One of the nice things about eating a whole-food plant based diet for weight loss and improved health is that you don’t have to ever be hungry. You will eat until you are full. I eat so much food now. The reason for that is the concept of calorie density.

The idea is to consider how many calories each food you eat has per pound. If you eat a pound of food that doesn’t have a lot of calories, you will feel much more full than if you eat the same number of calories of a food that doesn’t fill you up as much.

That sounds like you have to do a lot of math but it is actually very easy. All of the non-starchy vegetables are very low in calorie density. You pretty much can’t over eat on them. Literally eat as much as you want. The starchy vegetables like potatoes and corn are a bit higher in calories. You can eat a good amount of those but don’t overload yourself.

If you are eating foods under 600 calories per pound, you will be able to eat a lot of food and not go really high on caloric intake. Most people feel full when they eat around 4 lbs of food a day. Your stomach will be completely full with 600 calories of vegetables in it but might not even notice you putting in 600 calories of sugar or oil.

This chart from PlantStrong shows it well.

I’ve always heard that you can eat unlimited amounts if you are vegan. The key is being the right kind of vegan. I would eat vegan and end up eating vegan junk food or lots of bread and think I was ok eating as much as I want. Then I’d gain weight and think, “Nothing works for me.”

The worst thing about other diets for me was trying to eat smaller portions and then being hungry. Weighing, measuring, and tracking food is also tedious. Thinking, “Just eat everything to the left of the green line” is so much easier and more satisfying.