Fat Burning Foods

It is possible to lose weight easily without the need to go without your favorite treats. The secret is to add fat burning foods to your daily meals. These are foods that actively promote weight loss, speed up your metabolism and get your body functioning at top capacity.

Fat burning foods are those that help to increase your metabolism without adding those unnecessary calories into your diet. This means you should be able to eat well, still enjoy those treats, have snacks whenever you want during the day and still lose weight.

Fat Burning Breakfast

Be sure to include plenty of fiber into your breakfast. This can mean eating fruit for breakfast or choosing from healthy, low-sugar, low fat cereal options. You might even alternate days with a boiled egg.

Eating a healthy breakfast will kick-start your metabolism and you'll be burning more calories than you've just eaten!

Fat Burning Snacks

You can enjoy a snack to stave off those hunger pangs at any time of the day or night - as long as you snack on the right fat burning foods. Eating fruit such as apples, pineapple, mango, bananas, strawberries, watermelon, cherries or any other fruit you like at any time of the day is just fine. A small tub of yoghurt is also an excellent snack.

Your body will feel full throughout the day, so you won't be tempted to snack on sugary items. Fruit is digested quickly and has a low glycemic index (GI), so it releases energy into your body slowly instead of giving you a quick sugar rush.

Fat Burning Lunch

Never skip any meals throughout your day or replace them with fad items. Eat plenty of fat burning foods to be sure you're feeling full, but don't add calories needlessly.

A wholegrain sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and avocado is very filling, yet contains very few calories and is high in fiber. If you're still feeling hungry after lunch, it's fine to snack on a piece of fruit or a small salad. These types of foods won't add useless calories to your intake.

Fat Burning Side-Dishes

Many people were trained as children to have potatoes or fries as a side dish to whatever you're eating for dinner. Unfortunately, one small baked potato has the same amount of calories as a large salad and a bowl of vegetable soup combined.

Wouldn't you rather have a filling two-course meal that contains fat-burning foods instead of one single baked potato?

Create a huge salad of lettuce, cucumber, carrot, tomato, onion, celery, avocado, olives or whatever salad ingredients you like and add this to a portion of grilled chicken. You can eat as much salad as you like until you feel full and still be losing weight. This is because your salad contains so few calories, yet is rich in nutrients and vitamins so your metabolism speeds up as a result.

Steamed white rice has a very low GI value, so rather than serve a side of fries with your meal, try a serve of steamed white rice. It's more filling than fries anyway and much better for you.

Fat Burning Meals

Who would have thought you could have a three-course meal when you're trying to lose weight? It really is possible.

Home-made vegetable soup or minestrone soup takes less than 10 minutes to make and contains so many fat burning foods that you can have a bowl of soup before your main meal and still be losing weight.

Choose a lean piece of meat, either a small piece of steak or chicken or pork, and add your large salad side-dish and you have a huge two-course meal that will make you feel so full that you'll hardly believe you're losing weight.

If you don't like eating salads with your meals all the time, or you're getting bored, switch to steamed vegetables, like peas, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, corn or pumpkin.

For your third course, add a fat-burning dessert option and you'll feel so full that you won't need to snack, but you'll still be losing weight.

Fat Burning Desserts

Fruit salad is perhaps the easiest fat burning dessert to make, and yet so many people avoid it. The recipe is simple - whatever fruit is in your home, chop it up and put it into a bowl. That's it!

It's tasty, healthy and only a few calories, so you won't be ruining your weight loss plans by having dessert. If you feel that plain chopped fruit in a bowl doesn't feel like dessert, then pour some yoghurt over the top to sweeten things up a bit.

Fat Burning Drinks

Diet soda does not help you lose weight. If you're serious about shedding those extra pounds, then avoid diet drinks completely. You should also try to avoid drinking too much coffee as it can promote fluid retention, which makes you look and feel bloated.

You should be drinking plenty of water if you want to lose weight properly. It keeps you hydrated and it also helps cleanse your body of toxins so your metabolism can run more smoothly.

You might be surprised to learn that milk is considered a fat burning drink. Add a glass of milk to your daily meal and you should find that your metabolism will speed up. Some dairy foods are essential for our bodies to work properly.

Green tea is also an excellent fat burning drink. It's a great diuretic, which will help you to stop retaining any excess fluid as well as helping digestion.

Foods to Avoid

Many 'diet' foods contain higher levels of sugar and artificial sweetener than the regular variety. Just because a product says 'low fat', doesn't automatically mean that it's low sugar too. Always read the label and check the list of ingredients. If the packaging contains the caloric information, compare it with a regular option. You'll be surprised by how many 'diet' foods contain more calories than the regular types.

Processed foods, like ham or pre-sliced cheese contain high amounts of sodium, which can promote fluid retention. This can make you feel bloated and puffy and can seriously slow down your metabolism.

Alcohol contains very high amounts of calories, so cut back to a minimum to keep your weight loss goals on track. You should also avoid drinking too much coffee, as this also promotes fluid retention.