How to manage overeating: weight loss, satiety, and the “fullness factor”

The table below from Nutritiondata.com (ND) shows values of the “Fullness Factor” (FF) for a few common foods. Notice that low FF’s are the typical culprits that sabotage most people’s weight loss efforts.

Fullness Factors for Common Foods
Food	FF
Bean sprouts	4.6	More filling per CalorieLess filling per Calorie
Watermelon	4.5
Grapefruit	4.0
Carrots	3.8
Oranges	3.5
Fish, broiled	3.4
Roasted chicken breast	3.3
Apples	3.3
Sirloin steak, broiled	3.2
Oatmeal	3.0
Popcorn	2.9
Baked potato	2.5
Lowfat yogurt	2.5
Banana	2.5
Macaroni and cheese	2.5
Brown rice	2.3
Spaghetti	2.2
White rice	2.1
Pizza	2.1
Peanuts	2.0
Ice cream	1.8
White bread	1.8
Raisins	1.6
Snickers Bar	1.5
Honey	1.4
Sugar (sucrose)	1.3
Glucose	1.3
Potato chips	1.2
Butter	0.5

FF values fall within the range of 0 to 5. Foods with high FF’s are more likely to satisfy your hunger with fewer calories. Foods with low FF’s are less likely to satisfy your hunger.

After creating the FF formula using multivariate analysis, ND plotted its predicted values against the experimental data taken from Suzanna Holt’s 1995 study “The Satiety Index of Common Foods”, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In this study, the researchers fed human test subjects fixed-calorie portions of thirty-eight different foods, and then recorded the subjects’ perceived hunger following each feeding.

The results indicate that satiety is strongly related to the weight of the food consumed. Heavy foods tend to satisfy hunger best, regardless of their caloric level. Certain nutrients, such as protein and dietary fiber, also appear to induce satiety.

Below is a graph from NutritionData.com that shows this comparison. (The one data point worth noting is “potato,” which the Holt study categorizes as having a very high satiety factor. BTW, there are actually some sugar-addiction intervention approaches that utilize the potato as an effective dampener of sugar craving.)