So What is a Fat Burning Food?
A fat burning food is a type of food that contains a combination of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that is used to promote fat burning hormones inside your body.
These foods help speed up your metabolism.
This is important because your metabolism is your "fat-burning engine" that you will use as a weapon to shred the fat off of you. The higher your metabolism is, the more calories and fat you will burn throughout a 24-hour period and the closer you will be to achieving your weight loss goals.
The great thing about these fat burning foods is that they have a high "thermogenic effect" which means that the body has to use energy to digest the food. Now although every food has some level of thermogenic effect, certain foods including the fat burning foods I will give you have a greater effect than others.
Fat burning foods are clinically proven to promote weight loss. Now for the list of excellent fat burning foods!
Fat Burning Food #1- Nuts
Nuts are full of healthy fats and have protein and magnesium for muscle-building!
Nuts are an excellent fat burning food! Many people will advise you to stay away from nuts because they are high in fat. That is only a half truth, nuts are high in fat but they are high in good fat!
They are packed with healthy monounsaturated fats and are a great source of protein and fiber that helps keeping you feel satisfied and can help stop cravings for more food. Monounsaturated fats even help clear up your arteries for a nice and healthy heart.
Almonds are by far the king of all the nuts. A nice handful of almonds provide you with 19 percent of your daily requirement of magnesium which is a key component for building nice strong muscles.
Almonds also provide you with half the daily amount of vitamin E. Nuts also contain no sugar so there is no insulin response for you to worry about.
Warning: Do not buy salted nuts or mixed nuts you get in a can because these are not good for you and have a high sodium content. High sodium equals high blood pressure!
Two handful of nuts a day (about 24 of them) is a great way to eat to keep you full, a good source of Vitamin E, helps keep your heart healthy, and also packed with protein and magnesium to help build muscle!
Fat Burning Food #2- Eggs
Now I know what your thinking... Eggs are high in cholesterol and in fat!
Now hang on just a second, eggs have been given a bad reputation over the years for being famous in many fast food dishes and cooked in hydrogenated oils which definitely isn't good for you.
Eggs do raise your cholesterol but it raises the levels of HDL cholesterol which is good cholesterol. Eggs don't raise LDL cholesterol which is the bad cholesterol.
In addition, it was found that most blood cholesterol is made from the body from dietary fat, not dietary cholesterol.
Eggs are not only a great fat burning food but also contain Omega 3 fatty acids which help promote overall health and reduce the risk of Cardiovascular disease and also reduce the risk of blood clots!
The most important reason why you should eat eggs for the fat burning engine is because it is packed with protein and it contains vitamin b12, which is essential for fat breakdown!
The protein found in eggs has the highest "biological value" of protein. All that means is the protein in eggs is more effective in building muscle than other sources including lean red meat and milk.
Word of advice: eat the yolk sometimes, not just the egg whites. The reason is one main antioxidant found in the yolk is lutein.
It can be found in leafy greens such as spinach and helps slow down the thickening of the arteries which can lead to heart disease over time.
Fat Burning Food # 3- Green Vegetables
Mom always used to say "eat your green vegetables" and she was right!
Green vegetables are an excellent fat burning food. They produce the negative calorie effect which means it takes more calories to digest green vegetables than they contain.
Green vegetables also produce the "thermogenic effect" that I spoke of earlier. All it means is it creates an increase in the metabolic rate based upon the amount of heat generated during the process of digestion.
This makes green vegetables one of the top fat burning foods! But this isn't all they have to offer.
Spinach is probably the top green vegetable. It contains nearly a full day's worth of vitamin A and half of your vitamin C. Spinach also has folate and protects against colon cancer, stroke, and heart disease!
Broccoli is perhaps one of my favorite green vegetables. It has plenty of fiber and is highly packed with minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Broccoli increases the enzymes that help detoxify carcinogens which helps fight against cancer.
Word of advice: When ordering your green vegetables at a restaurant, be sure to ask the waiter not to have your vegetables bathed in butter. Most restaurants put butter on them and that prettymuch defeats the purpose of eating healthy and trying to burn fat doesn't it?
Fat Burning Food #4- Berries
Finally something sweet for you to eat! You can put berries in your oatmeal during your morning breakfast or even toss them in some low-fat yogurt.
Berries definitely are a great fat burning food and they even help fight against obesity.
They have a great amount vitamins, antioxidants and fiber which helps regulate the absorption and digestion of sugar and carbohydrates. This is excellent news because that doesn't cause a blood sugar spike or an insulin spike which triggers your body to store fat.
Don't forget fiber also helps you keep full and a cup of berries packs a whopping 6 grams of fiber!
Word of advice: When picking your berries, look at the bottom of the carton..if you see berry juice, stay away because that means the berries will go bad soon! Oh and Captain Crunch berries do not count as healthy berries in case you were wondering:)
Fat Burning Food # 5- Lean Meats
Finally all of you meat lovers can rejoice! Lean meats are extremely important in any diet focused on burning fat. It contains high quality protein which reduces cravings and helps build muscle and repair cells which is vital in promoting a lean physique.
Protein has a high "thermogenic effect" and burns a lot of calories trying to break down protein and use it for energy. The lean meats you should focus are on chicken, turkey and fish.
These are the best of the lean meats. Pick white meat over dark meat when eating poultry and the best fish to eat is salmon or tuna because they are packed with omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids which decreases the amount of leptin in your body.
Leptin affects metabolism by the higher the leptin levels in your body, the more your body stores fat.
Word of advice: I know many of you enjoy red meat and love to eat steak which is fine. But steak has a lot of saturated fat and there are leaner cuts than others so make sure you pay attention. Always look for loins. New York strips and sirloin are less fatty than T-bones, Rib-eye steak and porterhouse steak. If you are looking for pork, then stick with cured ham, lean pork chops and tenderloin.
There are many fat burning foods that you can eat. It took me a long time to gather the information I needed to change my life around.
But there is hope for you, simply visit www.healthfoodandfitness.info to gain access to even more fat burning foods that helped me achieve my weight loss goals.
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