Putting the right healthy foods in your diet will help you increase fitness as you fight fat. Diets that emphasize one low-calorie vegetable sacrifice good nutrition in order to lose a few pounds. You may rebound toward more caloric foods in order to get the nutrients that your body craves. Instead, the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans advises that you eat a broad diet of low-fat foods as you maintain or increase your physical activity. To keep fat out of a 2,000-calorie diet, choose foods of 100 calories or less and with 5 percent or less of total daily values, or DVs, of fat. These FDA-recommended numbers usually go hand in hand.
Enriched Cereal
For good nutrition and an extremely low fat content, choose enriched whole grain cereal. Whole grain cereals, which have large amounts of dietary fiber, will make you feel full, the National Institutes of Health notes. These cereals include farina, wheat bran cereals and corn flakes. Some brands have 100 calories or less per suggested serving, yet 100 percent DV of some nutrients such as B vitamins.
Dairy Products
The USDA considers low-fat and non fat dairy products extremely healthy foods due to their high vitamin and mineral content. One cup of fat free milk has 83 calories and 0 g of fat. An 8-oz. cup of fat-free yogurt usually contains about 127 calories.
Salmon
Canned pink salmon with bones, having 118 calories in 3 oz., represents a low-calorie source of protein and good nutrition with moderate fat content. Cod, sole and orange roughy all have under 100 calories and less than 5 percent DV of fat in 3 oz., as per the USDA Nutrient Database. Other healthy foods with significant protein include chicken legs without skin and egg whites.
Sweet Potatoes
Half a sweet potato contains only 81 calories and no fat content, notes MayoClinic.com. Sweet potatoes fill you up with fiber and provide lots of potassium and vitamins A and C.
Spinach
Cooked spinach satisfies many nutritional needs at once. With just 41 calories per cup, cooked spinach has less than 1 g of fat, yet high amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, folate and vitamins A, C and E, according to the USDA.
Fruit
Additional good nutrition in the form of fiber and vitamins comes from most fruits in their whole, rather than juiced, form, as this preserves their fiber benefits, the USDA Dietary Guidelines note. Low-calorie fruits include apples, berries, peaches, plums, pears, papayas and oranges. Avocados and coconuts are two fruits that are high in fat.
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