7 Health Benefits of Squash for Weight Loss

Want to know why I eat squash daily to easily lose weight? Here’s 7 health benefits of squash that you should know about to help you hit your weight loss goals.

Losing weight can be extremely challenging and if you’re anything like me, you find yourself constantly thinking about food whilst dieting. As someone who has successfully lost weight and kept it off over the long term, I’m giving you my fat loss hacks that I have personally used time and time again to help me finally reach my weight loss goals.

In this article, you are going to learn about the benefits of squash for weight loss, including the calorie content, what makes squash the perfect diet food and how I incorporate this into my daily meal plan to ensure I can easily maintain or lose weight.

After learning about all the benefits of squash, you will understand why this is one of the best weight loss tools around, not only due to its low calorie content and high volume, but due to many other indirect mechanisms, such as it’s positive impact on digestion, gut microbiota, blood glucose, inflammation and satiety levels.

This post is all about the benefits of squash for weight loss.

Benefits of Squash

1. Squash is the perfect diet food 

Squash is very low calorie, making it the perfect diet food. As a weight management consultant, I strongly recommend incorporating high volume, low-calorie vegetables into your diet to make it easier to stick to your meal plan. Personally, I eat 400g of boiled pumpkin and 3 zucchinis every day to maintain and lose weight easily. Squash is extremely low calorie. – with roughly 34 calories in a medium-sized zucchini and 40 calories in 200g of cooked pumpkin.

2. Squash helps to improve your microbiome and keeps you full

The gut microbiota plays a significant role in nearly all aspects of human health, including the regulation of body weight. There is strong evidence showing that poor gut health is highly correlated with metabolic diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Pumpkin contains sources of fermentable dietary fiber called polysaccharides, which are among the most potent modulators of the gut microbiota. 

An article in relation to targeting the gut microbiota with natural polysaccharides can be found here. This article explains that natural pumpkin polysaccharides from butternut squash increase the biomarker Akkermansia and the gut production of short-chain fatty acids, which then modulates insulin resistance and protects the body against metabolic inflammation.

3. Squash is highly nutritious

Scientists have been studying the nutritional benefits of squash at a molecular level for many years. Studies show that incorporating foods like squash into a healthy diet is an economical way to treat disease, such as diabetes. 

Squash generally contains a high level of vitamin A as well as Vitamin C and Vitamin B6. All three of these vitamins are critical for the health of the immune system, which can help ensure you do not need to take time of the gym or away from your meal plan. Vitamin B6 is especially important in thyroid function, the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates and fats and the conversion of food into energy. This may play a role in weight loss as it helps the body to balance hormones (for appetite control) and to utilize energy more efficiently.

A study on the nutritional value, phytochemical potential and therapeutic benefits of pumpkin can be found here

4. Squash can be used like a fruit or a vegetable

Although pumpkin and zucchini are technically classified as fruits, they are generally accepted by society as vegetables. However, once you realize how easily these fruits integrate into pretty much any recipe, you’ll start incorporating them into all your dishes. I personally use pumpkin and zucchini in sweet and savory dishes. If you would like a copy of my meal plan, feel free to email me here:

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5. Squash helps with digestion

Squash contains soluble and insoluble fiber, which is necessary for a healthy digestive system. Pumpkin can be used to treat both constipation and diarrhea. In fact, many vets recommend pumpkin to pet owners whenever their pets experience an upset stomach as it helps to get the animals’ bowel movements back into a consistent rhythm within only a few short days.

6. Squash can help to lower blood glucose levels

7. Squash improves your skin quality whilst dieting

Pumpkin contains carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, a potent antioxidant that your body converts into Vitamin A. Vitamin A is required for a healthy immune system and helps to improve the texture and overall appearance of your skin.

Taking care of your skin is extremely important throughout a dieting phase. As a weight management consultant, my clients initially come to me wanting to lose weight as quickly as possible. What they tend to overlook is the quality of their skin at the end of the dieting phase. I train my clients to lose weight in a sustainable manner to ensure their skin can keep up with the loss of volume and bounce back effectively. This helps to prevent issues such as loose skin, stretch marks and wrinkles.

Here’s a summary of the health benefits of pumpkin for weight loss:

To do list:

• Purchase 1 whole pumpkin and 14 zucchinis.
• Purchase a zoodler/spiralizer asap.
• Incorporate 400g of boiled pumpkin and 2 zucchinis per day into your meals.

Buy a Zoodler Here

How to incorporate squash into your diet:

• Add raw chopped zucchini to any sweet dishes, such as oatmeal, cereal, healthy protein ice-cream, yogurt with berries, fruit salad etc. This adds volume and crunch without any flavor (so you will barely know its in there!).
• Add cooked zucchini to any and every savory meal. You can boil, grill or microwave it etc. This adds volume, crunch and flavor.
• Blend raw zucchini in smoothies or blend and add to grains, such as oatmeal prior to cooking (for additional volume).
• Add boiled pumpkin to any sweet or savory dish for additional volume and taste.
• Leave the pumpkin skin on and air fry or roast it to amplify the taste. You do not need to coat this in oil.

My Favorite Recipes

Pumpkin:

• Chop the pumpkin in half, take out the seeds and chop off the skin (carefully).
• Boil some water, whilst simultaneously chopping the pumpkin into thin slices.
• Place the pumpkin in a large saucepan and boil for around 5-10 minutes until slightly soft (but not too soft!)
• Once ready, strain the pumpkin.
• Place 1 piece of gluten-free, sourdough toast on a small plate. Add 200g of sliced pumpkin on the toast/plate with 1/2 sliced banana, cinnamon and 2g of pumpkin seed oil (for hair growth). Eat twice per day.

Zucchini:

• Use a zoodler/spiralizer to make a large bowl of zoodles. You will need 1 medium sized zucchini (200g).
• Microwave your zoodles for 1 minute.
• Microwave 75g of spinach for 30 seconds and add to zoodles.
• Boil some water and pour this over 100g of frozen broccoli. Do this twice until soft. Add to the zoodle dish.
• Add 200g chopped iceberg lettuce.
• Add 100g of kimchi (lower salt variety) and 100g of sauerkraut (in refrigerated section of health food shop – must be fresh).
• Add 50g of cooked salmon.
• Add seaweed, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, parsley flakes and apple cider vinegar.
• This will make 2 giant salads. Eat this twice per day (i.e. 4 giant salads).