Fat-Burning Superfoods

If you want to lose weight or maintain your current body weight, your plan should always start with a sensible diet. Changing your diet can be difficult and frustrating. Instead of making drastic changes, you can add some fat-burning foods.

Many foods are conducive to weight loss and actually help you burn calories. Certain foods can helpincrease your metabolism, add satisfying bulk to meals, raise your body temperature, help you feel full for a longer time and provide chemicals that are conducive to weight loss.

Adding these foods to your diet regimen, along with regular physical exercise, will help you inch closer to your fitness goals.

Here are the top  fat-burning superfoods.

1. Low-Fat Yogurt

According to research done at the University of Tennessee, diets with at least three daily servings of low-fat dairy products like yogurt speed up loss of weight and body fat in obese people compared to a diet with fewer dairy products.

Low-fat yogurt contains a good amount of calcium that helps control hunger pangs and strengthens bones and teeth. Plus, yogurt is high in protein and vitamin D, which will help your body keep going throughout the day. Along with low-fat yogurt, you can add other dairy products like low-fat milk and cheese to your diet.

2. Grapefruit

Grapefruit is another fat-burning superfood. The fruit is high in fiber with very few calories. In fact, it is one of the best-known “negative calorie” foods, which means you burn more calories digesting it than the amount of calories you took in.

Also, grapefruit helps lower insulin, regulate blood sugar and metabolism. To lose weight quickly, try to eat more fresh grapefruit with its fleshy white membranes or grapefruit juice with a high amount of pulp.

3. Cayenne Pepper

Consuming cayenne pepper will also help speed up your metabolism by burning fat and calories at a faster rate. The presence of capsaicin in cayenne pepper heats up the body, which burns calories.

You can eat it raw, cooked, dried, or in powdered form. According to several studies, eating a single cayenne pepper can boost your metabolism by up to 25 percent, and the calorie-burning process can last for up to 3 hours after you eat it.

4. Green Tea

Green tea, whether hot or cold, is one of the top beverages that promote weight loss. This healthy beverage contains the antioxidant EGCG, which works to burn calories throughout the whole day and helps keep your metabolism rate high.

Another benefit is the caffeine in green tea that helps speed up your heart rate. The faster your heart beats, the more calories you burn. It is also known to reduce appetite to some degree, which surely helps in weight loss.

5. Nuts

Nuts like walnuts and almonds contain a healthy amount of omega-3 fatty acid - alpha-linolenic acid and monounsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats help burn a large amount of fat and boost your metabolism rate.

They also help build muscle and reduce cravings. Just a handful of dry roasted or soaked walnuts and almonds (with skin intact) will aid weight loss in a healthy way. Also make sure to opt for the unsalted variety.

6. Soybeans

Your body uses energy to digest food, and protein is at the top of the list of foods that require more effort to digest. While your digestive system is working hard to process protein that you eat, it burns a few calories. So, to promote weight loss, you can eat more soy protein-based foods.

The best soy protein food is soybeans. Soybeans contain healthy unsaturated fat, which helps lower “bad” cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease.

Soybeans also happen to be one of the few plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which play a key role in maintaining body weight. They also provide a fantastic boost of fiber, both soluble and insoluble, that will eliminate hunger pangs.