Soup or Sandwich: What’s the Best Lunch for Weight Loss? (2024)

FAQs

Soup or Sandwich: What’s the Best Lunch for Weight Loss? ›

Soup has a high water content, which can help you feel full. And, just like salad, it's a good vehicle for vegetables (the fiber in vegetables also promotes feelings of fullness for few calories). Research backs this up.

Not all lunches can say that. A homemade sandwich made with ham, cheese, tomato and whole‐wheat bread has over 800 mg of sodium and only 320 mg of potassium, but a basic vegetable soup has about 640 mg of sodium and 718 mg potassium. That's 20 percent of your recommended dose of potassium for the day!

Soups are an ideal plant-based lunch option, as you can make them ahead of time and reheat them for a quick meal. This lentil soup recipe is a complete meal in one bowl. It's loaded with ingredients that are good to eat when you're trying to lose weight.

Every so often, you hear about someone who lost weight by following a sandwich diet. Essentially, what they've done is mainly consume healthy sandwiches for weight loss. Sandwiches can be a perfectly healthy choice to incorporate into your diet, as long as you make them with healthy ingredients.

May induce weight loss: Though evidence for soup-based diets is lacking, some research has found that eating soup as part of a regular diet may have some health benefits, including weight loss. In a 2011 study, soup intake was associated with lower body mass index (BMI) and smaller waist circumference.

Try to eat more lean meat rather than fatty meat since leaner proteins are lower in calories. All skinny people eat lean meat, unless they are vegetarian. The best sources of lean protein are fish, meat, poultry, eggs and low-fat dairy. You can also get protein from soy, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains.

Soup diets are easy and convenient to prepare cutting out the time taken to prepare a meal, it's an all in a one pot meal. Although soup diets help reduce weight quicker than other diets, it is only recommended for 7 days therefore is not sustainable in the long term.

As most soup diets are only designed to last for 5 to 10 days, they aren't sustainable weight loss solutions. Furthermore, the severe and rapid reduction in calories and weight can slow your metabolism, making it even harder to maintain your weight loss.

What is the best meal for lunch for weight loss? ›

Results showed that late lunch eaters (after 3 p.m.) lost less weight during the treatment than early lunch eaters (before 3 p.m.), in spite of having similar age, appetite hormones, energy intake and expenditure, sleep duration or macronutrients distribution (Figure 1) [15].

Usually, yes! Soup can be filling, low calorie, nutrient-dense, and supportive of your immune system and weight loss journey. Maximize the benefits by avoiding soups that are full of salt, sugar, or cream. Look for soups brimming with vegetables and sources of filling protein and healthy fat instead.

In fact, soup is very healthy if prepared and used properly. Eating soup regularly is not only good for the digestive system but also prevents other potential health risks such as cancer, obesity, heart disease or diabetes.

Coming to the question, can soup replace a meal, the answer is yes. However, it highly depends on the type of soup you are consuming. If you are consuming a broth-based soup, such as a chicken or vegetable soup, it is unlikely that it will be enough to replace a whole meal.

Even the water or broth in chicken soup could offer benefits. When sick, it's easy to get dehydrated, Pike said, so consuming something water-based can be helpful. Plus, if you're losing electrolytes from gastrointestinal illness, chicken broth can replace them—it's rich in sodium at 924 milligrams per cup.