Diet-to-Go Blog
  1. Fat-Burning Foods: Hit or Myth?


    Can you pick and choose foods to increase your metabolism so that you lose weight without being hungry? Are there foods you can eat to create a "calorie deficit?"

    Sorry, but foods don't really act like drugs to melt away extra calories or fat. They can't speed up your metabolism, and they will not break down your fat.

    Don't believe it; if it sounds too good to be true... it is! You can't lose weight by taking a pill, rubbing a cellulite reduction cream on your thighs, and there are no foods that can cause weight loss.

    I've heard about to the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, even diets that require you to eat protein foods apart from carbohydrates. These diets don't work; don't believe any of the claims on diet supplements that claim to "trap your fat", or "blast your fat", even "dissolve your fat."

    The only thing that they blast is your pocketbook.

    That said, by replacing certain foods with different foods you'll create a calorie deficit and lose weight. It's not magic. It's just math.

    Substitute lower calorie, high-fiber foods in place of higher calorie, high-fat foods and create a calorie deficit. Get better nutrition, great flavor, and balance the scale in your favor.

    You may remember the old terminology, "free foods." These are foods that contain a negligible amount of calories and don't influence weight loss. Traditionally, they are salad vegetables, sugar-free foods, water and sugar-free beverages, etc.

    Although spicy chili peppers and can cause your body to sweat, I wouldn't recommend them as "fat burners." They're more like mouth burners! Caffeine can speed your metabolism, but it's a drug and can have negative side effects.

    Make your body a fat-burning machine by increasing your muscle mass and decreasing your fact stores. Muscle is metabolically more active than fat, helping you burn calories. Building some muscle mass must be part of your weight loss strategy. Do it by starting gradually.

    Meanwhile, here are some foods that will fill you up, but won't fill you out!

    1. Salad

    Eating a large salad with lots of crunchy vegetables makes an amazing difference in your appetite for the rest of the meal. Practice the strategy of including salads before every meal, and presto! You'll have less of an appetite for your entrée. You effortlessly increase your fiber, lower your calories and lose weight without being hungry.

    2. Soup

    Similarly to salad, soup works magic on your appetite, filling you up so that you're a less hungry for the rest of your meal. The secret is to choose a broth or tomato based soup and not a cream soup, as cream soups are higher in calories and fat.

    3. Whole grains

    Fill yourself up with fiber instead of white bread, white pasta, and white rice. Whole grains contribute to a feeling of fullness, but white flour contributes to blood sugar imbalance. Whole grains work to increase your metabolism, because they take longer to digest and absorb.

    4. Dairy

    Studies show that calcium is a necessary component of weight loss, and other research points to calcium-containing dairy products as an effective adjunct for weight loss. Make sure your dairy is low-fat or nonfat, such as milk, yogurt, and cheese. If you dislike dairy or you're allergic or intolerant to dairy, calcium fortified tofu and soy milk are good options. Choose products, fortified with calcium and vitamin D for good absorption, and read the labels to choose the soy milk without excessive sugar added.

    5. Fruits and vegetables

    Soluble and insoluble fiber in fruits and vegetables, plus the water content makes of fruits and vegetables a fat-burning food. Eat all you want of crunchy vegetables, and replace your usual buttered corn and starchy vegetables with crunchy vegetables and lose weight by creating a calorie deficit.


    Author: John McGran

    Archived posts 2009
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