Nuts are chock full of antioxidants and nutrients.

In fact, these extremely healthy foods have been linked to several health benefits, including protection against diabetes and heart disease.

However, they also have a high calorie and high fat content, causing many people to think they are fattening.

Here we discuss whether the healthiest nuts are fattening or weight loss friendly.

Nuts have a high fat and high calorie content

Nuts have a high calorie content. This is because it is also high in fat, which is the body’s most concentrated energy source.

A gram of fat harbors 9 calories, while the same amount of protein or carbs contains only 4 calories.

Containing mostly unsaturated fat, nuts can help protect against several diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

Shown below are the fat and calorie content per one-ounce serving of some popular nuts:

Almonds: 14-gram fat and 161 calories

Cashews: 12-gram fat and 155 calories

Brazil nuts: 19-gram fat and 184 calories

Pistachios: 12-gram fat and 156 calories

Walnuts: 18-gram fat and 183 calories

Almonds and cashews are among the healthiest nuts you can have. So here are almond nutrition and cashew nutrition:

Almond Nutrition (per 1-ounce serving)

Fat: 14 grams (9 are monounsaturated)

Protein: 6 grams

Fiber: 3.5 grams

Manganese: 32% of the RDI

Magnesium: 20% of the RDI

Vitamin E: 37% of the RDI

Cashew Nutrition (per 1-ounce serving)

Fat: 12.43 grams

Carbohydrate: 8.56 grams

Fiber: 0.9 grams

Protein: 5.17 grams

Calcium: 10 milligrams

Iron: 1.89 mg

Magnesium: 83 mg

Phosphorus: 168 mg

Potassium: 187 mg

With its high fat and high calorie contents, many people think that incorporating nuts into their diet can sabotage their weight loss efforts.

However, and interestingly, scientific studies have different findings.

Nuts have appetite-reducing and satiety effects

Incorporating nuts into your diet has been tied to satiety.

For example, one study has found that snacking on almonds reduced hunger and cravings.

In addition, eating a portion of peanuts as a snack has been shown in one study of over 200 people to reduce calorie intake later in the day.

Their appetite-suppressing effects are thought to be attributed to the increased production of the appetite-regulating hormones cholecystokinin (CCK) and/or peptide YY (PYY).

The theory is that their high unsaturated fat content and high protein content may be responsible for this effect.

So basically, eating nuts as a snack can increase satiety, thereby making you eat less, leading to weight loss.

Nuts can help boost weight loss

More frequent nut consumption has been found in several large observational studies to be associated with a lower body weight.

This effect is probably due to the healthier lifestyle choices of people who consume nuts.

However, including nuts as part of a weight loss diet has been shown in human studies to often boost weight loss—and not hinder it.

Moreover, some studies have shown that both calorie-controlled diets containing nuts and calorie-controlled, nut-free diets resulted in a similar amount of weight loss.

The interesting part is that those who consumed nuts experienced improvements in cholesterol, including a reduction in triglyceride and “bad” LDL cholesterol levels. Participants in the nut-free diet did not experience this effect.

Regular consumption of nuts is not associated with weight gain

Regular consumption of nuts has been found in several observational studies to prevent weight gain.

For example, one review of 36 studies has shown that regular consumption of nuts was not tied to an increase in waist size, weight, or body mass index (BMI).

Several other studies have proven that adding nuts to the diets did not cause changes in body weight or even lead to weight gain.

Only a few studies have reported that nut consumption was tied to an increase in body weight. But the increase in weight tended to be insignificant in the long term.

Not all the fat is absorbed by the body

Nuts are considered weight loss friendly because even though they have a high fat content, not all of these fats are absorbed by the body and instead lost in feces.

In fact, nut consumption has been found in studies to increase the amount of fat lost through feces by 5% to over 20%, suggesting that a good portion of the fat in nuts will pass through the gut undigested.

Nuts can improve fat and calorie burning

Nut consumption has been suggested in some evidence to boost the number of calories burned at rest.

In fact, participants in one study burned 28% more calories after consuming a meal added with nuts compared to consuming a nut-free meal.

In addition, supplementing with peanut oil for eight weeks has been found in another study to result in a 5% increase in calorie burning. The effect was only observed in overweight people though.

Study results are however mixed, necessitating better, high-quality research to confirm the link between nut consumption and increased calorie burning.

Conclusion

Aside from being incredibly healthy, nuts are also considered weight loss-friendly.

Although they have high fat and high calorie content, they still make a great addition to your weight loss diet.

Many people think that nuts are fattening. But that’s just not true. They have appetite-reducing and satiety effects, and not all their fat is absorbed by the body. What’s more, the healthiest nuts can even improve fat and calorie burning.

Make sure to eat plain, unsalted varieties, as they are the healthiest option.