The #1 Vegetable for Weight Loss, According to a Dietitian - EatingWell

Open TikTok, Instagram or any other social media app right now and you'll find an unending stream of advice on how to lose weight: the latest trendy diet, before-and-after testimonials, miracle *it* products. So it can be easy to lose sight of the basics—like the age-old advice to eat more vegetables and fill half your plate with nonstarchy produce such as greens and zucchini whenever you can. It may not sound sexy, but it works.

Vegetables add volume to meals without a lot of calories, and they contain filling fiber—both of which make them an effective weight-loss tool. They're also packed with essential nutrients and antioxidants that can lower or help manage many chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

And yet diet culture has conditioned us to believe that dropping excess pounds requires deprivation and a lack of delicious, whole foods—a style of eating that is 100% unsustainable. Sure, diets can be effective for short-term weight loss, but research shows that most people don't keep it off down the road. For example, a 2020 meta-analysis published in BMJ that included 121 clinical trials found that most diets helped participants lose weight in the first six months and improve certain health measures, like blood pressure, regardless of the method they tried. But that weight loss didn't last by the one-year mark.

What does appear to work best for long-term success: Making small changes that you can maintain, versus trying to do a total diet overhaul. Adding an extra serving of vegetables to your plate, or replacing higher-calorie foods with produce, per the Medical Clinics of North America, are good examples of small but sustainable changes that can help you lose weight. Now, you may be wondering—is there one veggie that's the absolute best to reach for?

As a dietitian who has helped many clients with weight management over the years, I can tell you that the No. 1 vegetable for weight loss is the one that you will eat. Think about it: The only way to reap all the health benefits from veggies is to actually eat them. Every vegetable has nutritional value (yes, even starchy ones like potatoes), so there is no need to get into the weeds about which might have an edge over another.

Why Should You Eat Vegetables for Weight Loss?

Research shows that people who eat plenty of vegetables tend to weigh less than those who don't. In addition to providing a large and satisfying pile of food, veggies can take the place of other higher-calorie foods. One review of studies, published in Nutrients, found that increasing veggie consumption led to decreased weight over time. And a 2019 meta-analysis published in the journal Advances in Nutrition concluded that people who ate more vegetables were 22% less likely to gain weight in the long term (up to 12 years in some of the included studies!). Those who ate about three to four servings (200 to 300 grams) of veggies per day had the lowest risk of overweight and obesity.

The fiber in vegetables can help with weight loss in a couple of different ways. Fiber is a nutrient that has bulk that helps fill you up, but since it isn't digestible, it doesn't provide any calories. It also moves slowly through your digestive tract and stimulates the release of satiety hormones like GLP-1 and PYY, per a review published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, so you feel satisfied longer after a meal. Finally, the fiber in vegetables causes a more gradual and lower insulin response that also stabilizes your appetite.

Eat the Veggies You Love

Because there are merits to pretty much every vegetable out there, go for the ones you enjoy. And if you prefer your veg with a bit of butter, creamy sauce, cheese, dressing or other not-so-healthy fat, consider this permission to add them. Yes, you read that right. Putting fat on your veggies—I'm not saying a ton, but some—can be a great way to enhance or complement the flavor. (These garlic-butter cauliflower bites, for example, would not be nearly as delicious without the butter, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.) Weight loss is only successful if you can maintain your healthy eating habits for the long term, and nobody wants to eat boring vegetables forever!

Plus, there's evidence that the benefits of eating more vegetables outweigh any negative impact of a little butter or cheese. In fact, adding a source of fat can actually help your body absorb vitamins in vegetables like vitamins A, E, C and K.

It's also human nature to prioritize tastiness over healthfulness when making food choices. An intervention study of 130,000 college students, published in Psychological Science, found that adding flavor-focused labels to vegetable dishes rather than health-focused ones increased the amount people reached for by 29%. A small mindset shift from "I have to eat vegetables because they are good for me" to "these veggies are delicious" might make you more likely to eat them.

Bottom Line

The best vegetable for helping you reach your weight-loss goals and improve your overall health is the one you will actually eat. Since filling at least half of your plate with vegetables is a great tool for weight loss, focusing on consuming a variety of vegetables is a great way to make it more appealing and sustainable. Don't be afraid to use some butter or ranch dressing on those veggies to make them delicious, either!

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The #1 Vegetable for Weight Loss, According to a Dietitian - EatingWell
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