If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. One way to do that is by exercising, of course. The other way is by eating less. Like exercise, eating less requires self discipline. However, you can actually reduce your appetite if you eat the right foods, so you need less self discipline to lose weight.

Eat a Lot of Fiber-Rich Foods

Fiber has a proven ability to reduce the appetite, so you should be eating a lot of beans, peas, lentils, and whole grains with your meals. They will make you feel full faster, and reduce the amount you eat at each meal. In fact, eating an extra 14 grams of fiber each day can reduce you overall calorie intake by 10% (2). Also, you should eat as much as you like of high fiber, low calorie foods such as salad, carrot sticks, and other vegetable snacks and dishes. They are essentially bulk, and make you feel full while providing very few calories.

Stay Away from High-Carbohydrate Foods

High-carbohydrate foods are rich in calories. They also stimulate your appetite for more high-carbohydrate foods (1). Think about it. Eating just one cookie or a couple of potato chips, both rich in carbohydrates, actually makes you feel very much like you want “just a couple more” until you realize you’ve eaten way too much. This is the opposite of the effect you want, so steer clear of carbohydrate-rich foods while you’re trying to lose weight.

Eat More Protein

Eating protein makes you feel full more easily. Feeling full more easily makes you consume fewer calories overall. In fact, people on diets who eat high-protein breakfasts instead of high-carbohydrate breakfasts lose up to 65% more weight (2). So have plenty of meals based on chicken breasts pork chops, and the like.

Water Is Your Friend

Water has no calories and it fills you up. Have a bowl of thin soup or broth before your main course at dinner, and you’ll find that you eat less of that main course. If you spice it up right, you can make that soup appealing and satisfying even though it doesn’t have a lot of substance to it. If you don’t like the soup idea, at least try to drink a glass or two of water before big meals.

Drink Coffee

Start every day off with some coffee. Coffee causes your body to release more of the peptide YY hormone, which your body produces when you eat (2). It is what creates the feeling of fullness you have after a meal, so the coffee makes you feel fuller faster.

Weight loss is difficult. You need every advantage you can get. You can make dieting a lot easier by paying attention to what you eat, not just how much you eat. If you plan your meals right, you can lose significantly more weight without using any more self discipline.