5 foods to lose fat, regulate your appetite and improve your metabolism without counting calories | Dr Federica Amati
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What is the simplest way to lose weight without counting calories?
I'm Dr. Rupi, and on this show, I help you feel more in control of your health through food and lifestyle medicine. On paper, weight loss sounds simple. Eat less, move more. But in a modern food environment that is distorting our hunger signals and food choices, it's not that straightforward. And despite what the diet and fitness industry tells you, calorie counting is not always the best option. And learning to build plates that naturally regulate our appetite is a skill everyone should know. To help me unpack this is medical scientist and registered nutritionist, Dr. Federica Amati. We explore why ultra processed foods disrupt our appetite, five key foods that improve weight control and her top tips to protect your muscle, bones and prevent nutrient deficiencies if you're considering weight loss medication.
And she writes about this in her new book, The Appetite Reset. Today's show is a must listen for anyone who wants to improve their metabolic health, lose weight if you need to, with a joyful approach to eating more food rather than restricting it. Dr. Federica, what is the healthiest way to lose weight and keep it off without counting calories or taking drugs?
The best way to do it is to actually just eat more whole food. We've become obsessed with calories and counting calories. And a lot of people who struggle with their weight or who try to lose weight quickly just fixate on the calorie counting and forget about what food
that
those calories are actually bringing you. And from all the physiology we know, everything we understand about appetite hormones and hunger and weight regulation, what's really clear is that the best way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight is to eat the right foods so a lot of the time it's really helping people to increase whole food intake because our food environment right now pushes us more towards convenience foods, drinking
our
meals, or eating calories from foods that aren't whole foods. They're highly processed foods, or they are food products, as I like to call them. And so actually just helping people to edge their way back towards eating whole foods is the simplest way. And Rupi, it's funny because I often, when I work with people one-on-one, and especially sort of perimenopausal or women in their 40s, And they are struggling with weight gain and they are like, please help me. And I say to them, you need to eat more food. I'm like, you need to eat more.
And they're like,
I'm sorry. Literally their face, there's a sort of slight twinge that crosses their face, which is like, is she
okay?
And it's really hard to embrace that when our diet culture has propagated this myth that you must eat as little as possible if you want to shrink.
Why is it that switching from food like products to whole foods actually leads to people losing fat?
So there's lots of mechanisms, right? So some of the work that we've been doing at ZOE with Professor Sarah Berry has been looking at what parts or what sort of qualities of ultra processed foods are actually driving the ill health that you see in all the epidemiological studies where the highest UPF consumption is consistently associated with worse health outcomes across the board from mental health to metabolic health to fertility. So what we want to see is like, well, what is it about these foods actually? Because they're so, it's such a big bucket, right? So what is it? And the key themes seem to be energy intake rate. So how quickly can you eat them? You know, if we take a really obvious example of say eating whole nuts, so say you've got yourself some mixed nuts, almonds, walnuts, you know, all this stuff and you're eating them whole.
And then you buy a nut bar, right? Inherently, they might have very similar ingredients, actually. But the way that the nut bar has been processed makes it so much easier to eat quickly. So your intake rate of the same calories, fat, is very different if you're eating the whole food.
And that's a
really basic example. But you see that across all sorts of things. One of my favorite examples is like take a corn on the cob and then take a tortilla chip.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the simplest way to lose weight without counting calories?
0:00–17:26
2
Why do ultra‑processed foods drive overeating and weight gain?
17:26–33:14
3
How does dietary fiber improve satiety and support fat loss?
33:14–45:07
4
Which food additives should I avoid and which are actually beneficial?
45:07–57:51
5
What are the five key whole‑food groups that boost fiber and metabolism?
57:51–1:09:26
6
Why is high‑quality protein essential for preserving muscle during weight loss?
1:09:26–1:24:22
7
How does meal timing—especially breakfast and early eating windows—affect fat loss?
1:24:22–1:26:54
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast
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