What Is Fat Burning Food and 5 Ways To Implement It Into Your Diet

Many people (especially on the net) claim that you can eat fat burning food exclusively and lose weight. While I do support the idea that it's not how much you eat when trying to lose weight, its what you eat - I do not support the idea that if you eat a lot of strawberries almost to the exclusion of other foods, that you will lose weight. In fact I have heard stories where people have actually done this, eaten a lot of strawberries and pineapple because their friend said that they would help them lose weight, only to find that they'd gained weight.

Unfortunately, it's just not true that you can eat a certain food and it will help you to lose weight. There are foods such as nuts, tea, milk and medium chain triaclyglycerols and diaclyglycerols (dietary fats) that they are researching at the moment that could be considered functional foods for weight maintenance and prevention of obesity but at the moment no conclusive evidence exists1.

That's not to say that eating indiscriminately is alright either. The message about fat burning food, that I want to get across is much different to eat this and you'll lose weight. I want to define for you my view of what fat burning food actually is. There is so much speculation that to the average joe blo that wants to lose weight, it's hard to choose the fact from the fiction.

So here is my definition of what fat burning food actually is, this definition is based on my reading of the current applicable research:

Fat burning food is food that have high water content, high fiber content and high micro-nutrient content, but losing weight will also be dependent on how much the food itself has been processed, the glycemic load of the food, the portion size and how satisfying the food itself is. To add to this, lowering your total energy intake (how much calories you take in) may be dependent on how much variety you have in your diet within the food groups themselves. Sounds complicated doesn't it - well thankfully, when put into practice, it's not really. You can find a simple diagram here that explains it more simply.

Now, many people (such as the low carb supporters) are going to disagree with this definition - that's fine. I don't want to get into that right now - that's another article in itself.

So what makes me think that food high in water, fiber and micro-nutrients make it fat burning ? Well a paper written by McCrory et. al in 2000 examined recent research in this area and found that energy densities of food had at least a direct and indirect affect on total energy intake.2. Foods that have a high amount of water usually have low energy densities and contain a low amount of energy per unit of food.

So implementing these fat burning food dietary guidelines into your diet can go a long way to reducing your total energy intake and giving you a bigger chance to maintain an energy deficit (consuming less calories than you are expending).

So HOW do you implement these dietary guidelines into your diet? Follow these five simple steps:

1. Don't try and implement all the guidelines at once. First replace high energy dense foods (french fries) with low energy dense foods (apple). Once your body seems O.K. with that change, then go onto the next. Look at how much food you're actually eating - if your portions are way to large - then start reducing them in small amounts until your body is satisfied with the correct portioning. In many cases when you implement one of these guidelines, you will be inadvertently covering another.

2. Don't be lazy - make your own fat burning food. If you are a big fan of ready to made meals and snacks, its time to start making your own. Many pre-prepared meals are high in salt, and many pre-prepared snacks are either high in fat or high in sugar. So make your own, then you'll only have yourself to blame if there is something unhealthy in it.

3. For healthy eating, choose at least 3-5 vegetables and 2 fruits you love and eat them every single day. If you get sick of them, add variety and choose new ones.

4. Eat wholegrain cereal based foods. Many of these foods have a low glycemic index, which will help keep your blood glucose level stable.

5. Limit saturated fats and replace these with unsaturated fats. Many foods that are high in saturated fats, taste good and may satisfy at first, but also have high energy densities, that is they have a high amount of calories per unit of food. So watch your fat intake, it should be no more than 30% of your total energy intake.

So, I know that it all seems a bit over the top, but implement them slowly, and surely. With diligence and patience, weight loss will not seem so much of a battle. When you combine these fat burning food techniques with exercise (the other side of the weight loss battle), success will be attainable for most people.3

References:

1. Marie-Pierre St-Onge Dietary fats, teas, dairy, and nuts: potential functional foods for weight control? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81 No. 1, 7 - 15 January 2005.

2. McCrory MA, Fuss PJ, Saltzman E, Roberts SB. Dietary Determinants of Energy Intake and Weight Regulation in Healthy Adults J Nutr 2000;130;276S-279S.

3. Note: Discuss any changes to your diet and weight loss techniques with your doctor or dietician. This article is for educational purposes only, and should not replace an individual consultation with a weight loss professional such as your doctor or dietician.

Copyright @ 2005 Jenny Mathers All Rights Reserved.

What can you do with these ingredients and make them into fat burning food?

Eggs, chilli sauce, broccoli, skim milk and a slice of wholemeal bread. What can you do with these to make a nutritious meal or snack while you're losing weight ?

Simple, follow this simple recipe:

Beat eggs and add 1/4 cup skim milk (or alternative soy milk), mix until combined.

Chop tomatoes and add to mixture.


Cut small florets of broccoli and put into a small plastic bag with a small amount of water. Place the plastic bag into a microwave safe bowl and place in the microwave. Cook on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until the broccoli is firm but soft. The broccoli should still retain it's bright green color.

Add the broccoli to the mixture. Add 1 heaped teaspoon of mild (hot - if you like hot chilli sauce) chilli sauce to the mixture.

When all ingredients are combined, heat 1 teaspoon of virgin olive oil in a frying pan.

Add the egg mixture to the frying pan and cook on moderate heat. Turn the heat off just as the egg mixture is 3/4 solidified and let it sit on the burner for a few minutes to allow the mixture to solidify fully without becoming dried out.

