High-satiety meats, eggs, and seafood – the best and the worst

Overview

Are meat, fish, and eggs effective for weight loss and metabolic health?

Ranking these foods with our satiety scoring gives interesting results. Most of these foods are very high in nutrition, especially protein, which is one of the ranking factors. However, these foods contain no fiber (only plants do), and they are generally higher in energy density than plant foods, too. 

Despite that, it appears to be "hard to fail" to lose weight with these foods. Most animal foods are balanced (around 50) or high (70+) on our satiety scale.

Exceptions include processed meats that score lower (higher fat content, lower protein, added carbs). Pure animal fats also score low (lard 15).

However, this does not mean these foods can not be successfully used in cooking. Frying a chicken breast in butter or lard will still result in a combined high score (e.g. 70).

Remember that the goal with our satiety scoring should not be to go as high as possible; we recommend not going above 70 on average in the long term.

The point is, just don't overdo the added fats if your goal is weight loss. If you want to lean out, go for higher protein, higher satiety options. There are many, whether you prefer beef, pork, chicken, fish or seafood (see below).

The big picture is that most animal foods score balanced or high. It's hard to fail by eating more animal foods. No matter what you do, you'll likely end up eating at a balanced or high satiety per calorie. 

Chicken

Coming soon

Beef

Coming soon

Pork

Coming soon

Bacon

Eggs

In general, eggs are very nutritious, and most score in the balanced satiety range, in the middle.

Whole eggs, whether in their original state or boiled or poached, score a respectable 60.

Add some fat for frying, and we get fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and omelets at around 50-52.

Add lots of fat and we get Deviled egg at 27, lots of carbs for an egg bagel at 26.

Add lots of fat and lots of carbs and we get Eggs Benedict at 23.

Want to go super high? Add some egg whites (89) to your scrambled or omelets, the more you add, the higher the score.

You can also combine eggs with something else high scoring, like ham (74) for a ham omelet (about 60).

Another popular option is to add cottage cheese (70-80) to your scrambled eggs for a tasty boost.

Seafood

Coming soon

Deli meats

Note: if the image above is hard to read on a mobile screen, try turning it sideways. You can also pinch to zoom (using two fingers).

Less processed meats with fewer ingredients generally score higher, not surprisingly.

At the top, we find simple things like sliced chicken (75) turkey (74), or ham (74). We also find roast beef (73).

At the bottom, we find bologna (26) and the fairly low-protein pepperoni (24), salami (30) and chorizo (33).

The ever-popular bacon gets a score of 44.

What does this mean? If you want to lose excess body fat or improve your metabolic health, go more for the higher-scoring deli meats, the ones to the right in the image.

Doing so should help you get satisfied and nourished with fewer calories while still eating as much or as little as you want.

Ground meat

Coming soon

Bacon

Processed meat

Coming soon

More

Check the satiety of any food – and learn how it's calculated: Satiety calculator

Try our Hava satiety app for even more support, get your free trial here.