While exercising has a significant effect on your weight loss pursuits, your nutritional decisions also have a significant impact. Eating certain foods, such as asparagus, can support weight loss success due to a number of factors, such as low calorie content and the promotion of feelings of fullness. You should note that no specific food will definitely cause you to lose weight, as your diet as a whole is what matters.
Calorie Content
One way in which asparagus can encourage weight loss is that it is low in calories. As MayoClinic.com explains, weight loss occurs when the amount of calories you burn outpaces the amount of calories you consume each day. Making asparagus a key component of your diet can be beneficial, as one cup of asparagus contains just 27 calories. If you replaced one cup of mashed potatoes with one cup of asparagus as a side dish, you'd save 195 calories.
Dietary Fiber
Asparagus can help you lose weight because it is rich in fiber. One cup of asparagus provides 3 g of fiber, a nutrient that can aid in weight loss. Fiber encourages weight loss because it causes you to feel full and makes foods higher in volume. This is helpful because increased volume makes eating take longer, and that can discourage overeating.
Protein
Another way in which asparagus can help you lose weight is that it is rich in protein. Each one cup serving of asparagus offers 3 g of protein, which means that 12 of the 27 calories, or 44 percent, come from protein. Research from the May 2004 issue of the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition" indicates that high-protein diets can encourage more weight and fat loss than lower protein diets.
Carbohydrates
Although asparagus is rich in fiber, it contains few other carbohydrates. Asparagus provides just 5 g of carbohydrates per cup, making it a low-carbohydrate food. If you consume asparagus and other low-carbohydrate foods on a consistent basis, this may help you lose weight. A study published in the July 2008 issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine" found that low-carbohydrate diets encouraged more weight loss than low-fat and Mediterranean diet plans.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Metabolism and Weight Loss: How You Burn Calories
- LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate: Calories in Asparagus
- LIVESTRONG.COM MyPlate: Calories in Potatoes - Mashed
- MedlinePlus: Dietary Fiber
- "Journal of the American College of Nutrition"; The Effects of High Protein Diets on Thermogenesis, Satiety and Weight Loss: A Critical Review; T.L. Halton, F.B. Wu; May 2004
- "New England Journal of Medicine"; Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet; I. Shai et al.; July 2008
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