Inside the Satiety Algorithm: Why Some Foods Make You Eat More

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I recently received a query on X from my friend, Dr. E, about our updated satiety algorithm.  It’s been fun to chat regularly over the past year or so as we both strive to refine our satiety algorithms to help more people. 

Although calibrated to a massive dataset, our non-linear multivariate satiety algorithm can be challenging to conceptualise.  So, I thought it would be fun to run a worked example to answer Andreas’s questions and demonstrate how the different factors in the algorithm work. 

Contents

How Our Satiety Algorithm Predicts How Much You’ll Eat Based on What You Eat

Our satiety algorithm utilises seven parameters to estimate as accurately as possible how much an average person would consume of a particular food if it were the only option available for a few days. 

Before you read on, take a moment to imagine how much of each of the following foods you’d eat if that were all you’d eat for days on end. 

  • whole egg
  • egg whites
  • lentils
  • white rice
  • egg yolk
  • guacamole
  • brown rice

Fun fact: Whole eggs are the most popular food amongst our Optimisers in terms of the number of times consumed and total calories consumed.  

Why Protein Packs a Powerful Punch for Fullness

Protein percentage is the dominant factor in our satiety algorithm, but it is not the only one. 

The chart below shows the protein percentage versus the average calories consumed across the 872,925 days of food logs used to calibrate our satiety algorithm.  To bring the chart to life, I’ve added pictures of the foods mentioned in Andreas’s question to illustrate how much people might consume based on the protein percentage of each food. 

  • Notice how the rice and guacamole sit just to the left of the 12% protein bliss point, so they don’t get a satiety boost due to their protein content.
  • Meanwhile, whole eggs and lentils contain just over 30% protein, providing a moderate level of satiety. 
  • But egg whites are literally off the chart, with 84% protein, so the algorithm predicts we’d consume much less egg white.

The Crunch Factor: How Fibre Hits the Satiety Sweet Spot

Next, we have fibre. Honestly, I was surprised that fibre showed a distinct bliss point; however, there appears to be a perfect amount of fibre that provides the ideal mouthfeel at around 18 g per 2000 calories.

However, it starts to make sense when you understand that foods like potato chips, bread, pizza, peanut butter, and nuts are a few that hit the fibre bliss point. 

To the right, we see that lentils and guacamole are packed with fibre, providing a significant satiety boost.  Meanwhile, brown rice has moderate fibre, but not enough to offer a substantial satiety benefit. 

Towards the left, the eggs, egg white and white rice don’t quite hit the crunchy fibre bliss point, suggesting that we may eat a bit less of them than crunchy potato chips if we’re only considering fibre.    

Sweet But Sneaky: How Sugar Tricks Your Fullness Signals

We love things that taste sweet, but foods with too much sugar can quickly become “sickly sweet.” 

The data reveals that sugar has a distinct bliss point at about 22% of energy (think chocolate chip muffins). In contrast, foods that provide most of their energy from sugar, such as fruits and vegetables, are more challenging to overconsume — we can’t get enough energy from these high-sugar foods without adding fat.   

All the foods on our list get a satiety boost because they are on the lower side of the sugar bliss point. If you have a sugar craving, these are not the foods you’ll binge on. 

Salt Science: How the Right Amount Boosts Cravings (or Kills Them)

We have a robust craving for sodium. From our selection of foods, eggs are the closest to the sodium bliss point (2.9g/2000 calories), while egg whites and guacamole contain a significant amount of sodium. As a result, we experience a ‘too salty’ sensory-specific satiety response, causing us to eat less of those foods because our bodies recognise that we’re getting more sodium than we need from them. 

The nutrient data for the lentils and rice show that these foods don’t contain much sodium in their raw form, but any chef ‘worth their salt’ would add just the right amount of sodium to bring the dish up to the bliss point, turning it from bland to more palatable.  Most chefs would also add some oil (e.g. fried rice), which would make it even more palatable, but that’s a different story. 

The Egg-Cellent Secret: Calcium’s Surprising Role in Satiety

What if whole eggs were the perfect food for an embryo to develop into a hatched chicken, providing just the right amount of nutrients and energy?  That’s what eggs start to look like when you see where they land on the calcium chart – right at the bliss point!  Meanwhile, other foods have less calcium, making them less appealing.  They’re not as nutritionally complete as eggs. 

