What is Calorie Density and Why is it Important?

"Calorie density" is a term that describes a common sense dietary approach that not only ensures excellent nutrition, but also promotes lifelong weight management. When using this approach, we can increase the amount of food on our plates while the caloric content decreases. This optimizes the nutritional value of our meals, aids in satiety, and keeps us from having to go hungry. Counting calories, weighing and measuring portion size is not needed. Jeff Novick explains this concept by stating: "Calorie density is simply a measure of how many calories are in a given weight of food, most often expressed as calories per pound. On a day-to-day basis, people generally eat a similar amount of food, by weight. Therefore, choosing foods with a lower calorie density allows us to consume our usual amount of food (or more) while reducing our caloric intake."  This concept is allow referred to on our web sites as the principle of "Concentrated Calories" or "Calorie Concentration."

For more details, see:

(1) Calorie Density with Jeff Novick

(2) Foods That Make You Thin