Fullness Factor

Satiety is the feeling of fullness and the suppression of hunger for a period after a meal. The Fullness Factor is an advanced analysis and mathematical formula from Nutritiondata that predicts the satiety from the nutrient content of a food or recipe, using values from the nutrients.

To lose weight you must consume less calories than you expend. However, if you eat less or are leaving longer between meals and snacks many people find hunger can be a problem. This can be frustrating and thus many people end up stopping their diet or overeat because of hunger or cravings..
 
Satiety is the feeling of fullness and the suppression of hunger for a period after a meal.
The Fullness Factor is an advanced analysis and mathematical formula from Nutritiondata that predicts the satiety from the nutrient content of a food or recipe, using values from the nutrients. The values range between 0 to 5. With those calculations, the team then ranked common foods based on how satisfying they are per calorie.  The higher the rating the more filling the food.
 
Eating the foods on the higher end of the scale means you can gauge which foods will help keep you fuller for longer.
Generally,..

• Whole, unprocessed foods are more filling than processed foods.
• Foods that contain large amounts of protein, fibre and/or water have high fullness factors
• Foods that contain large amounts of sugar, starch or fat have low fullness factors.

 
For example, for calorie for calorie

• If you had a baked potato with tuna and a dollop of light mayo it will more likely keep you feeling fuller for longer than a margarita pizza that has the same number of calories.
• A bowl of oats if more filling than special K calorie for calorie
• For a snack popcorn would be more filling than a chocolate bar or a banana over crisps. 
• A meal made with beans, lean protein and vegetables should keep you full and satisfied for a while compared to a hotdog on a bun.

So when dieting or trying to keep in energy balance eating foods with higher volume for fewer calories can help us feeling fuller for longer and help us not to over eat.
 
The chart below shows values for some common foods.

For more info on the Fullness Factor see NutritionData.com

Jamie Miller, Personal Trainer
UK Fitness Personal Training
Aberdeen

FITNESS, NUTRITION & PERSONAL TRAINING