Fruits and vegetables, including cucumbers, are not only good for general health, they are a very welcome addition to weight loss diets. Cucumbers provide generous amounts of essential nutrients, including vitamins C and K, and they have some nutritional properties that make them useful for weight loss. You don’t have to just stick to cucumber slices served without anything, the truth is that you can include cucumber in a range of delicious dishes to lose weight.
Benefits of cucumber to lose kilos
When you are trying to lose weight, including low calorie foods in your diet, such as cucumbers, this helps reduce calorie intake to lose pounds. Cucumbers are very low in calories – a cup of sliced cucumber has only 14 calories, which is less than 1 percent of the daily calorie on a 1,500-calorie weight loss diet. Even eating a large serving size will not make you gain weight.
A medium peeled cucumber has only 24 calories, and a large unpeeled one still has only 45 calories. Because cucumber is low in calories, even with a large serving size, it is a very low energy density food. Filling your diet with these foods is beneficial for weight loss, because it will fill you up when you are following a calorie-controlled diet.
Other nutritional benefits of cucumber
You’ll get other nutritional benefits from cucumbers, helping you stay healthy on your weight loss journey. Eating half an unpeeled cucumber provides you with about a third of the daily value for vitamin K, an essential nutrient that helps with blood clotting. Also, you’ll get 7 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, an antioxidant that also supports collagen production, which keeps bones, skin, and hair strong.
Cucumber also contains several phytonutrients – beneficial plant compounds. These compounds provide antioxidant benefits and may offer antidiabetic benefits, and cucumber seeds help fight constipation. These benefits can also indirectly help in your goal of shedding pounds; Also, by nourishing your body with nutritious foods, such as cucumber, you are more likely to feel energized to lead an active and healthy lifestyle.
Classic tips for serving cucumber
Salad with cucumber
Use cucumbers as a salad base to help you lose weight. Eating a low-calorie cucumber salad before meals helps fill you up and gives your brain time to process the „full“ signals so you don’t overeat the main dish.
Try a mix of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh basil, and lemon juice for a low-fat salad, or sliced cucumbers, red grapefruit, fennel, and white wine vinaigrette for a sweet and sour option. Alternatively, mix cucumber chunks with spinach and red bell peppers for a green presentation salad, and add a handful of mint leaves for a refreshing taste.
Low calorie cucumber drinks
When you’re dieting, it’s best to limit your intake of liquid calories, because liquid calories don’t elicit feelings of fullness like solid foods. Use cucumbers to make drinks to supplement sugary drinks. This will still give you a refreshing taste, but your drink will be relatively low in calories.
Dip cucumber and lemon slices into the water to refresh the flavored water, and add basil or mint leaves for a hint of herbs. Add fresh or frozen cucumber to your smoothies – cucumber goes well with unsweetened coconut water, lemon juice, a few chunks of frozen pineapple, and a handful of cilantro or parsley. You can also make a green smoothie with unsweetened iced green tea, romaine lettuce, kale or kale, parsley, cucumber, celery, and just a little lemon juice.
Low calorie cucumber noodles
Use a spiral cutter to make cucumber “noodles” to eat instead of pasta to cut calories. Since cucumber won’t have the texture of real pasta, it does offer the fresh texture and flavor that works well in pasta-based dishes. For example, cucumber noodles with raw tomato sauce – made from sun-dried tomato puree, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic – or topped with bean sprouts, chicken, and some low-fat oriental sauce.
Swapping out the pasta for the cucumber will save you a ton of calories, even if you spirally slice a whole cucumber and eat a few cups of „noodles.“ For example, eating a medium spiral cut cucumber instead of a cup of cooked rice noodles saves you 166 calories – enough to lose 3.5 kilos of fat if you make this change three times a week for a year, not counting any. weight loss from other dietary changes. Using cucumber noodles instead of spaghetti saves you more calories – 197 calories per serving, or the equivalent of almost 7 kilos of fat if you make this change three times a week for a year, not counting any weight loss of other changes in diet.
