The media is full of nutritional advice and dietary suggestions next to pictures of the ‘ideal body’. This makes it easy for anyone to believe that these ‘food myths’ are real. However, fad diets are not the best way to lose weight.
While some foods do have certain fat-burning qualities, you need to make sure you have a properly balanced diet that is paired with a good exercise regime. This is the only way increase your chances of losing weight in a healthy and sustainable Q.
How do particular foods help with weight loss?
Some foods can help increase your metabolism, which assists you with burn more calories.
These foods assist with speeding up your metabolism:
- Protein-rich foods: Your body uses more energy to digest protein-rich food like meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes, nuts and seeds. So, if you eat more protein, your body burns more calories to digest, absorb and process the nutrients in your meals, increasing your metabolic rate by between 15 and 30%.
- Iron, zinc and selenium-rich foods: Foods like meat, seafood, legumes, nuts and seeds help the functioning of your thyroid gland, which releases hormones that regulate your metabolism. Without the appropriate amount of this type of food, your metabolism can slow down.
- Capsaicin: Found in chilli peppers, capsaicin boosts your metabolism by increasing the number of calories and fat that you burn. It also reduces your appetite. This means that when taken before a big meal, capsaicin helps you to reduce the number calories that you eat in the meal.
- Caffeine: People who drink a lot of caffeine burn extra calories per day. Three cups of coffee can burn up to 100 extra calories as this substance helps your body burn fat for energy and boosts your workout performance.
- Water: Drinking enough water not only keeps you hydrated but also boosts your metabolism. This is because your body burns fat to heat the water to body temperature.
- Probiotic-rich food: Probiotics in fermented food helps your digestive system break food down. This means you get more nutrients out of the foods you eat.
- Wild Salmon: Fish contains Omega-3 fatty acids, which helps fight off inflammation and keeps you fuller for longer. It also increases your resting metabolism.
- Avocados: The ‘good’ fat in avocados helps burn unhealthy fats. These assist with keeping you full for longer and help prevent cravings. It also prevents potassium, which prevents water retention.
- Eggs: Prevents drops in blood sugar levels that often lead to wayward snacking on sugary foods.
- Nuts and seeds: Contains healthy fats that reduce belly fat. They also contain antioxidants, which fight and repair the damage that inflammation causes.
- Citrus fruits: Citrus fruits alkalize the body, which helps fight off illnesses and promotes fat loss.
- Dark leafy greens: Kale, collard greens, Swiss chard and spinach reduces stress, which affects your weight management.
Eating right can help your body function at its best. Paired with the right diet, you can lose weight and maintain that weight loss. Along with eating the right foods to spike your metabolism, which helps to burn fat, you will gain various health benefits from eating the foods which are right for you.
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