How To Choose Foods That Burn Fat

In this article I’m going to tell you how to choose foods that burn fat.

(If you would rather see a list of fat burning foods click here.)

If you know the traits of a fat burning food, you will easily be able to choose wisely from the thousands of different foods that exist.

Here are 3 traits to look for in fat loss foods…

Trait #1 - It’s whole / natural / unrefined

Nutrients are stripped away from food during processing. This does a couple of things:

1. It keeps you from feeling satisfied.

The more nutrient dense a food is, the more satisfying you feel when you eat it.

It’s very easy to eat large amounts of processed foods (think potato chips).

The reason is that your body is constantly sending out “I’m still hungry” signals because it isn’t being fed the nutrients that it needs.

The more unrefined or unprocessed a food is, the more nutrient dense it is. The more nutrient dense it is, the more satisfied you feel when you eat.

That decreases the likelihood of you over-eating.

2. Processed foods have a higher calorie cost than unprocessed foods.

Our bodies burn calories to digest the foods that we eat. This is known as “diet induced thermogenesis” or the “thermic effect of food.”

Anyway…

Because of the thermic effect of food, a portion of the calories that you eat is burned off just to break down and digest that food.

So here's something you should know...

It costs more energy (calories) for your body to digest natural, unprocessed foods than it does to digest processed foods. That’s why processed foods have a higher calorie cost.

Not quite sure how to choose unrefined foods? See this short article for ideas.

Trait #2 – It should be low in “bad” fat

Dietary fat is very easy for your body to digest. This is one of the reasons that dietary fat is easily converted into body fat – the same stuff that you want to get rid of.

Saturated fats should be kept to a minimum.

Unsaturated fats (or “good” fats) are different. Without going into a drawn out boring put-you-to-sleep scientific explanation, unsaturated fats are chemically different than saturated fats.

You total fat intake should be kept low if your goal is to lose body fat, but you should still include some “good” or unsaturated fats in your diet.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats have many health benefits and should be a regular part of your diet.

Trait #3 – It must not cause blood sugar spikes

Blood sugar spikes raise insulin levels. This leads to an increase in fat storage and a decrease in fat burning.

You control your blood sugar by eating mostly fiber rich complex carbohydrates and less simple carbohydrates.

My fat burning foods list will give you plenty of good ideas.

There you go - three traits of foods that burn fat. Keep them in mind when you make your food selections and you'll consistently burn fat.

Related:

Foods That Burn Belly Fat


How To Choose Foods That Burn Fat to the Fat Loss home page

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