The Snack That Could Help You Achieve Your Weight Loss Goals

Though nuts were once believed to be fattening, new research shows that they could actually be an important part of a weight loss diet.

A February 2024 research review in Nutrition Research Reviews found that nuts such as almonds, peanuts, pistachios, and walnuts could help people reach their weight loss goals when eaten as part of a calorie-controlled diet.

“This review has found that nuts can be included in energy-restricted diets without limiting the effectiveness of weight loss—and may in fact enhance this,” study author Alison Coates, PhD, dean of research in Allied Health and Human Performance at the University of South Australia, told Health.

Nuts are, of course, still a calorie-dense, high-fat food. In fact, other research has shown that, after vegetable oils, nuts are one of the highest-fat plant foods on the planet. So why might these little nuggets promote weight loss? Here’s what you need to know.

For years, nuts were dogged with a reputation for promoting weight gain, not loss—but Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, host of the Media Savvy podcast, creator of BetterThanDieting.com, and author of Read It Before You Eat It—Taking You From Label to Table, says these concerns were rooted in the fatphobia of decades past.

Ultimately, shying away from all fat didn’t help us lose weight. “While so many of us were trying to ditch fat in our diets, we replaced it with sugar-laden, fat-free products that didn’t help our waistlines or our laboratory values,” she said.

Now, however, it’s clear that some fats are more beneficial than others for issues like cardiovascular health, diabetes, and weight management.

“The fat in almonds, as an example, may help to reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar levels, therefore helping to control diabetes,” Taub-Dix said. The American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association now consider monounsaturated fat—the kind abundant in most nuts—to be a healthy choice in moderation.

Meanwhile, additional research has revealed that the body may not absorb nuts’ entire calorie count, making them better for weight loss than previously believed. A U.S. Department of Agriculture article from 2018 noted that researchers in the department’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that nuts’ “metabolizable energy” (i.e., how many calories our bodies use from them) may be significantly less than calories listed on a nutrition facts label.

In one ARS study, a 1-ounce serving of walnuts contained 21% fewer metabolizable calories than the amount listed on the label. “This finding could explain the observations that consumers of nuts do not gain excessive weight,” the report concluded.

To establish a better understanding of the connection between nuts and weight, the 2024 Nutrition Research Reviews research analyzed the findings of seven different studies. “We included studies that used energy-restricted diets with the intent of achieving weight loss,” Coates explained. Most studies involved cutting energy intake by 1,046 to 4,184 kilojoules, she said, which translates to cutting 250–1,000 calories.

Of the seven studies, three involved almonds, giving dieters 30 grams a day of the nuts for 12 weeks, 38 grams for 12 weeks, and 84 grams for 24 weeks. Two studies had subjects eat peanuts (65 grams a day for 4 weeks and 56 grams for 8 weeks). Two other individual studies included eating 53 grams a day of pistachios for 12 weeks and 42 grams a day of walnuts for 52 weeks.

As expected, in all studies where subjects reduced their calorie intake, they lost weight. However, in four of the studies, when people ate nuts as part of a calorie-controlled diet, they lost significantly more. These included:

On average, these nut-enriched diets yielded 1.4–7.4 additional kilograms (3–16.3 pounds) of weight loss. Intriguingly, these were the studies that featured the highest amount of nuts.

What’s not yet clear, however, is whether any particular type of nuts is the most pro-weight loss. “There were a small number of studies that were available for inclusion in this review, so at this stage we can’t confidently conclude that one nut type is better than the other,” Coates said.

Again, nuts are not a low-calorie food, nor are they low in fat—but they do contain nutrients that curb hunger, making weight loss more likely.

“Nuts are a rich source of protein and fiber, which can both help promote the sensation of fullness (satiety) which can assist with managing hunger cravings and reduce the overconsumption of food,” said Coates.

Nuts’ protein content may also affect muscle health during a weight loss journey. “Protein in nuts may aid with maintaining muscle mass, which can be lost during weight loss, and limit the reduction in resting energy expenditure commonly associated with weight loss,” said Coates.

Ultimately, the unsaturated fats found in nuts can actually be beneficial for weight loss. Coates states that these fats could aid in weight loss by boosting fat oxidation and increasing metabolic rate after eating. "This results in more energy being expended as heat rather than being stored," she explained.

Increasing your nut intake can be both easy and tasty. Some recommendations from Taub-Dix include:

While incorporating more nuts into your diet can be beneficial, it's important to be mindful of portion sizes. "A serving of nuts is typically considered a handful (1 ounce), which provides about 5 grams of plant protein," Taub-Dix advised.