Diet Food

Low Kilojoule, Low Calorie Food Options

Looking for diet food? Wondering what food is low in kilojoules (low calorie) and will keep you full? Read on for a list of diet food and how to cut back on your daily consumption and loose weight.

• Dietitians
• Weight Loss

We live in an age where over half of New Zealanders are overweight, and our waistlines are considerably growing every year. We are eating more and more as foods of convenience become daily staples in lieu of healthy self-prepared meals.

Understanding your daily intake and how to read nutritional information on labels is an essential skill for anybody who wants to loose weight. Whether it be for weight loss, muscle building or general weight maintenance, it is important to understand what you are eating, and how much you should be eating. Make sure you understand your kilojoule intake before thinking about how to choose the best diet foods.

Cutting Back
For healthy, efficient weight loss, you need to adjust the amount of food you eat by cutting back on the total kilojoules (known as 'calories' in the imperial system) you consume. This does not simple mean cutting back on high fat and high sugar foods. Fat and sugar do not cause weight gain, excess consumption in energy (kilojoules) does.

This means restricting both the kinds of foods you eat, and the portion size of those foods.

Low KJ, Low GI
The following foods are great options to choose from on a daily basis as they are low in kilojoules, but will still keep you full because they are all low GI (low on the glycaemic index).

Consuming low GI foods regularly means your blood glucose levels fluctuate minimally, meaning you will keep yourself feeling full all day long. This is essential in resisting cravings of high kilojoule foods and keeping to your target daily intake. With the exception of dinner, you could choose one or two serves of anything from each list for each meal. For dinner, just consume the one serve.

Breakfast Foods

Weet-bix (2, with trim milk)

All Bran (1 cup, with trim milk)

Fruit (1 apple, orange or banana)

Eggs (2, preferably poached)

Light Yoghurt (1 pottle)

Wholegrain bread (1 slice)

Morning Tea Foods

Ryvita Crackers (3, with low kilojoule condiment like cottage cheese or tomato chutney)

Lite Cruskets (4, with low kilojoule spread like vegemite)

Fruit (1 apple, orange or banana)

Coffee with trim milk and sweetener, if needed

Lunch Foods

Crunchy salads (less lettuce, more beans, capsicums, broccoli, tomatoes)

Sliced deli meat (100g fat-free ham or chicken)

Wholegrain bread (1 slice)

Afternoon Snack Foods

Tinned tuna or chicken (in water, not oil)

Packet soup

Cut up raw vegetables (carrots, celery)

Rice crackers (1 row)

Dinner Foods

Roasted vegetables (pumpkin, onion, carrots)

Stir fried vegetables (frozen or fresh, cooked without oil and accompanied by 100g chicken and low kilojoule condiments like soya sauce)

After Dinner Snack Foods

Coffee with trim milk and sweetener, if needed

Fruit (1 apple, orange or banana)

Berries (1/2 cup)

Light yoghurt (1 pottle)

Light ice cream or sorbet (1 scoop)

Treats
Restricting your portion size also means you can treat yourself the occasional higher-kilojoule vice when you've consumed fewer kilojoules in your other meals. It is the total daily energy consumption that you need to keep an eye on in order to maintain or loose weight.

Drinks
You must remember that drinks too, contain kilojoules. Juice and soda drinks like Coke are both high in sugar, and should be avoided. Alcohol is also high in kilojoules, and additionally slows down your metabolism while being consumed, and should be avoided at all costs when trying to loose weight. Diet drinks are almost kilojoule free so are a great option, as is coffee when served black or just with trim milk.

Sauces and Condiments
Condiments can also be extremely high in kilojoules. Creamy sauces and oil-based or fat-based condiments (mayonnaise, aioli for example) should be avoided when trying to loose weight. You can exchange these for low kilojoule options such as soya sauce, sweet chilli sauce or tomato-based sauces. Herbs and spices are another great way to enhance a meals flavour without adding kilojoules.

Staple Dinners
When trying to loose weight, meat and vegetables are your best friend, and should always be your non-negotiable, staple dinner items. They are both low in kilojoules (most veges just 100KJ per 100g, lean meat like chicken is 500KJ per 100g). This means you can have much more volume of them than any other types of foods. A large vege and chicken stir-fry dish with 500g of vegetables, 100g of chicken in soya sauce with herbs and spices will be approximately 1000KJ. To compare, a similar sized dish of pasta with chicken and a creamy sauce will be approximately 2000-3000KJ.

Feeling Full
Because all of the foods mentioned in the above list are extremely low in kilojoules, you can have bigger portions of them, leading you to feel like you're not on a diet. Coupled with the fact that they are all low GI foods too, sticking to these kinds of foods means you'll feel fuller longer, and staying away from other snacks will be easier.

Looking for more nutrition advice? Check out the NZS.com directory.

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Lifestyle images from Flickr: Summer Fruits, Yoga and Wine.