In this solo YouTube video, Eric Roberts explains that while a calorie deficit is essential for weight loss, consistently including three types of foods makes it easier to achieve and maintain that deficit. He first defines a calorie deficit and then details the three daily food categories: (1) lean protein sources (e.g., chicken breast, egg whites, Greek yogurt, protein shakes, lean ground beef, fish) which boost calorie burn through a high thermic effect, increase satiety, and support muscle growth; (2) high‑fiber foods (e.g., raspberries, kiwis, oatmeal, leafy greens, high‑fiber cereal/bread, chia seeds, bananas, blackberries) which are highly satiating and provide sustained energy; and (3) high‑volume, low‑calorie foods (e.g., strawberries, watermelon, raspberries, spinach, cauliflower/cauliflower rice, low‑fat Greek yogurt, potatoes) which allow larger portions without excess calories. Roberts advises picking a few items from each list each day, warns against completely eliminating favorite foods to avoid over‑restriction and bingeing, and offers a free calorie‑calculator link in the description for personalized deficit targets.
Chapters
If you want to be successful in your weight loss, then there is nothing more important than the food you eat. More specifically, there are 3 foods you need to be including in your diet every day if you want to lose body fat. But before we get into the 3 specific foods, there's actually one thing you need to understand first. You may have heard before you need to eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight. This simply just means that you are eating less calories than you are burning on a daily basis. And while that may be true, if you don't eat these 3 specific foods, it is going to be very hard to create and stick to your calorie deficit. So the first specific food that you need to be eating is going to be lean protein sources. Knowing that we need a calorie deficit to lose weight, Lean protein equals sources of protein that are low in dietary fat. Lean protein sources are going to help your calorie deficit for 3 main reasons. Number 1, they are actually going to burn more calories when you digest them. Protein has the highest thermic effect of food, and this means when you digest protein, your body actually has to burn more calories than if you were digesting any other food. As you can imagine, this would be advantageous if one of your goals is to lose weight and be in a calorie deficit. The second main reason, it helps keep you more full. Protein is the highest satiating food, meaning the more protein you eat, the less hunger and the less cravings you have. And the third reason, lean protein helps you build more muscle. The more muscle mass that you have, the higher your metabolism is going to be, which ends up helping you be in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Now, my favorite example of some lean protein sources are going to be chicken breast, egg whites, Greek yogurt, protein shakes, lean ground beef, fish. And if you can look to get a palm-sized portion of any of these at each of your meals, you will be on the way to helping yourself be in a calorie deficit and lose weight. Now, the second best food that you're going to eat every single day to lose weight is going to be high-fiber foods. We just talked about protein being very filling, which can help you stick to your calorie deficit. But did you know they actually did a study that ranked the 30 most satiating, high-filling foods? And they found that fiber might be just as good, if not better, for keeping you full throughout the day than protein. And as you can imagine, the more full you are, the easier it's going to be to stick to that calorie deficit. And as an extra bonus, high fiber foods also increased your sustained energy throughout the course of a day. Now, my favorite high fiber foods are going to be raspberries, which are also super low in calories, which hint, these may also play a role in number 3. Stick around. Kiwis, oatmeal, any green leafy vegetables, high fiber cereal, high fiber bread, Chia seeds, bananas, and blackberries. What I would do if I were you, I would pick 1 to 3 foods off this list and incorporate them into your diet every single day. Now the third and final best food for weight loss is going to be something we call high volume, low calorie foods. When you think about losing weight and eating in a calorie deficit, you probably think about you need to eat less food, right? Right? But what if I told you you could eat more food and actually help yourself lose weight? Here's how. Just because you eat more food doesn't mean you're eating more calories. For example, here is 200 calories worth of Lucky Charms cereal, and here is not even 200 calories worth of strawberries. I couldn't fit all the strawberries in this bowl. Strawberries are an example of low-calorie, high-volume food where you can eat a lot of food for not that many calories. Meaning you can eat more of this than you can of this, yet still stick within your calorie deficit and still lose weight. Some of my favorite examples of low-calorie, high-volume foods are going to be strawberries, as we just mentioned, watermelon, which for a whole pound is only 150 calories, raspberries, which as mentioned before also have fiber to keep you full as well, spinach, Cauliflower or cauliflower rice, low-fat Greek yogurt, as mentioned in point number 1, and potatoes. So as long as you don't bathe them in sugar and butter, I personally would try to incorporate as much of these foods as you can so you can help yourself stick to that calorie deficit. And one last bonus food I'm going to give you is this: please don't try to cut out all of your favorite foods. And I know you might be like, Eric, you just said all these foods, none of them are these. I know, but hear me out. When you try to cut all of these out, you feel very over-restricted, making it incredibly hard to stick with your calorie deficit for the long term. Often you end up binging on the weekends and not seeing any progress. So because all you need to do to lose weight is be in this calorie deficit, you can work in foods that you enjoy And as long as you hit your calories for the day, you will still lose weight. I really hope this video helped, and if you want to know how many calories you should be eating to lose weight, I have a completely free calorie calculator I will put down in the description below.
