You may not like their carb count but black-eyed peas could still be good for weight loss. Find out what to expect.
Black-eyed peas are high in fiber, reasonably low in calories, and contain nice amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals.
The result is that eating more black-eyed peas can really fill you up and in turn, help you consume less of foods that hinder your weight loss.
If this is the case, black-eyed peas would help you lose weight.
On the flip side, just eating more black-eyed peas without other changes to your diet or lifestyle will generally not offer positive results.
It is fair to say that black-eyed peas are generally good for weight loss.
At the same time, it is smart to take a step back and look at your entire diet and lifestyle.
Calories in black-eyed peas
The number of calories is one of the first important details to figure out whether black-eyed peas are good for weight loss.
100 grams of cooked black-eyed peas contain around 116 calories (1).
That means one cup of cooked black-eyed peas (171 grams) contains about 198 calories.
For people on low-carb diets, it may be helpful to know black-eyed peas contain 20.8 grams of carbs.
In turn, black-eyed peas are not keto-friendly.
The amounts of calories in black-eyed peas are not as impressively low as food groups like vegetables and fruits.
At the same time, you can still say boiled black-eyed peas are relatively low in energy.
Where these calories come from matters for weight loss too but this is a good start for black-eyed peas.
Fiber in black-eyed peas for weight loss
In plant-based foods like black-eyed peas, the next step is to look at how much fiber they contain.
Boiled black-eyed peas contain around 6.5 grams of fiber per 100 grams (1).
There are more impressive foods too but black-eyed peas are definitely high in fiber. This is generally helpful for weight loss for a few reasons.
First of all, fiber helps you feel a lot of fiber without really adding many calories you can absorb into your actual body.
Since hunger and cravings are such a big challenge when trying to get in shape, this can be a valuable benefit.
Secondly, fiber tends to improve the health and composition of your microbiome.
In turn, this tends to be beneficial for your weight loss efforts although more research related to this is definitely needed.
It is worth mentioning that you want to build up your fiber intake slowly to let your body adapt and avoid issues.
In short, black-eyed peas contains a nice amount of fiber and this will generally be helpful for weight loss.
Protein in black-eyed peas for weight loss
This next detail is not always relevant but black-eyed peas and other beans contain some protein.
More specifically, 100 grams of boiled black-eyed peas contain around 7.7 grams of protein (1).
If you want to compare this to other foods, something like cooked salmon contains around 22.1 grams of protein per 100 grams (2).
So black-eyed peas are a nice source of protein. This is another macronutrient that tends to be helpful for weight loss for a few reasons.
First of all, consuming enough protein helps you avoid muscle loss or helps you increase muscles.
Since muscle is helpful for burning energy, you definitely want more of this when trying to lose weight.
Secondly, protein tends to be relatively filling compared to other macronutrients. As mentioned, reducing hunger tends to be great for weight loss.
Thirdly, processing protein tends to require slightly more energy from your body than other macronutrients.
Black-eyed peas are not the highest in protein but the extra amounts are still welcome.
Vitamins and minerals in black-eyed peas
When putting together your diet it can be smart to take a look at the vitamins and minerals in foods you are considering.
These are basically tiny nutrients that influence a lot of processes inside your body.
100 grams of boiled black-eyed peas contains the following amounts of vitamins and minerals (1):
- Folate: 52% of the DV (Daily Value)
- Manganese: 24% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 16% of the DV
- Iron: 14% of the DV
- Thiamin: 13% of the DV
- Magnesium: 13% of the DV
- Copper: 13% of the DV
- Zinc: 9% of the DV
- Potassium: 8% of the DV
- Vitamin B6: 5% of the DV
And a few others in smaller amounts.
Black-eyed peas contain great amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Whether and to what extent these vitamins and minerals influence weight loss is hard to put into numbers with how complex the human body is.
That being said, it is typically a good idea to consume enough vitamins and minerals from real foods. Even if it is just to improve your health.
Can eating black-eyed peas help you lose weight?
By now you know about the main nutrients in black-eyed peas but still wonder whether they can help you lose weight.
For many people, eating more black-eyed peas will help them each less of foods that are worse for getting in shape.
In turn, this would mean black-eyed peas help you lose weight.
On the other hand, you still have to implement these other changes to your diet to see weight loss results.
If you are not losing weight and just add black-eyed peas on top of your regular diet, you will likely not see positive results.
So while black-eyed peas are generally not fattening, just focusing on eating them more without other changes will often not help you lose weight either.
How to eat black-eyed peas for weight loss
You may decide to eat more black-eyed peas and wonder what the most weight-loss-friendly ways to eat them are.
When it comes to nutrients alone, just eating boiled black-eyed peas would likely be the most effective cooking method.
That being said, you will likely find it easier to stay consistent with your diet by eating black-eyed peas in more tasty ways.
Some examples include black-eyed peas chili, soup, salads, stew with or without pork, etc.
How good these recipes are for weight loss ultimately depends on all the ingredients in them.
