Top 10 Fruits to Boost Your Weight Loss

Written by Ahmed Zayed Helmy, MD, on August 12, 2020

Whether you use them as snacks or as an addition to your meals, fruits are a great food option for anyone. They represent a piece of nature, packed with many vitamins, minerals, fiber, and many other useful nutrients that you would not like to miss out on.

Not to mention how low in calories most fruits are while also being high-density foods, which means that they will satisfy your hunger efficiently for a long time while providing all of the nutrients that you need. And surprisingly enough, fruits support a healthy weight loss, which is precisely why you should make an effort and include them as much as possible in your daily diet. But let’s see which ten fruits are the best in the fight against those extra body pounds.

The ten best foods that will help you lose weight

There are many delicious fruits for us to choose from, many of which we have not even heard about, and yet, they exist to serve our needs and satisfy our hunger. Because choosing the right foods, even when it comes to fruits, can be quite the overwhelming task while trying to lose weight, we have prepared a list of 10 awesome fruits that will get you closer to that dream body of yours.

Grapefruit

One fruit that deserves our undivided attention is the grapefruit. The grapefruit is often associated with weight loss and dieting, and for a good reason, that is. In fact, the weight loss effects of this fruit have been directly studied on many occasions in the past. The grapefruit is incredibly low in calorie, with half a grapefruit containing only around 52 calories while providing over 65% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C. It also has a low glycemic index (GI) which means that it will release sugar into your blood more slowly (1).

A 12-week study has shown that when eaten, half a fresh grapefruit before meals, the 91 obese participants have experienced a weight loss of 3.5 pounds (2). Another study done in 2011 showed that simply drinking the juice of a freshly squeezed grapefruit has been linked to lower calorie intake, improved blood sugar levels, improved cholesterol levels, and a 7.1% decrease in body weight (3).

Make it a new habit of yours to have half a grapefruit before or during your breakfast. That way, not only will you induce weight loss, but you will absorb all of the nutrients that we mentioned and get to improve your health in the process as well. You can also find different recipes to prepare a homemade smoothie to which you can add other fruits of this list as well.

Watermelon

One of the most weight-loss-friendly fruits out there is the watermelon. With its high water content, the watermelon is making sure that you are well hydrated while offering too little calories with just one cup of watermelon being packed with 46-61 calories.

However, since the watermelon is mostly water and carbs, with around 12 grams of carbs being packed in a cup, it is a good thing if you practice portion control while eating this delicious fruit. Watermelons do come with a lot of fiber, potassium, and antioxidants, among other nutrients, which is why you should not miss out on it (4).

Remind yourself of the good old summer days, which is when we usually enjoy a cup of delicious watermelon. This is one of the best easy snacks that you can take with you on the go and enjoy in its great taste wherever you may be.

Passion fruit

And now let’s talk about a more exotic kind of fruit – the passion fruit. One passion fruit is packed with only 17 calories and represents a rich source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, and potassium. It is also a source of valuable fiber, which means that the passion fruit will keep you full for a longer time, helping your digestion and boosting your metabolism in the meantime as well. This is a low-calorie, high-fiber fruit that will improve your insulin sensitivity and help you maintain normal blood pressure levels (5).

Kiwifruit

Yet another nutrient-dense fruit is the kiwifruit. Being an excellent source of Vitamin C, vitamin E, folate, and fiber, kiwifruits have many health benefits to offer (6, 7). But the benefits of eating kiwifruits do not stop there. In fact, according to a 2018 study, eating just two golden kiwis a day can help you reduce your high blood pressure and reduce your waist, among other beneficial effects (8).

So why not prepare a nice cup of kiwifruits to which you can add anything from passion fruit, bananas, apples, oranges, etc. to create a delicious and fun snack for the whole family. You can also enjoy this little fruit bowl that you have created as a breakfast idea or take it with you to work to have it as a snack after lunch.

Apple

While they are supposed to keep the doctor away, apples are also a great addition to your weight loss journey. Carrying too little calories and yet a high amount of fiber, apples also have been found to support a healthy weight loss. Many studies have supported these findings. One of the studies examined the effects of eating three apples, three pears, or three oat cookies, with the same calorie value, that is, during a period of 10 weeks. The results clearly demonstrated the highest weight loss among those women who consumed three apples a day for ten weeks (9).

Because apples have a high fiber value, they are more filling than most foods. They are, in fact, three times more filling than your favorite chocolate bar. This means that you will not have to starve yourself for the purpose of weight loss while being able to satisfy your hunger for a longer run (10). So, start off your day with one delicious apple and explore more ways in which you can add apples to your daily diet.

