Top Five Best Dieting Foods

What you eat and what you don't eat will have a large effect on how quickly you take off pounds, and more importantly, how long you keep those pounds off.

1. Whole grain breads

Whole grain breads offer a lot of nutritional value. Replace your two slices of white toast with 1/2 a cup of oatmeal or whole grain cereal, and for about the same number of calories, you'll be getting three times the vitamins, amino acids, and roughage that your body needs to function. You'll feel full far longer, too -- because you've given your body something to work on that will take a while to digest.

2. Fish

Fish is low in fat, as high in protein as red meat, and provides something that most other proteins don't -- omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 is one of the main building blocks your cells need. If your body doesn't get enough Omega 3, it will try to construct cells from other fatty acids. The problem lies in those cells not being as flexible, and not quite the right shape.

3. Spinach

At 13 calories and 2 grams of carbohydrate in 2 cups of chopped raw spinach, this is one of the lowest cost sources of nutrition you can offer your body. Every serving gives you folic acid, manganese, beta-carotene, protein, lutein (a potent anti-oxidant), magnesium, vitamin C, and vitamin K. You can eat it raw in salads, steamed as a side dish, or sautéed in a tiny bit of oil for a different taste, and you still reap all the nutritional benefits.

4. Pink Grapefruit

With only 40 calories in half of a grapefruit, you're getting 45 mg of vitamin C, lycopene, pectin, beta-carotene, and potassium. Grapefruit is versatile and tasty. Eat it for breakfast, or toss it into a salad with spinach for an extra punch to enhance the nutritional quality of your diet.

5. Olive Oil

Your body does need some fat to process vitamins and use them properly. Olive oil is a mono-unsaturated fat that is the primary source of fat in the popular Mediterranean diet. It contains antioxidants, flavonoids, beta-carotene, and vitamin E, among others. One tablespoon has a whopping 125 calories, but drizzled on a 13 calorie spinach salad with a touch of lemon juice and some garlic, you still have a meal with less than 150 calories -- and a whole lot of healthy fuel for your body.

Most importantly, don't base your diet around any single ONE food item or ingredient. The best way to lose weight is to eat a healthy variety of foods to make sure you get all the essential nutrients that your body needs daily.