If there’s one common misconception that occurs among those who are looking to lose weight quickly it’s that fruit should not be included on a fat loss diet. They firmly believe that fruit is too high in sugars and will just hinder their ability to burn off the last five pounds of body fat that will just not seem to budge.
But what’s the real truth about fruit and fat loss? Is it possible to include fruit on your weight loss diet program and still lose weight?
Let’s take a closer look at this issue.
Calorie Content And Fruit
The very first thing to take into account, due to the fact that it’s your total daily calorie intake that will play the biggest role in total weight loss is the total calorie content of fruit.
While fruits will vary in terms of exactly how many calories each one includes, typically you can expect somewhere between 50 and 100 calories per piece. A medium banana for instance contains about 100 calories while a cup of strawberries will be a mere 50. An apple ranges from 60-80, while a small orange is closer to 55.
Compare this with other foods you may snack on – granola bars or cereal for example, and you can clearly see that fruit is the lower calorie of the two. Most granola bars are between 150-200 calories while cereal, depending on the size of the serving you have will be between 120 to 300 calories.
In the war of fat loss, lower calorie wins out almost every day, therefore fruit is the better choice.
Fiber And Fruit
Second, consider the fiber in fruit. Fiber is important from a nutritional standpoint because it’s going to help keep the body regular, as well as it’s going to help keep you feeling satisfied longer.
The more fiber you take in on your weight loss diet program, the easier you’ll likely find it to stick with that program.
For this reason, again, fruit is a smart choice. Most fruits range from 2-8 grams of fiber per serving, so they will really make it easy to reach your daily needs.
Fruit’s Path In The Body
Now, before touting all the benefits of fruit with regards to fat loss, it is important to think about the pathway of fruit in the body. When you eat a high starch food (such as a slice of bread for example), the carbohydrates will immediately get turned into glucose and sent into the blood stream. From there they either go into the muscle cells for storage, are used immediately for energy, or get converted into body fat.
With fruit, however, because it contains 50% glucose and 50% fructose (a different form of carbohydrate molecule), it doesn’t act quite the same way. The glucose portion will, but the fructose found in the fruit will immediately go towards the liver.
The issue with this is that the liver can only hold so much fructose before it starts converting it to body fat (approximately 50 grams, while the muscles can easily store more than 250 grams of glucose – more if you’re very muscular).
This then could potentially set you up for body fat gain. Keep in mind that there is only about 5 grams of fructose per piece of fruit, so you’d have to eat 10+ servings a day to see this effect. If you happen to have a lot of other fructose in your diet though, then you might see problems faster.
For this reason, as suggested above fruit is quite a healthy choice for weight loss, but you still should practice moderation. 2-3 pieces a day will be fine, 20 will not.
Fruit And Exercise
Finally, let’s look at fruit and exercise. As we just mentioned, half of the carbohydrates found in fruit will get sent right towards the liver. While in the liver, this doesn’t really do much to support intense exercise activity. From a workout standpoint then, you’re a bit better off having 100% glucose forms of carbohydrates (rice, a potato, or oatmeal, for example).
This will help fuel and restore muscle glycogen levels better, so it’s preferable if you’re very active.
So to summarize, yes, fruit can definitely be part of a fat loss diet. But, you shouldn’t over do it. Have a few pieces for good nutrition and to satisfy your sweet tooth, and then focus on slower digesting forms of starch such as oatmeal or brown rice.
Also, avoid fruit right before and after your workouts because calorie for calorie, they won’t be quite as effective as a starch source would be.
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