As part of a balanced diet that stays within your daily calorie goals, soup is a good weight loss tool. People who eat soup as an appetizer tend to eat less of the main course. Many broth-based soups are low in calories, yet filling. Soup also provides a boost of nutrients if it contains vegetables, beans and lean protein.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that eating a bowl of soup as an appetizer helped people consume fewer calories during the main course. They prepared a vegetable soup with low-sodium chicken broth, broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and butter. Women who ate 1.5 cups of the soup before the entree, and men who consumed 2 cups of soup, ate 20 percent less of the main meal compared to those who did not eat soup, according to the study published in the November 2008 issue of “Appetite.”
Eating a snack between meals is a good weight loss strategy as long as you keep it healthy and choose one that has 100 calories or less, according to MayoClinic.com. Soup makes a good snack because a 1-cup serving of many broth-based vegetable soups has 56 to 122 calories. This includes some vegetable soups with beef and chicken, but check the nutrition facts label to be sure the soup you buy isn’t higher in calories.
Low Energy Density
When you choose foods that have a small number of calories per gram -- called low-energy-dense foods -- you can eat more food for fewer calories. Soup's calorie-free water content and any fiber from vegetables or beans make it a low-energy-dense food. You can calculate the energy density by dividing the calories per serving by the weight of the serving in grams. A score of 0 to 0.6 is very low in energy density and a rating of 0.7 to 1.5 is in the low range. Broth-based soups fall into the low and very low categories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Feel Full Longer
Vegetables and beans, or other lean protein, add even more weight-loss benefits. Vegetables and beans contain fiber, which helps you feel full by increasing the volume of food. You will also feel full longer because fiber slows down the rate at which food leaves your stomach. Protein also slows the movement of food out of your stomach and your body burns more calories when digesting protein than it does with carbohydrates, notes the Harvard School of Public Health.
Avoid high-fat, cream-based soups and beware of the sodium in canned soup. Even healthy sounding vegetable soups can contain half of your recommended daily sodium in one serving. Keep a batch of vegetable soup in your refrigerator so it’s ready to reheat for a quick snack, appetizer or meal. Make a broth from low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth mixed with tomato sauce, or mix sodium-free tomato juice and tomato sauce if you want a strong tomato broth. Then add any type of vegetables and beans, such as kidney beans, chopped spinach, carrots, green beans and onions and simmer.
- Appetite: Soup Preloads in a Variety of Forms Reduce Meal Energy Intake
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Can Eating Fruits and Vegetables Help People to Manage Their Weight?
- MayoClinic.com: Snacks: How They Fit Into Your Weight Loss Plan
- Harvard School of Public Health: Protein: Moving Closer to Center Stage: Protein and Weight Control
- Current Obesity Reports: Is There a Place for Dietary Fiber Supplements in Weight Management?
- USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory: Soup, Vegetarian, Vegetable, Canned, Prepared With Equal Volume Water
- Linus Pauling Institute: Sodium
- MayoClinic.com: Energy Density and Weight Loss: Feel Full on Fewer Calories
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