12 Foods That Could Help You Lose Weight + Sample Diet

When it comes to nutrition and losing body weight or abdominal fat, there’s no magic workout, universal healthy food, or magic wand—only personalized nutrition tailored to your condition, lifestyle, and preferences. At NutriWhite, your ideal weight starts in the gut.

Your gut houses 70% of your immune system. It reacts and responds to what you eat daily, influencing your insulin levels depending on how well you can digest and absorb what you consume based on your individual response to those foods.

Foods That Could Help You Lose Weight

Animal-Based Proteins That Support Your Gut and Muscle Mass

1. Bone Broth‍

It contains amino acids like glutamine that can help heal your gut. This allows you to better digest and absorb nutrients from your food, which in turn helps activate your metabolism in your favor.

2. Lean Meats‍

It’s important that the protein cuts you eat are lean so you get more net grams of protein with each serving. They also provide essential amino acids that your body needs but can’t produce on its own (Boushey C et al., 202).

3. Chicken Breast

4. Wild Salmon‍

Although it's a fatty fish, it’s rich in essential fats—specifically omega-3 fatty acids that your body can’t produce: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
It’s very important to choose wild salmon over farmed, as farmed salmon does not offer the same nutritional benefits.

These so-called “good fats” are essential for lipid metabolism and serve as powerful anti-inflammatories (Salman HB et al., 2022).

They’re also essential for your brain!

Fiber and Easily Digestible Vegetables for You

5. Arugula and Lamb's Lettuce (Mâche)‍

These smaller leafy greens tend to be easier to digest. However, always keep in mind your individual food sensitivities.

Low Glycemic Load Fruits That Support Your Gut

6. Berries‍

Examples include: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, red, black, and white currants, and mulberries.

7. Apples‍

If you suffer from constipation or irritable bowel syndrome, you should consider your individual tolerance to FODMAPs. These compounds present in apples can be difficult to digest, causing certain bacteria to ferment them and worsen symptoms.

8. Grapefruit‍

In addition to being rich in vitamin C, grapefruit seeds have an interesting antifungal role, which is why they’re often used in supplements for treating fungal infections.
This is important because fungal infections can also disrupt your metabolism by triggering cravings for carbohydrates.

Easily Digestible Healthy Fats That Are Also Part of a Healthy Diet

9. Avocado and Olive Oil‍

They contain healthy fats such as omega-3 fatty acids, whose functions were described earlier.

10. Nuts‍

They also contain healthy fats and are an important source of fiber, which can help you feel full more easily.

11. Chia Seeds

12 Apple Cider Vinegar‍

Helps regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, which in turn supports fat metabolism.

How to Combine Foods to Lose Weight‍

A good approach is to make sure every plate includes a source of protein along with vegetables of your choice and tolerance.

For snacks, choosing low glycemic load fruits can be an excellent option to avoid insulin spikes.

As you may have noticed, insulin has been mentioned several times; when it's at optimal levels, this hormone plays a key role in controlling blood sugar.

Insulin is also a “building” hormone that triggers other metabolic reactions, such as fat synthesis and storage.

That’s why starting your meals with foods that trigger a lower insulin response and combining your foods wisely can help you!

Sample Menu for Weight Loss‍

You can vary your weekly menu to keep it enjoyable with easy recipes. For example:

Breakfast:

• Avocado boat with shredded chicken breast

Lunch:

• Green salad with lamb’s lettuce, arugula, and olives, dressed with apple cider vinegar
• Grilled beef with sea salt
• Dessert: berries

Dinner:

• Bone broth
• Baked wild salmon with lemon, fennel, and olive oil

Snacks and Cravings:

• A small handful of nuts

Which Foods Should You Avoid If You Want to Lose Weight?

Cereals, even whole grains‍

This plant family—wheat, barley, rye, oats, refined rice and brown rice, corn, sorghum, millet, teff—contains a protein called gluten, which can be difficult for your gut to digest.
When a food is hard to digest, it can inflame and damage your gut lining, trigger insulin release, and lead to weight gain. This also includes foods made from these grains, even whole grain bread (Roszkowska A, 2019).

