Foods to Eat to Lose Weight Quickly

There are many foods you can eat that will help you lose a few pounds quickly. It's a simple strategy: Fill yourself up with lower-calorie foods so you'll have less room in your stomach for higher calorie foods. Limiting the types of foods you eat can only be a short-term plan, but it is one that can have a long-term positive effect, because the feeling you experience from losing those first few pounds so quickly can help you stay motivated to eat less and make better food choices in the long run.

High Protein Foods

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle proved that people who follow a high protein diet consume fewer calories and lose more weight than those who eat less protein. In the long run, a high protein diet won't provide the healthiest balance of nutrients, and may in fact put you at higher risk of developing heart disease. The most successful short-term plan to jump-start a weight loss program, however, is a diet that features lean meats, skinless poultry, fish or egg whites at every meal, accompanied by non-starchy vegetables, but with few or no grains or starches.

There are two reasons you lose weight quickly when you follow a high protein diet. First, you lose excess water weight as your body sheds fluids normally required to metabolize carbohydrates. Your body does not need as much water to process proteins. The other reason you lose weight is that, without carbohydrates coming in for energy, your body starts to burn more stored fat.

Low Calorie Foods

Some foods are so low in calories you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. These foods include most vegetables and some fruits. That's one reason why salads and cut-up raw vegetables have always been a popular diet food. There are so few calories in lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers or any other vegetables that traditionally go into a salad. Yet, if you eat enough of it, a salad can fill you up, or at least put a good dent in your appetite so that you don't eat as much throughout the rest of your meal.

The secret to successful weight loss is to eat fewer calories but don't let yourself get too hungry or you're bound to give up and overeat. The more you fill yourself up with low-calorie foods like steamed or raw vegetables and low-fat and "light" dairy products, including yogurt and cheeses, the less room you'll have in your stomach for higher-calorie foods.

Water-Rich Foods

Soups, citrus fruit, vegetable juices, decaf teas and coffees, diet beverages, clear broths and spritzers made from seltzer with a splash of fruit juice are all good examples of foods that are low in calories but help you feel full because they contain a lot of water that helps fill up your stomach.

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a popular example of a watery food diet. In any variation of this diet, you start off by filling yourself up with a watery vegetable soup made with low-calorie ingredients. There's no reason, however, to limit yourself to cabbage soup. Any broth-based vegetable soup will do.

Other water-rich foods with a little more bite include plain low-fat yogurt, tofu, cucumbers, crisp lettuces, watermelon and grapes.