us show. Aside from a low-calorie content and water percentage, there is one other factor you should pay attention too. Your body needs amino acids as much as it gets them. They are important for the building of lean muscle and improving your general metabolism. If you’re waiting to find the ideal weight-loss superfood, search for the one that contains lots of amino acids. A worthy candidate is none other than the always popular cucumber.

It possesses all the crucial characteristics your body needs. It’s almost entirely made out of the water. This is evident when you’re chopping one on your chopping board. If you’ve ever noticed wet marks left behind, it’s the H2O responding to the pressure. We’ve already mentioned the importance of water when maintaining a healthy metabolism. When it comes to water content, cucumber is most certainly amongst the highest class of veggies.

If you doubted its calorie content, you have no need to worry. 16 calories per one medium-sized cucumber is a staggering number. On top of all that, it’s very easy to prepare cucumbers. If you’re a generally busy person, you should eat them raw. Simply chop them up and make small sticks that you can bring to school or work.

With you, you will be bringing an entire vault of beneficial nutrients. Vitamins K, C, and B are all crucial for the regulation of a healthy organism. Other minerals are also present in the composition of every cucumber. By adding it to your daily diet, you ensure a fast metabolism and a quality means of losing weight.

Radish

Radish compensates for much that average people lack in their diets. It’s what we call a good diet building block. When you’re reforming your diet from scratch, you need a number of low calories replacements for usual foods. It’s hard to break life-long habits, but you have to start from somewhere. Radish is a great candidate for such a move. The most important reason for such an opinion is the already low-calorie content it has. 18 calories per one cup give you space to manipulate your own metabolism.

Your organism both needs calories and the quantity of food. How do we separate these two different categories? Calories are merely the fuel your organism needs. Food quantity is just the means of how full your stomach is. This is the main problem with weight loss. Many sorts of junk food are small in size but contain lots of calories. When curbing such an activity, radish can be your best friend.

This red juicy vegetable possesses the means to reform your entire metabolism. It contains almost no carbohydrates or fatty acids. Aside from this, it has within itself a small number of proteins. This is great if you’re combining workouts with your weight loss plan.

The key to preparing radishes is having them prepared in a low-fat way. You should aim for cooking them or simply eating them raw as a part of a salad. Either way, you won’t make a mistake as both the taste and the nutritional value will stay the same.

Zucchini

If you don’t like cucumbers, zucchinis may be a great way to compensate for their place in your diet. Many experts call zucchinis the ultimate high-volume food. They provide your body with the ultimate low-caloric and nutritional punch. The best way to describe the number of calories in this food would be to use the adjective – flabbergasting.

You’ll react similarly when you see that a cup of chopped-up zucchini contains about 21 calories. It makes them an ideal salad ingredient for just about any occasion. Unlike all the other vegetables on this list, zucchini goes great with barbecue. It’s perhaps the best vegetable for grilling. When used on a basic charcoal grill, the smoky taste and the juicy texture will create a paradise in your mouth.

Fat and carbohydrates are basically non-existent within the composition of every zucchini. You can also use it as a means to enhance your immunity. If you work out, a weak immune system may seriously hinder your weight loss goals.

This is why it’s important to take into consideration the amazing nutritional content of this vegetable. Omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, and protein are all crucial building blocks of every healthy organism. By mixing up zucchinis with other foods on your list, your way to fewer pounds will be much more fun and efficient.

Cabbage

Cabbage has been used since ancient times to fix vitamin B deficiencies. Many sailors brought it with them as an essential food for fixing their nutritional problems. This is how cabbage got around the world and introduced to different peoples around the globe. Nowadays, we see it as a staple of every healthy diet. Aside from curing vitamin deficiencies, it became known as the best superfood for weight loss. How does cabbage exactly manage that?

It’s simple. One cup of shredded cabbage is home to no less than 22 calories. This number is even more staggering when you take into consideration the amount of cabbage we eat. This is why it’s important to cherish the nutritional and caloric value of this always useful vegetable. It possesses yet another important trait for weight loss – a high water content.

This is essential when we’re talking about accelerating your metabolism. The nutritional punch cabbage packs are not to be shunned to the side. B vitamins are the most abundant nutrient in cabbage, with magnesium and vitamin C coming close to it. Proteins are abundant in cabbage. It’s surprising that many people don’t know this. This is why it’s great to include cabbage as a post-workout salad or meal addition.

Some foods are really tricky to include in your diet. Cabbage is none of this. You can eat it raw or prepare it with a salad or soup. Light cooking and sauteing it are also good options.