Fat burning foods are foods that are believed to increase the body’s metabolic rate and burn more calories than it would have on its own. When people think of foods that burn fat, most of them bring up cayenne pepper, green tea, and other foods that are often compressed into an extract form for use as weight loss supplements or “fat burners.” While these foods do indeed have a thermogenic effect in the body and increase the body’s metabolism somewhat, the change is not nearly enough to function as the miracle diet that is believed.
That does not mean that the “fat burning foods” that are advertised are without merit. Scientific studies have found that most of these foods do increase metabolism somewhat, but that increase is not large enough to result in any sort of significant weight loss without additional effort. The greatest benefit of many of these foods is that many of them are not only low in calories, but filled with the vitamins and good nutrition that are vital for a healthy body and effective weight loss.
That means that a body rich in these foods is not only low enough in calories to help you lose weight, but also high in the nutrients you will need to sustain you through exercise. You will not lose 30 pounds in a month by working a few of these items into your diet, but a diet rich in foods like these combined with plenty of exercise makes for a very effective weight loss routine.
Below, you will find a list of 8 “fat burning foods” that can help you lose weight:
1.) Chile Peppers – Chile peppers such as cayenne are widely regarded as fat fighting foods due to the presence of capsaicin, the substance that creates the sensation of heat, which does increase metabolism a bit.
2.) Green Tea – Drinking green tea provides a great many different health benefits, and is useful enough in losing weight that you will often find it advertised as being weight loss tea. In these cases, however, care should be taken to ensure that it does not contain any additives.
3.) Fish Oil – Fish oil contains high levels of omega 3 fats, which are an important aspect of weight loss because of the high levels of omega 6 fats that normally occur within the diet. They have also been found to be helpful in promoting a healthy heart and cardiovascular system, making them an important consideration on any list of fat burning foods.
4.) Fish – There are several reasons why fish is an important inclusion on any list of fat burning foods. Aside from being nutrient-dense and filled with healthy omega 3 fats, fish in general contains a great deal less calories and over all fat than beef or other popular protein choices.
5.) Salad Greens – Salad greens are one of the best fat burning foods that you can eat. Not only are they low in calories and high in a variety of vitamins and minerals, they are also high in fiber, which helps to regulate blood sugar and keep you feeling fuller longer. Also, you will become full eating salad greens long before you consume too many calories, assuming that you have not loaded them up with heavy or sugary salad dressings.
6.) Coffee – The benefits of drinking coffee for weight loss are a bit more roundabout than the other foods on our list. While it is true that coffee contains caffeine, which functions as a stimulant, the real benefit to losing weight comes when you drink coffee 30 to 60 minutes before you work out. The burst of energy the caffeine gives you can help you work out harder longer, thus helping you to burn more fat.
7.) Lean Grass-Fed Beef and Bison – Consuming lean protein is an important part of any diet intended for weight loss, but many of the cuts of commercial beef that you find in the supermarket are fatty and raised in feedlots on a diet consisting of corn. This diet gets them to market weight quickly, but it results in a fatty meat that has high levels of omega 6 fats. Grass-fed beef, as well as bison, is a much leaner meat because it is raised on grass, and it contains a much healthier ratio of omega 3 fats, which are important to losing weight.
8.) Broccoli and Cauliflower – These fat burning foods contain all the same benefits that you would find from eating salad greens with the addition of a healthy concentration of vitamin C and other antioxidants, making them valuable to any weight loss effort.
The important thing to keep in mind when trying to determine what foods burn fat is to look beyond the thermogenic effect that gets so much attention in the popular press. Drinking green tea all the time may help you to burn an additional 70 calories on top of what you were already burning, but it is all the other health benefits, as well as it being low in calories in the first place, that allows it, as well as the rest of the items on this list, to be considered fat burning foods. One of the best weight loss tips that we can give is this: stop overcomplicating things that do not have to be complicated. Diets that work work because they are simple enough to stick to for a long time, not because they are carefully constructed to maximize every single calorie burned.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
if i eat a mc donalds salda is that the same and if i buy a mc donalds smoothie is that good????
Salads are good. Keep in mind that commercial salads tend to have a lot of sodium, even when the meat isn’t fried, and dressings can be full of too much fat and sugar.
I’m not a fan of smoothies. When you buy them in a restaurant, they tend to have a lot of sugar. The McDonald’s small strawberry banana smoothie has 41 grams of sugar, for example. Way too high.
I do not agree with your recommendation to eat low-fat beef. A key part of weight loss is making sure every meal you eat is filling and satisfying, and fat is a very satisfying nutrient. Bessides, fatty beef will probably contain more omega-3 fats. Therefore, I think we should eat beef in its natural form: grass-fed and with all of its fat.