Eat to Lose Weight: Four Foods That Burn Fat

Can food really burn fat?

To an extent, it can. Although the fat burning qualities of food should not be relied upon as a principal diet aid, you can make small changes to your diet to take advantage of certain ingredients. The following advice demonstrates how to turn food into something that can actually help your weight loss rather than hinder it.

Protein

Lean protein has long been identified as an instrumental component in a weight loss diet. Certainly, out of all of the food groups, protein has the greatest fat burning potential as it is the most calorie intensive nutrient to break down and digest. So not only will you expend more calories digesting protein, you're likely to feel satiated for longer, and therefore will be less likely to overeat.

Chilli

Chilli is famed for its supposed fat burning credentials and it appears that there may actually be a strong basis behind some of the claims. The spicy stuff works to raise the metabolism, allowing calories to be burnt at a faster rate. The downside is that chilli tends to be found in the kinds of calorific foods that are best avoided if weight loss is your aim; unfortunately no quantity of chilli will offset the calories and fat in a curry! However, you can take advantage of chilli's fat burning potential by adding spice to your normal meals.

Celery

As is well documented, celery is a 'negative calorie' food; it takes more calories to be digested than it contains. However, nobody should be advised to adopt a celery only diet to take advantage of this; doing so would only leave you deficient in the majority of essential nutrients. But by bulking up salads with celery, incorporating it into soups or simply by snacking on it, you can benefit from its fat burning potential.

Green tea

Green tea has been shown to raise the metabolism and to burn fat as a result of this. Just by switching your usual morning coffee for a cup of green tea, you will save valuable calories and take advantage of this metabolic boost.

Remember

Any claim that food will make you lose weight should be taken with a pinch of salt. While it is possible to optimise the fat burning power of your diet as has been shown above, this should only form a small component of a weight loss regime. By combining a diet high in fat burning foods with a sensible exercise regime you'll give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your weight loss goals.