Is Watermelon Good For Weight Loss?

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Over 90% of the weight of a watermelon is composed of water, making it one of the fruits with the highest concentration of water. So a 20 pound watermelon is more like 18 pounds of water, and 2 pounds of melon.

It’s this property that gets a lot of love from people who say that watermelon is a great fruit for diabetics and weight loss.

But is all this love for watermelon as a weight loss fruit justified? Here’s why watermelon shouldn’t be the only fruit you think about when it comes to weight loss.

Nutritional benefits

Watermelon is a refreshing and hydrating fruit that offers several health benefits. Here are some of the key nutritional benefits of watermelon:

• Vitamins and minerals: Watermelon is a good source of vitamins A and C, as well as potassium, which is important for maintaining healthy blood pressure levels.
• Lycopene: Watermelon is one of the best dietary sources of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. The concentration of lycopene in watermelon can vary depending on the variety and ripeness of the fruit, but some studies have reported concentrations of up to 40 milligrams per kilogram of fruit.
• Citrulline: Watermelon is also a natural source of citrulline, an amino acid that has been shown to improve blood flow and reduce muscle soreness. Some studies have suggested that consuming watermelon or watermelon juice before or after exercise can help to reduce muscle soreness and improve recovery.

Overall, watermelon is a low-calorie fruit that is packed with nutrients and antioxidants, making it a great choice for a healthy and refreshing snack.

Lycopene content

Watermelon has a pretty high concentration of lycopene compared to other fresh fruits. For example:

It’s not going to beat concentrated extracts like tomato juice or ketchup, but these are concentrated extracts, not fresh fruits.

Effects on blood sugar

Glycemic index

Whenever you eat a watermelon, or anything with sugars and carbohydrates, the sugar is going to be absorbed into your bloodstream.

The speed at which sugar is absorbed into your bloodstream is called the glycemic index. The faster it’s absorbed, the higher the glycemic index.

Foods with more refined sugars and carbohydrates, and less fat and protein tend to have higher glycemic indexes. So things like cakes, cookies, rice, and white bread all tend to have higher glycemic indexes.

Generally, these foods are not great for weight loss, since they can cause large spikes in blood sugar, potentially increasing insulin insensitivity and causing metabolic problems.

Watermelon has a pretty high glycemic index, in fact, it has a higher glycemic index than most cookies or baked goods.

But why don’t we consider watermelon to be as bad as cookies for weight loss?

Glycemic load

To see why, we need to look at another measurement, called glycemic load.

Glycemic index only tells us a part of the story. It tells us how quickly sugars are being absorbed.

Glycemic load tells us how much sugar is being absorbed. The more sugar or carbohydrate is being absorbed, the higher the glycemic load.

In a lot of ways, glycemic load tells a more important picture, since it gives us a better understanding of how a food will impact blood sugar levels.

To use an analogy, did you know that dragonflies can fly at 55 km an hour, that 35 miles an hr for you Americans.

A dragonfly impacting you at 55 km/h is going to be way different than a truck impacting you at 55 km/h.

Why? Because the weight is different. A truck weighs thousands of pounds, while the dragonfly weighs just fractions of an ounce.

Think of speed as the glycemic index, and weight as the glycemic load.

Watermelon for weight loss

Benefits

Watermelon may have a high glycemic index, but it’s not going to have a huge impact on your blood sugar because it has such a low glycemic load. There just isn’t that much sugar.

A 100 grams of cookie has 64 grams of carbs, while the same amount of watermelon has just 8 grams. So even though the watermelon is more rapidly absorbed into your blood, the effect on your blood sugars, and your weight, is far less than a cookie.

The contrast can also be seen with other sweet fruits:

So it is a fruit that can be consumed more frequently, since its low glycemic load minimizes its impact on blood sugar. The large amounts of water help to fill your stomach better and relatively low amounts of sugar reduces the impact of eating it.

Downsides

Now, watermelon is not the only fruit with a lot of water. Many fruits have a pretty comparable water content, and calorie content to match.

Not only that, many of them have significantly more fiber than watermelon, which helps to better bulk out your stomach and suppress appetite.

Vegetables tend to have even higher concentrations of water and fiber, with ones like lettuce and celery surpassing 95%.

You could say watermelon’s greatest strength, which is being mostly composed of water, also happens to be its greatest weakness.

The lack of fiber makes watermelon a fruit without much substance or bulk, making it a little less like eating a fruit, and a little more like drinking fruit juice.

Even the amounts of beneficial nutrients in fresh watermelon, such as lycopene or citrulline are quite low in concentration due to it being just mostly water.

So if you were looking for a fruit with a very high water concentration, and low calorie density, watermelon is really nothing special, at least nutritionally.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious, but culinary preferences aside, from a nutritional standpoint, there are better fruits for weight loss.

Having watermelon for weight loss

Watermelon helps mostly due to all that water content. Keep in mind that although having lots of water can help take fill your stomach up better, having water or liquids alone is a poor appetite suppressant, due to the fact that liquids tend to leave the stomach rather quickly.

You can help it along by having other fibrous foods with watermelon, which will bulk out better with all the liquid provided by the watermelon.

Also, if you have a bit of a sweet tooth, and find it difficult to cut out sweets, replace those sweet treats with watermelon. It’s a great low-calorie alternative to sweets.

If you find it difficult to drink enough water because it’s too bland or boring, and want to avoid sugary juices or pop, watermelon could be a good option.

Just remember that when you’re choosing fruits to snack on your diet on a hot summer’s day, remember that watermelon isn’t your only option.

Strawberries, blueberries, honeydew, apples, oranges, these fruits are all great options. Don’t forget to show them some love as well.

Learn more about

• 6 Weight Loss Tips for Type 2 Diabetes
• Other foods for weight loss

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