Rather than starving yourself to lose weight, eat these fat-burning foods in moderation.
You’ll find that they can stoke your metabolic fire and help you burn some extra calories due to their thermogenic effects or due to the specific chemical compounds in them.
1. High Fiber Foods
When you consume high-fiber foods like vegetables or whole grains, the body has to burn twice the amount of calories as compared to digesting processed foods.
Salads are a great source of many nutrients, minerals, and fiber. Having a salad before a main meal can fill you up and help you cut down on calories.
2. Vinegar
Drizzle some vinaigrette on your salad and you double that fat burn. Vinegar works in two ways to help with fat loss. High glycemic index foods get absorbed very fast and the blood sugar spikes up before crashing down leading to sugar cravings.
Vinegar helps lessen the glycemic index of the food leading to slower digestion. A 2009 study by Japanese researchers found that vinegar may also prevent body-fat accumulation.
Read more: 5 Quick and Easy Steps to Making Delicious and Healthy Salads
3. Vitamin C
Deficiencies of vitamins, especially Vitamin C are linked with retaining higher body fat percentages. According to the review published in 2005 in the “Journal of the American College of Nutrition,” higher vitamin C intakes are associated with lower body-mass indexes.
Adequate intake of vitamin C has been found to increase body fat oxidation during moderate-intensity exercise.
4. Protein
A protein-rich meal promotes the feeling of satiety. You feel fuller and more satisfied for longer, so there is less tendency to indulge in cravings.
Read more: Chicken with Mushrooms and White Wine
Eating protein helps to boost the metabolism. To break down a 300-calorie chicken breast, the body has to burn 90 calories.
You can eat three to six ounces of protein per meal. Eating more protein than required causes insulin spikes and the excess calories from protein are stored as body fat.
Read more: 3 Awesome Grilled Chicken Breast Recipes
5. Honey
Honey is widely used for its medicinal benefits. Substituting sugar with honey will not only help with blood sugar control, but it also helps improve your immunity.
Honey is healthier than sugar any day. It is rich in minerals like iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and calcium. It is also a good source of vitamins like folate, niacin, riboflavin, vitamin C, and vitamin B6.
6. Cocoa
Cocoa has beneficial effects on satiety, cognitive function, and mood. A glass of rich hot cocoa can do wonders for your weight loss as long as you don’t overload it with sugar.
Cocoa helps stimulate serotonin production in the brain which helps suppress your appetite. Serotonin regulates your mood, dreams, appetite, and even your happiness.
7. Calcium
Calcium does a lot more than just build strong bones, it also helps control your hunger. Dairy products are a good source of calcium and other ingredients in dairy act synergistically with the calcium to accelerate fat loss.
Drinking fat-free milk after strength training workouts has been found to increase fat loss, gain greater muscle and strength, and strengthen bones by reducing bone cell turnover. Now how about a glass of hot cocoa milk?!
8. Resveratrol
Resveratrol is a chemical compound found in foods such as peanuts, pistachios, red and white wine, blueberries, and cocoa. Resveratrol helps the plants [of these foods] fight stress, ultraviolet radiation fungal infections, etc.
Resveratrol acts like an antioxidant and it has been found to protect against obesity and insulin resistance. A study recorded that: “Compared with non-drinkers, initially normal-weight women that consumed light-to-moderate amount of alcohol experienced smaller weight gain and lower risk of becoming overweight and/or obese during 12.9 years of follow-up (1).”
Now that’s surely a great reason to celebrate with a glass of wine!
9. Quinoa
A nutritional powerhouse, quinoa is a good source of protein, amino acids, phytosterols, and vitamin E. Quinoa is high in fiber, and protein. It has a low glycemic index. With 8 grams of quality protein per cup, quinoa is an excellent plant-based protein source for vegetarians and vegans.
Quinoa can suppress appetite and help in lowering body weight. Its soluble fiber content helps in reducing blood sugar levels, lowering cholesterol, and increasing the feeling of fullness which is what helps suppress the appetite.
10. Coconut
Coconut oil has a unique combination of fatty acids that helps boost metabolism. You can lose body fat, particularly the “unhealthy” abdominal fat by including coconut oil in your diet.
Coconut oil contains Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) which are metabolized differently from other types of fat. these MCTs go straight to the liver from the digestive tract, where they are turned into ketones and used as a quick source of energy.
Before You Go…
Weight loss requires a lifestyle change that includes regular moderate exercise and a nutritionally balanced diet that is low in carbohydrates.
Including these fat-burning foods in your diet will provide that extra boost you need to lose weight faster.
Read More: Lose Weight and Burn Belly Fat: 3 Recipes with Fat-Burning Foods