There’s no way around it: To lose weight, you need to cut calories. But eating less is a surefire way to feel dissatisfied after every meal. Instead of shrinking your portions, bulk up meals with foods that will fill you up without weighing you down, like fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy. These tips will teach you the basics of adding volume and subtracting calories from your meals.

Add Veggies to…Everything

The cornerstone of a volumetrics-based eating plan is filling up on water and fiber. In short, load your meals with vegetables so there’s less room for higher-calorie meat and grains. One idea is to try to stuff your normal lunches like wraps and sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, grated carrots, sprouts, bell peppers, and sliced cucumber.

Fill Up on Fruit

Select fruits that contain the most water, and make plenty of room for them on your plate. Opt for watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, peaches, oranges, raspberries, apples, and blueberries over higher-calorie bananas and plantains.

Opt for Egg Whites

Science also suggests that eating eggs can help you keep your weight in check. Overweight adults who ate two eggs for breakfast (as part of a low-calorie diet) consumed fewer calories later in the day, compared with those who ate the same calorie’s worth of bagels. . Cut calories and cholesterol using egg whites or egg substitute in place of whole eggs. While a large egg will set you back about 80 calories, the whites from two large eggs contain 34 calories and a quarter-cup of egg substitute has 30 calories.

Switch to Low-Fat Dairy

When you make the switch from whole milk to fat-free milk, you can drink almost twice as much for the same number of calories, says Rolls. A 5.3-ounce glass of whole milk weighs in at 100 calories, while 9.3 ounces of fat-free milk equals 100 calories.

Look for Leaner Sources of Protein

Shrimp, tilapia, light tuna in water, and roasted turkey breast are packed with protein, but not fat and calories. For 150 calories, you can eat 44 g of sausage, 68 g of 80 percent lean ground beef, 77 g of London broil, 91 g of chicken breast or 119 g of snapper. Note that when you pick fish, you get to eat almost three times as much food as you do when you select sausage.

Select Less-Dense Desserts

A half-cup of frozen yogurt contains about 110 calories, while a half-cup of premium ice cream weighs in at 290 calories. Or pick fruit, like melon or grilled pineapple, over cake or cookies to fill up on water and fiber. While a single Double Stuf Oreo sets you back 70 calories, you could eat 1.5 cups of watermelon or three-quarters of a cup of pineapple for the same number of calories.

Go Raw

You do not get as much food for your calories when you munch on your favorite go-to snacks like crackers or cookies. Or even with something you might think of as a healthier snack like dried fruit. That’s because they contain very little water. For example, a quarter-cup of raisins contains 54 calories, but you can enjoy an entire cup of grapes for 62 calories.

Dilute Dressings and Dips

Topping your salad with a creamy dressing can instantly add hundreds of calories to your plate. But if you just have to have your salad with your favorite dressing, try mixing your dressing with lemon juice, a mashed avocado, or plain, no-fat Greek yogurt to dilute it but still get the flavor.

I hope you try and some of these tips and start to see the pounds come right off just by shedding a ton of calories, while still eating a ton of good food to fill you up.