Milk and nuts are examples of other natural, minimally processed foods that provide the perfect blend of nutrients and energy to help us grow or at least maintain our weight.  They offer a solid dose of nutrients along with plenty of energy.  So, if weight loss is our goal, we need to dial them back a bit. 

Potassium Power: Why Your Body Craves the Perfect Electrolyte Balance

Wow!  Check that out.  Eggs also land right on the bliss point for potassium, with the perfect balance of potassium and energy for growth!

One key difference between our approach to satiety is that the Hava system utilises a ‘hedonic score’ to capture the seductiveness and craveability of a food (think chocolate, ice cream, etc.). 

Hedonic foods are those you eat late at night after your healthy dinner.  They’re seductive and have just the right formula to add extra energy to your healthy meal and max out your energy intake for the day. 

In contrast, our Food Addiction-Satiety Index is calibrated to the quantifiable nutritional properties of food to understand which ones we’d eat the most if that were all we had to eat.

Fast food, such as burgers and pizza, is not devoid of nutrients. Instead, they have just the right amount to hit multiple bliss points so we can live on them day after day without getting bored of them. 

Whole eggs have more protein than pizza and burgers, giving them a higher satiety score. They’re also nutritionally balanced, with a diet quality score of 69%, enabling us to get plenty of energy without getting tired of them. This may be why our Optimisers eat so many of them. As you can see in the chart below, eggs are a close second in terms of where our Optimiers get their fat from.

Trust me, I’ve got nothing against eggs.  They’re nutritious food and great for maintaining your weight.  With a satiety score of 24%, they’re way better than many other options. But if your goal is to boost satiety and rapid fat loss, they’re not necessarily ideal. 

In our 20/20 Macros course, many Optimisers find it helpful to use egg whites with one whole egg to achieve the same taste but with greater satiety.   When I have my boiled eggs, I give a few of the yolks to my dog, who begs incessantly for them.

Ultimately, it’s not that one food will break your diet.  Instead, examine the combination of foods you eat most regularly and make adjustments to increase satiety, allowing you to achieve the desired results. 

Why Low-Energy Density Foods Fill You Up  

Finally, we have energy density, which also has a bliss point.  This likely aligns with mouthfeel, texture and crunch. 

Intuitively, we don’t want to waste too much time trying to chew through mountains of ultra-low-energy-density foods—they don’t pack the energy punch that we crave. However, at the other extreme, we struggle to overeat pure fat, carbs, or protein. We enjoy foods that are a blend of all the macros. 

Towards the far right, we see that low-energy-density foods, such as egg whites and apples, are difficult to obtain many calories from, while whole eggs, cooked brown rice, and lentils fall much closer to the energy density bliss point.

Diving into the details of the foods, the white rice in the dataset is dry and uncooked, so it gets a slight satiety boost compared to the brown rice.  However, if we cooked it and added some water, it would approach the bliss point with a texture that we find most pleasant. 

How These Foods Stack Up Nutritionally (And What It Means for Satiety)

For completeness, I’ve shown the nutrient properties of each food in the table below. 

The table below shows the calculations behind each food’s satiety score. 

To calculate a food’s satiety score, we first calculate the average calories consumed based on the concentration of each nutrient. We then use the weightings to calculate a weighted calorie intake and convert it to a satiety score (0-100%). 

Level Up YOUR Satiety

We’ve invested immense effort in creating the most robust, data-driven algorithm, enabling you to make informed food choices based on data. 

High Satiety Infographics

The easiest way to find high-satiety foods is to use our simple infographics for each food group in our Optimising Nutrition Community, which are available here. 

high satiety foods

Once you’re ready to explore further, check out the interactive chart comparing satiety and nutrient density here.

satiety vs nutrient density - popular foods

Full USDA Database

And when you’re ready to be blown away, check out our interactive chart with all 8535 foods in the USDA database. Once you dive in, you’ll never see food the same way again!

satiety vs nutrient density - all foods

Join our Next 20/20 Macros Course

Discovering new high-satiety foods is interesting, but what matters most is how you incorporate them into your daily routine.  The best way to level up your satiety, beat food addiction, and crush your cravings is to start with your current regular diet.  

In our 20/20 Macros, we begin by showing Optimisers which of their current foods they need to increase and which ones to reduce to increase their satiety score without radically changing their diet or consuming weird new foods. 

I’m excited to begin the next round of 20/20 Macros on April 12th, and I’d love for you to join us!

Join 20/20 Macros Now! 

Learn More About High-Satiety Foods