Berries

Talking about low-calorie powerhouses, we cannot miss out on talking about the delicious, little berries. There are many berries to choose from – blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc. all of which will be a great addition to your smoothies, oatmeal, or chia pudding, or even use them as a little snack. For example, one cup of tasty blueberries, which is enough to serve as a tasty snack, comes with only 42 calories and yet manages to satisfy around 12% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C and manganese (11).

Berries also come with many health benefits that we certainly can rely on. They have been scientifically proven to be able to reduce the cholesterol levels and the high blood pressure levels, lower any present inflammation, and be particularly helpful to those who are trying to lose weight. A study has shown that berries are incredibly filling, being able to reduce the calorie intake throughout the whole day (12).

Orange

Like grapefruit and all other citrus fruits, oranges as well, are a great weight-loss food. They are low in calories while at the same time, being high in Vitamin C and fiber, which makes them highly filling fruit. In fact, researchers compared the satiety index of oranges to that of muesli bars and croissants back in 1995. What the researchers discovered is that oranges are three times more filling as compared to croissants and two times more filling than muesli bars (13).

So we hope that you will be making a smarter decision regarding your snack choices from now on. But be careful though – avoid orange juices, even homemade ones, and always choose to eat a whole orange instead. As science has proven, eating a whole orange rather than drinking fruit juices will not only result in reduced hunger and lower calorie intake but also increased fullness (14). Plus, store-bought orange juices often come with added sugars, which will harm your weight loss results.

Banana

Many diet plans instruct you to avoid eating bananas altogether, telling you that they are bad, preventing you from losing weight. Well, instead of avoiding bananas, what you should do, is avoid these diet plans instead. Bananas are perfectly healthy, delicious fruits that, when consumed in moderation, can actually boost your weight loss instead of preventing you from losing weight as you may think.

The reason why so many diet plans tell you to avoid bananas is because of their high sugar and high-calorie content. And while these may not be among the low-calorie and low-sugar fruits, that does not change the fact that they are incredibly healthy. Remember, not all sugars are bad, especially not those who are provided to us from Mother Nature herself.

While being more calorie-dense than most fruits, they are also more nutrient-dense as well, providing you with great amounts of potassium, magnesium, antioxidants, and fiber. Their low to the medium glycemic index (GI) will help regulate your weight and your insulin resistance better (15). Enjoy them as a quick snack on the go, or use them to make delicious banana bread or add them to your overnight oats instead. Plus, eating a banana after and before a workout session will help you renew your energy levels efficiently.

Pear

Pears, like most fruits on today’s list, are low in calories, high in water, high in many vitamins and minerals, and probably most important – are high in fiber. This awesome combination makes them the perfect weight loss of fruit. They will keep you full longer, away from any empty calories that may get in your way throughout the day. Here a certain role may have a fiber called pectin, which is very well known to suppress the appetite efficiently.

In a 12-week study, 40 participants have been instructed to consume two pears a day. At the end of the study, the participants have reported a loss of up to 1.1 inches off their waist, as well as an improvement in their lipid profile (16). And another 10-week study showed that eating three pears a day helped to lose up to 1.9 pounds of weight (17).

Avocado

And the last fruit, yet not the least important of course, that we have for you today is our beloved avocado. A great addition to your salads, omelets, or even spread on a piece of toast; this fatty, calorie-dense fruit will surely help you lose weight. Yes, avocados are quite the calorie-dense fruit, is packed with around 160 calories. Despite that, avocados do promote a healthy weight loss (18).

Eating avocado on a regular basis has been found to be able to increase the feelings of fullness, reduce the appetite, and improve the cholesterol levels, among other beneficial effects (19). And although a study showed that eating both 200 grams of avocado or 30 grams of other fats such as margarine and oils both caused a significant weight loss, eating avocados is quite the smarter choice in this case (20).

Conclusion

Fruits and veggies are a must if you are trying to lose weight, live a healthier life, or even get leaner muscles while at the gym. But with so many different fruits to choose from, making the right decision can be quite overwhelming and actually have negative effects on the whole experience. Not that there is something like a bad fruit to snack on, of course. But there are some fruits that are better than others, depending on what your goal is. And if your goal is to lose weight, we highly recommend adding these ten delicious and nutrient-dense fruits that we mentioned today to your daily diet. Enjoy the great taste of the fresh apples, bananas, oranges, kiwifruits, etc. and feel as your body is getting rid of all those extra body pounds faster than ever.