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 within 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 you do have. The higher your metabolism, the more calories and fat you’ll burn over a 24-hour period, and the closer you’ll be to achieving your weight loss goals.
The best 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 food. Now, while all foods have some level of thermogenic effect, certain foods, including the fat burning foods I’m going to give you, have a greater effect than others.
Fat burning foods are clinically proven to promote weight loss. Now the list of great fat burning foods!
Food to burn fat #1– walnuts
Nuts are packed with healthy fats and have muscle-building protein and magnesium!
Nuts are a great fat burning food! Many people will advise you to stay away from nuts because they are high in fat. That’s only a half truth, nuts are high in fat, but they are high in good fat!
They’re packed with healthy monounsaturated fats and are a great source of protein and fiber that help keep you satisfied and can help stop cravings for more food. Monounsaturated fats even help clear your arteries for a nice healthy heart.
Almonds are by far the king of all nuts. A good handful of almonds gives you 19 percent of your daily requirement for magnesium, which is a key component of building nice, strong muscles.
Almonds also give you half your daily amount of vitamin E. Walnuts also contain no sugar, so you don’t need to worry about insulin response.
Warning: Do not buy salted nuts or mixed nuts that you get in a can because these are not good for you and are high in sodium. High sodium equals high blood pressure!
Two handfuls 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 contains protein and magnesium to help build muscle!
Foods to burn fat #2– eggs
Now I know what you’re thinking… Eggs are high in cholesterol and fat!
Now wait a second, eggs have gotten a bad rap over the years for being famously featured in many fast food dishes and cooked in hydrogenated oils, which is definitely not good for you.
Eggs raise cholesterol, but raise HDL cholesterol levels, which is the good cholesterol. Eggs do not increase LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol.
Also, it was discovered that most of the cholesterol in the blood comes from the body from dietary fats, not from dietary cholesterol.
Eggs are not only an excellent fat burning food, but they also contain Omega 3 fatty acids that help promote general health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and also reduce the risk of blood clots.
The most important reason you should eat eggs for the fat burning engine is because they are packed with protein and contain vitamin b12, which is essential for the breakdown of fat!
The protein found in eggs has the highest “biological value” of protein. All that means is that the protein in eggs is more effective for building muscle than other sources, including lean red meat and milk.
word of advice: Eat the yolk occasionally, not just the egg whites. The reason is that one of the main antioxidants found in the yolk is lutein.
It can be found in green leafy vegetables like spinach and helps slow the thickening of the arteries, which over time can lead to heart disease.
Foods to burn fat #3– Green vegetables
Mom always said “eat your green vegetables” and she was right!
Green vegetables are an excellent fat burning food. They produce the negative caloric effect, which means that it takes more calories to digest green vegetables than they contain.
Green vegetables also produce the “thermogenic effect” that I told you about before. All it means is that it creates an increase in metabolic rate based on the amount of heat generated during the digestion process.
This makes green vegetables one of the best fat burning foods! But this is not all they have to offer.
Spinach it is probably the best green vegetable. It contains nearly a full day’s worth of vitamin A and half your vitamin C. Spinach also has folate and protects against colon cancer, stroke, and heart disease.
Broccoli it is perhaps one of my favorite green vegetables. It is high in fiber and packed with minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Broccoli increases enzymes that help detoxify carcinogens, thus helping to fight cancer.
word of advice: When ordering your green vegetables at a restaurant, be sure to ask the server not to dip your vegetables in butter. Most restaurants put butter on them and that defeats the purpose of eating healthy and trying to burn fat, doesn’t it?
Foods to burn fat #4– berries
Finally something sweet for you to eat! You can put berries in your oatmeal for breakfast in the morning or even toss them in some low-fat yogurt.
Berries are definitely a great fat burning food and even help fight obesity.
They have a large amount of vitamins, antioxidants and fiber which helps regulate the absorption and digestion of sugars and carbohydrates. This is great news because it doesn’t cause a blood sugar spike or insulin spike that causes your body to store fat.
Don’t forget that fiber also helps keep you full and one cup of berries packs a whopping 6 grams of fiber!
word of advice: When you pick your berries, look at the bottom of the box… if you see berry juice, walk away because that means the berries will go bad soon. Oh, and Captain Crunch berries don’t count as healthy berries in case you were wondering 🙂
Foods to burn fat #5– lean meats
Finally all meat lovers can unite! Lean meats are extremely important in any diet focused on burning fat. It contains high-quality protein that reduces cravings and helps build muscle and repair cells, which is vital to promoting a lean physique.
Protein has a high “thermogenic effect” and you burn a lot of calories trying to break down protein and use it for energy. Lean meats to focus on are chicken, turkey, and fish.
These are the best of the lean meats. Choose 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 that lower the amount of leptin in your body.
Leptin affects metabolism because the higher the leptin levels in your body, the more fat your body stores.
word of advice: I know many of you like red meat and love to eat steak, which is fine. But steak is high in saturated fat, and some cuts are leaner than others, so be sure to pay attention. Always look far. New York strips and sirloin have less fat than ribeyes, rib-eye steak, and porterhouse steak. If you’re looking for pork, stick with the serrano ham, lean pork chops, and tenderloin.