Dairy: Yogurt, fresh cheese, ricotta, cottage cheese‍

This group contains a protein called casein, which can also be difficult for your gut to digest and may trigger insulin release (Bulbul Ahmed et al., 2021).

Sugar

‍It’s no secret that sugar is full of empty calories with no nutrients.
It also feeds harmful gut bacteria, triggering inflammatory reactions—including increased blood sugar and insulin levels—that lead to weight gain (Yoshinaga Kawano, 2018).

Tofu‍

As a soy-based product, tofu comes from a legume that may be hard to digest, linked to inflammatory responses, and often genetically modified. That’s why it’s not recommended in the 3R Immunonutrition Protocol (Hye-Yung Yum et al., 2005).

Discover Your Ideal Diet for Weight Loss

The 3R Protocol is more than just a diet—it guides you through:

• Which foods to Replenish or include in a healthy lifestyle, along with the habits that support your well-being. It provides tools to increase satiety.
• Which foods to Remove or exclude from your diet.

In this way, it helps you manage your body weight, shed fat in a healthy way, and restore your health and ideal weight over the long term.

With support from your NutriWhite nutritionists, you’ll be able to:

• Identify and remove the foods that work against you, those that spike your insulin and disrupt your metabolism
• Replenish with gut-friendly, easy-to-digest foods
• Incorporate physical activity
• And ultimately restore your ideal weight.

REFERENCES:

• Ahmed B, Sultana R, Greene MW. Adipose tissue and insulin resistance in obese. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 May;137:111315. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111315. Epub 2021 Feb 6. PMID: 33561645. 
• Al-Sulaiti H, Diboun I, Agha MV, Mohamed FFS, Atkin S, Dömling AS, Elrayess MA, Mazloum NA. Metabolic signature of obesity-associated insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. J Transl Med. 2019 Oct 22;17(1):348. doi: 10.1186/s12967-019-2096-8. PMID: 31640727; PMCID: PMC6805293.
• Yaribeygi H, Maleki M, Sathyapalan T, Jamialahmadi T, Sahebkar A. Obesity and Insulin Resistance: A Review of Molecular Interactions. Curr Mol Med. 2021;21(3):182-193. doi: 10.2174/1566524020666200812221527. PMID: 32787760.
• Yum HY, Lee SY, Lee KE, Sohn MH, Kim KE. Genetically modified and wild soybeans: an immunologic comparison. Allergy Asthma Proc. 2005 May-Jun;26(3):210-6. PMID: 16119037.
• Boushey C, Ard J, Bazzano L, Heymsfield S, Mayer-Davis E, Sabaté J, Snetselaar L, Van Horn L, Schneeman B, English LK, Bates M, Callahan E, Venkatramanan S, Butera G, Terry N, Obbagy J. Dietary Patterns and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review [Internet]. Alexandria (VA): USDA Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review; 2020 Jul. PMID: 35258870.
• Aaseth J, Ellefsen S, Alehagen U, Sundfør TM, Alexander J. Diets and drugs for weight loss and health in obesity - An update. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Aug;140:111789. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111789. Epub 2021 May 31. PMID: 34082399.
• Salman HB, Salman MA, Yildiz Akal E. The effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on weight loss and cognitive function in overweight or obese individuals on weight-loss diet. Nutr Hosp. 2022 Aug 25;39(4):803-813. English. doi: 10.20960/nh.03992. PMID: 35815739.
• Roszkowska A, Pawlicka M, Mroczek A, Bałabuszek K, Nieradko-Iwanicka B. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity: A Review. Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 May 28;55(6):222. doi: 10.3390/medicina55060222. PMID: 31142014; PMCID: PMC6630947.
• Jensen T, Abdelmalek MF, Sullivan S, Nadeau KJ, Green M, Roncal C, Nakagawa T, Kuwabara M, Sato Y, Kang DH, Tolan DR, Sanchez-Lozada LG, Rosen HR, Lanaspa MA, Diehl AM, Johnson RJ. Fructose and sugar: A major mediator of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. J Hepatol. 2018 May;68(5):1063-1075. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2018.01.019. Epub 2018 Feb 2. PMID: 29408694; PMCID: PMC5893377.