Are you trying to lose weight? The world now has more obese than underweight people. If you want to shed pounds you have many options. One of the best ways is low-carb fruit like strawberries, blackberries, and avocados. These fruits are popular on low-carb diets like Keto and Atkins. However, some other fruits might be surprising in terms of weight loss. That includes the hidden benefits of cherries that include ones related to weight loss. It might be surprising since 1 cup of cherries has 85+ calories and 19g of net carbs. However, it’s important to look at other factors that could be related to weight loss. This will help to reveal if there are any “hidden” ways cherries could help you shed weight and burn fat.
Low-carb fruits include fruits with low net carbs. For example, avocados have 2g of net carbs after the fiber is subtracted. This makes the food Keto-friend since the standard program allows 50g of carbs per day. However, in the case of cherries, you get 16g of carbs from one serving (100g). There’s just 2g of fiber so the net carbs are only 14g. This doesn’t qualify as a low-carb food either for its total or net carbs.
How Healthy Are Cherries?
Before talking about their possible use for weight loss, it’s important to take a look at cherries in terms of their overall nutritional value. First, the “fresh is best” rule always applies. There’s a difference between fresh cherries and ones packaged in jars, cans, or boxes.
Here’s what you get from 100g of cherries:
- Calories: 63
- Carbs: 16g
- Protein: 1g
- Fat: 0g
- Fiber: 2g
- Potassium: 5% daily value
- Vitamin C: 12% DV
In terms of calories, you’re getting about 3% of the daily total for a 2,000-calorie diet. This is relatively slow so it’s a way you could potentially lose weight. However, fruits tend to be low-calorie anyway due to the high water content in particular. The figure is low enough to consider it a factor for weight loss.
Another main takeaway is the 0g of fat. This is good news if you’re on a low-fat diet or simply want to watch your intake of the macro-nutrient. You can’t get lower than 0g of fat.
The caveat is studies show a high-fat diet seems to be more effective for weight loss than a low-fat diet. However, this is total fat. The fruit is an important source of nutrients like veggies, whole grains, and protein. Another issue is fat has 2x more calories than protein/carbs so low-fat can help shed pounds.
Cherries are also relatively high in fiber. The 2g of fiber can improve digestion. That can make it easier for your body to get rid of excess water/waste, which can cause body weight to increase. That’s a situation you’ll want to avoid.
Carbs are an important issue to look at in terms of weight loss. One serving of cherries has 16g of carbs. It’s relatively low but the fiber content isn’t sky-high. When we subtract the dietary fiber the small fruit has net carbs of 14g.
Benefits of Cherries: Weight Loss
So let’s take a closer look to figure out whether or not cherries are a good option in terms of weight loss. They’re somewhat low in calories and super-low in fat (0g). These features would make it a relatively good option for weight loss.
On the other hand, 14g of net carbs don’t make the round fruits ideal for losing weight. This is an issue to consider since it doesn’t make it the best option for weight loss.
A related issue is there’s 12g of sugars in the cherries. These are natural sugars so it’s not the same as white sugar. The problem is this figure shows that 75% of the fruit’s carbs are sugars. If you’re trying to lose weight then you’ll want to minimize sugars—natural and artificial.
Here are some “hidden” ways you can lose weight with cherries:
1. Calories
You get about 65 calories from a serving of cherries. It is quite low for any food, including fruit. The caveat is that it’s essential to make sure you only eat one serving to consume this amount of calories. If you do that, then cherries could help you lose weight. Just make sure to go with fresh cherries instead of canned/frozen ones.
2. Vitamins/Minerals
Cherries have a good amount of various vitamins/minerals. It can help to support a person’s metabolism, which is critical for good health. It can also help to speed up how fast your body burns calories, which can certainly help with weight loss. Meanwhile, cherries aren’t sky-high in any vitamins/minerals.
3. Water
Cherries have a moderate amount of water. This can help in various ways. Fun Fact: Water is the only natural 0-calorie food. If you want to lose weight, then it’s a good idea to consume more water and foods with high water content.
Top Fruits for Weight Loss
BERRIES
Many are low-calorie and low-carb, including strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Blueberries are somewhat higher in carbs but also higher in antioxidants. One cup of blueberries provides 18% of Vitamin K’s DV and 12% of Vitamin C.
AVOCADOS
The tropical fruit is low-calorie, low-carb, and high-fat. That makes it an outstanding choice for weight loss. When you subtract fiber, avocados have 2g of net carbs. It is quite low and makes it Keto-friendly.
Avocados are also about 80% fat. This is a healthy fat, which some studies show can help with weight loss. Healthy fat can help you feel fuller, so you’ll be less likely to binge on comfort foods like chips and cookies.
BANANAS
The problem is that they’re relatively high in calories/sugars/carbs. However, they’re also sky-high in many nutrients like potassium, magnesium, and Vitamins A/C.
APPLES
There’s a reason the fruit has a whole saying about its nutritional value. Apples are low-calorie and high-fiber, which includes about 115 calories and 5.5g of fiber.
Studies also show that apples can help with weight loss. One study showed that eating apples helped people lose about 05 lbs. more than eating pears for 10 weeks. Meanwhile, the oat cookie group didn’t lose any weight, which was likely due to it being high-carb.
One of the weight loss-benefits of apples is they’re quite filling. That means you’ll probably eat less during the day. For example, one apple is nearly 3x more filling than chocolate bars.
GRAPEFRUIT
It’s not surprising that many weight-loss diets include half a grapefruit. This fruit combines oranges and pomelo. Half a grapefruit has nearly 40 calories but also about two-thirds of Vitamin C’s daily value (DV).
You can also get nearly 30% DV of Vitamin A form red grapefruits like Ruby Red. It is similar to the benefits of cherries.