You might have read articles on fat burning foods before. But I want to see if they really exist. And do they factor in our battle of how to lose belly fat?
The whole idea of eating certain foods in order to lose weight can seem like a strange one. Shouldn’t that really be STOP eating to lose belly fat?
While I agree that there are certain foods that you need to stop eating right now (put down those fries :-)), it is important to understand the concept of good foods and how they help your body burn fat.
Foods That Burn Fat – Do They Really Exist?
To most people, there is simply no such thing as a food that burns fat. And if you take the phrase literally then I totally agree – there is no one single food that will magically burn away your tummy fat just by throwing it into your meals once a day. (Just like there is no magic fat burning pill either).
But what we do have is hundreds (if not thousands) of delicious, natural, satisfying foods that create the right hormonal environment for your body to burn away its fat stores in a fast and natural way.
I’m going to use the analogy of a car to explain what I mean. A car by itself is pretty much useless unless we fill it up with the right fuel. It just won’t move without it.
But if you put the wrong kind of fuel in your car it never runs as efficiently as it should do. It will stall, backfire, feel sluggish etc etc. And it might not even run at all if you get it too wrong!
By consistently making the wrong fuel choices we run the risk of shortening our cars lifespan. Let’s not forget that they’ve been engineered to run in a certain way.
Get it right and you’ve got a healthy car that gives you years of faithful service and (hundreds of) thousands of miles.
Now instead of the car, let’s think of our body in the same way. Our fuel is the food and drink that we consume on a daily basis. With no food, we just don’t work.
When we feed ourselves the wrong kinds of foods then we can suffer from tiredness, a lack of energy, suffer illnesses more regularly and start to put on that dreaded belly fat. In our case the wrong foods are damaging our inner mechanics.
Keep putting the wrong foods inside and we gain more fat, and the health problems become more serious. Now we are shortening our own life expectancy!
On the other hand, the right foods help our bodies to work perfectly. We’re alert, awake, suffer fewer illnesses and we can attain a lean physique.
On its own food does not “burn fat”, but it is the fuel that allows our body to burn fat, and keep it off permanently.
The Foods To AVOID At All Costs
While it might be pretty difficult to buy the wrong kind of fuel for your car, unfortunately it is all too easy to buy the wrong kinds of foods. Grocery stores are full of isle upon isle of foods that can lead you to store more belly fat.
Even a lot of the so-called “health foods”, marketed by the billion-dollar health foods industry, are actually junk foods that are sabotaging your weight loss efforts.
Here is a list of food types that you need to be avoiding at all costs. You can always check out my website for articles that go in to more details.
Fast foods
Deep fried foods – fries, onion rings etc
Foods containing or cooked in hydrogenated oils and trans fats – lots of fast foods and convenience packaged foods
Foods high in refined sugar – cakes, candies, soft drinks
Low fat “health” foods – always check the label for added sugars and artificial sweeteners
HFCS – High fructose corn syrup, a dangerous artificial sugar substitute
Diet soda – Artificial sweeteners cause you to store fat too
Refined “white” carbohydrates – breads, pasta, rice etc
You might notice a pretty common theme here – processed foods. If you were to remove all of the above from your weekly diet, would there be anything left?
Unfortunately we have become very reliant on processed foods. And even more unfortunate is this “processing” removes a lot of natural goodness and adds artificial badness!
I’m so serious about this point that I believe processed foods are causing the obesity epidemic. Which means there is only one cure, and that’s to get rid of them from our weekly shop.
Which Foods Should I Eat?
If you’re thinking that no processed foods means a lack of interesting food options then you’d be wrong.
Like I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of natural fat burning foods out there. So at the very least there are tens of thousands of combinations primed and ready to help you lose your belly fat.
Check out my site for more articles on fat burning foods, but for now here is a general list to put you in the right direction:
Free range, grass fed red meat – beef, bison, game etc
Free-range chicken and poultry
Raw dairy – unpasteurised, unhomogenised
Raw, mixed nuts
Fresh fruit and vegetables – literally too many to list
Free-range eggs
Coconut oil, palm oil
Wild caught fish
Oatmeal
Unsweetened herbal, fruit, green, chamomile, oolong etc teas
Dark chocolate – 70% coco minimum And the list goes on….
Even though some of the foods in the list above have been labeled as “fattening” this doesn’t mean they are really bad for you. Natural fats are actually vital to successful weight loss. Unfortunately the term “fattening” has come from the health foods industry that are looking to trick you into buying their no-so-healthy junk food.
It is really important to note that you can’t get the full benefits of the foods listed above unless you combine as many as possible into a balanced nutritional program. Just adding one or two to an already unhealthy diet won’t get you any positive results.
Also, there is a lot of emphasis on how you prepare your foods. Deep fried, battered cod isn’t good for you, even if the cod was wild caught. You get the picture.
I’d just like to make one last point to finish up; eating healthy doesn’t just help you look good, it’s good for your health and can lead to an improved quality of life too.
Before you make any weight loss blunders, check out David Thorpe’s blog. He’ll teach you all about Fat Burning Foods and How To Lose Belly Fat with common sense and real-life advice.