By far the most important thing you can do to help you reach your weight loss goals is to get your diet right. Surprisingly, eating the right things is not just about avoiding high fat foods. Many foods will actually help to accelerate your fat loss. So most of my best weight loss tips are about including certain foods into your diet and these are the best weight loss foods to eat to increase your weight loss.
Nuts! – Because nuts are quite high in fat, dieters tend to avoid nuts. However, research suggests that it isn’t that straightforward. According to a review study published in the Journal of Nutrition (138:1741S-1745S, 2008), nuts are associated with a lower body fat. Also, when subjects add nuts to their diet, it did NOT cause weight gain The researchers believe that nuts help fill you up (thanks to the fiber) and it’s possible that not all of the calories from nuts are absorbed into your body. Some research also found that it was easier for people to stick to a diet when nuts were in their meal plan. More research has also shown that subjects lost more fat mass when they substituted almonds for complex carbohydrates in their diet.
Eggcelent Eggs! – Researchers from Louisiana State University in the U.S. looked at the eating habits of a group of overweight and obese women. The women, who were following a low-fat diet, were asked to eat either two eggs a day for breakfast, or have a bagel. The two meals contained the same number of calories and weighed roughly the same amount. However, after eight weeks of breakfasting, the slimmers who had eaten eggs had lost the most weight. As well as shedding 65 per cent more pounds than the bagel eaters, they had lost almost twice as many inches from their waistline, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s annual conference heard yesterday. Previous work by the same researchers showed that those who ate eggs for breakfast felt fuller for longer than those who had a bagel and cheese. As a result, they ate less during the rest of the day. It is not completely clear why eggs are so good at making us feel full but it is thought their high protein content could play a large part. Researcher Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar, an obesity expert, said: “Despite equal energy content and weight, an egg breakfast had a greater satiating effect compared to a bagel breakfast, which translated into a lower energy intake at lunch.” “The resulting decrease in energy consumption lasted for at least 24 hours after the egg breakfast.
The Magic of Mushrooms – In one study, volunteers who had mushrooms rather than meat, in four otherwise identical meals a week shed almost 13lbs (6kg) over five weeks, with one losing 1.5 stone (9.5kg). In another study, reported by ‘The Telegraph’, Margaret Hill, a 25-year-old mother-of-two from Dagenham in Essex, went from 13st 6lbs to 11st 1lb. “I was amazed by my weight loss – it’s the most I have ever managed to lose. I never thought I’d get my body back after I had my kids so I am over the moon. I look and feel fantastic,”. Mushrooms are a low energy-dense protein source. Their chewy texture and bulky nature and protein content mean that they fill you up, whilst providing very few calories, unlike meat, which has a much higher energy density. They are also cheaper to buy than meat.
Eat More Yogurt – A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, United States of America, suggests that eating yoghurt (curd) helps you lose fat. Researchers found that obese adults, who ate three servings of fat-free yoghurt a day as part of a reduced calorie diet, lost 22 per cent more weight and 61 per cent more body fat than those who simply cut calories. Yoghurt eaters also lost 81 per cent more fat in the stomach area than non-yoghurt eaters. “Not only did yoghurt help the study participants lose more weight — the average weight loss was 14 pounds (6.8 kilos) — they were about twice as effective at maintaining lean muscle mass,” said lead researcher Michael Zemel. Yoghurt is a source of protein with a high calcium content. Yoghurt as a food may also be beneficial in more ways than one. According to dietician Seema Talreja, yoghurt is recommended in diets because it has a lactic acid bacteria which cleanses the intestines, thus helping in detoxification. Try putting yogurt in soups; on tops of chillis, curries, kebabs, with roasts and casseroles etc. It may seem strange at first but in some regions of the mediterranean; they eat yogurt with nearly everything. Clever them! I add yogurt to most of my meat based meals now and I find it really helps to balance the taste of the meal.
Drink Your Milk! – In a recent study, australian scientists found overweight people who downed about 2 1/2 cups of skim milk in the morning consumed 8.5 percent fewer calories at an all-you-can-eat lunch spread than people who drank the same amount of fruit juice. This is due to the protein content of milk.
Eat More Beans – Scientists found that people who consumed beans were 23 percent less likely to have large waists than those who said they never ate them. Legumes are rich in belly-filling fiber, filling you up for very few calories.
Eat Your Apples! – Penn State researchers discovered that people who ate a large apple 15 minutes before lunch took in 187 fewer calories during lunch than those who didn’t snack beforehand. (The apples had around 128 calories.) They reported feeling fuller afterward, too. Apples are the best craving busters, when you are craving something sweet or just want to grab something , without having to prepare anything. Crunch down a couple of apples and there won’t be any room for such baddies as chocolate and crisps and you’ll find the craving has mercifully been banished.
These are my best weight loss tips for the best foods to include in your diet to speed up fat loss. If you follow only half of these tips, you won’t fail to notice a difference in the speed and amount of your weight loss and maybe for the first time, you may actually find that you are able to reach and maintain your weight loss goals with ease.