Heavy (High Calorie Density) Foods

We have all probably felt light or heavy depending on what we eat. A big Thanksgiving meal, for instance, will leave you heavy and tired. A heaping plate of cucumbers and carrots leaves you light and energetic (if not still a little hungry). So what’s that about?

Well, for one thing, obviously the quantity matters. If you eat too much you’ll feel heavy. But the other thing is that some foods truly are “heavier” than others and vice versa. What we call those in calorie terms are “high or low density foods”. In the most basic terms, if you want to gain weight, eat high-density foods. If you want to lose weight, eat low-density foods.

So, here is a list of the top 5 high density foods to avoid and part 2 will be the top 5 low density foods to enjoy.

Heavy Food List

1- Chocolate -While I LOVE chocolate, I also know that it is super highly dense. One ounce of Dove Dark Chocolate for instance is over 150 calories! In one ounce! Chocolate fudge, chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, etc are all heavy (but delicious!) foods. Chocolate is densely packed and made from sugar and cocoa butter. It’s also really easy to overeat on, so while it is a treat, I try to limit the amount I eat because it is so heavy. Those little brownie bites also have about 150 calories EACH!! Yikes! If you want the chocolate flavor without so many calories, shred a small amount of dark chocolate onto some chopped strawberries in a fruit salad. Dark chocolate satisfies the chocolate urge more than milk chocolate. People who like milk or white chocolate usually are into  the sugar and fat, and are not really chocoholics. For true chocolate lovers another low-cal way to enjoy chocoate could be to experiment with cocoa powder (that is naturally sugar and fat free) recipes.

2- Cheese- Again, another delicious, highly dense food. One ounce  or about 3 dice-sized pieces- of cheddar cheese has close to 120 calories. Similar to chocolate, eating cheese will make you gain weight because it doesn’t take many bites to pound down a lot of calories. A quesadilla or nachos are examples of food with far too much cheese. Instead, opt for parmesan or other very flavorful cheese on top of a salad for instance instead of the bland and high cal American, cheddar, and cream cheeses that are easy to overdo. Some mozzarellas, low-fat string cheeses, and low fat cottage cheeses are still somewhat dense but better choices in cheese.

3-Flour products - Tightly packed (and especially white) flour products have a lot of calories for the bite. These include bagels, pastas, some breads, cereals and flour tortillas. A 2 oz mini-bagel has 100 calories! If these flour products are made with sugar and fat such as muffins, cakes, sweet breads, etc they are even more highly dense. And if they are topped with cheese, cream cheese, butter, honey or anything else, they are even heavier! If they are fried (like a donut) then add it up even more. One small chocolate cake donut has about 260 calories! To enjoy flour products, try whole-wheat flour, especially high-fiber varieties, but still be careful to limit the quantity.

4- Sugary products - Anything that has sugar listed as the first or second ingredient has too much sugar in it and is a high density food. The names for sugar could be: sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, mollasses, honey, maple syrup, and anything with the ending -ose such as dextrose, sucrose, fructose, etc. This means pretty much any regular soda is a high density food. While you can get 12 oz for 150 calories, most of those ounces are water.

One ounce of sugar syrup is over 100 calories, so a soda has about 1.5 ounces of pure sugar! Anything made with sugar and one of the above products is guaranteed to be heavy and cause weight gain and health problems if consumed regularly. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 100 calories from added sugar (the kind found in fruit for example is not included in this). That means only about 6 teaspoons of sugar. Less than what is in one can of soda or about one bite-sized brownie. Instead, calm your sweet tooth with fruit as dessert. Its natural sweetness is mellowed by the fiber and water content of the fruit.

A golden brown color and oily touch are indications of fried food

5- Fried Food  -Really any food that is fried is going to be a dense food, but especially if it has any of the above ingredients in it as well. For instance, a donut is a fried flour product with added sugar and maybe chocolate too or a cream cheese filling!

Other fried foods include fried chicken, fried fish, French fries, fried cheese sticks, sopapillas, chimichangas, tempura, potato chips, apple fritters, turnovers, Monte Cristos and pretty much anything at a carnival (think funnel cakes!). Oil (no matter what kind, olive, peanut or canola) is super dense with about 240 calories per ounce!! That is the densest of them all.
All of these fried foods are deep-fat fried which means they are dunked into a vat of this high density liquid that permeates into the rest of the food. If you are looking for an easy way to gain lots of weight, just eat oil or fat based foods like these fried foods. Instead of frying food, try using spray Pam to keep food from sticking without adding much in terms of calories, or eat food that is broiled, steamed, oven-roasted, grilled, microwaved or even lightly sauteed instead.

So there is my list of the top heavy foods. Now that you know how to gain weight and become heavier (by eating these heavy foods), check out this light food list to become lighter!