So now what have you got, a nutritious, healthy, fat burning omellete. Why is it fat burning ? The fat burning ingredient in this recipe is the chilli sauce. Food such as chilli's that contain a food chemical called capsaicin is said to increase your body's metabolism and when used in a balanced diet could help in making your weight loss goals a reality.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

The weight loss and health marketing hype and free health information

During my time on the net, I've seen a lot of health related and weight loss websites who all claim that they know the answers.

If you are looking at a health or weight loss site, take these points into consideration:

1. Can the site back up its claims with referenced research - not just "recent research found...."

2. Is there a contact form or email address on the site - where the webmaster or author can be contacted.

3. Is the entire site about getting you to buy a pariticular product - does it give any real information other than selling this product ?

4. Does it sound too good to be true ?

5. Guarantee you that you'll lose weight.

The last point is a real tell-tale sign. The fact is that everyone is different and that everyone's nutritional needs are different, to guarantee that YOU will lose weight, is promising something more than one e-book could achieve.

But then on the other side of the coin, there is a myriad of great sites out there that you can rely on. Many of them are run by professional doctors, dietitions who provide their services free of charge etc. One such site that I must recommend to you, but unfortunately may only be applicable to Canadians, is Dial-A-Dietition who offer a FREE nutrition information line - that is what I like !

Nutrition is something that is all around us - some choose to abuse it, some choose to take care of it. Health and nutrition are so intertwined that you can't have good health without good nutrition. So having ready access to a nutrition professional is in my opinion absolutely necessary.

If you live in Canada - give them a call toll free 1800 667 3438 - it is a lot better to do this, than spend $29.95 on an e-book claiming that you'll "lose weight fast".

Healthy eating includes meat !

While the high protein weight loss camp has been marching along, there are still some who think that a healthy diet consists of lots of salads and cruskits. The message that I want to get across today, is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with meat in a balanced diet.

Meat, chicken and fish provides the most readily absorbable form of iron in food that you can get, in fact it contains something called heme (haem) iron, which is a different classification of iron that you will normally find in foods such as bread, cereals and legumes. Iron found in these foods is called non-heme iron.

What's the difference - well non-heme iron isn't as readily absorbed into the body as that of heme iron - what this means is that you're going to have to eat an awful lot of silverbeet to get your 12-16 mg (RDI) of iron.

Does this mean that you can't get iron from things like eggs (contain non-heme iron) ? No. You can increase the rate at which your body absorbs non-heme iron, by including foods high in vitamin C or ascorbic acid like brocolli, capsicum and citrus fruit in your diet.

So what's the point of this post ? The point is that many people think to lose weight, they need to eat a lot of salad - well, salads are great for losing weight - research has shown that it has many fat burning benefits, however, your body needs iron to maintain healthy blood and prevent anaemia. If you're body can't function well then it will not be healthy, and obesity is often a symptom of an unhealthy body. While iron will not directly help you to lose weight, it will help you to maintain your health which should be your first priority.

So what is a carbohydrate anyway ?

With so much discussion and research going on about carbohydrates, I thought it might be good to just sit down and define what exactly is a carbohydrate.

A carbohydrate is one of the three macro-nutrients that needs to be present in our diet, the other two being protein and fats. Our body uses carbohydrates as its preferred source of readily available energy - although fat and protein can be used as well - carbohydrates are the preferred source.

It may surprise you to hear that popular foods that are normally labelled carbohydrates such as bread is actually only 45% carbohydrates, the other 55% is made up by protein, fat, vitamins and mineral and water (mostly water - 39%).

Carbohydrates come in two forms - starches and sugars, which are broken down at differing rates (see the glycemic index)during digestion and absorbed into the blood stream as glucose.

You'll find that foods such as root vegetables, and baked goods contain the starchy carbohydrate. The carbohydrates in uncooked foods such as flour used to make baked goods are indigestable, and must be cooked to allow the carbohydrate to swell and absorb water in order to release their nutrients.

Of course, then there are the sugars, of which there are five types:

1. Glucose

2. Fructose

3. Sucrose

4. Lactose

5. Maltose

You might be able to guess what each of these sugars represent.

1. Glucose can be found in sweets, grapes, bananas and some vegetables and is very easily absorbed into the blood stream.

2. Fructose is fruit sugar and can be found in ripe fruits, some vegetables and honey.

3. Sucrose is made up of a combination of glucose and fructose and is the commonly used table sugar. It can be found in molasses, maple syrup and in many fruits.

4. Lactose is the milk sugar found in animal milks (cows, goats etc.)

5. Maltose is malt sugar and is produced when the malting of barley or wheat grains occurs.

Source: Saxelby (2002) Nutrition for Life Hardie Grant Books

So what does this all mean, well, carbohydrates are an absolute necessity for our bodies, in fact our energy intake should comprise atleast 40% carbohydrates if not more. By being aware of carbohydrates and how much we are consuming, we can include them as our fat burning foods and adjust our diets accordingly to make sure we're giving our bodies, what it needs for optimal fat burning.

Can milk be considered to be one of the fat burning foods ?

There are some researchers who believe that there is a case to support this.

Mainstream dietitians and doctors will probably tell you that there is not enough evidence to say that milk can be a fat burning food and that some of these studies may be motivated by interested parties such as dairy boards and so on. On this point they are probably right, but one cannot help but notice that the research that exists does represent a significant lead that needs to be followed through by independent researchers to determine if and how the properties of milk could help in weight loss and weight maintenance.

Zemel et. al. recently published in the Obesity Research periodical a paper outlining his study titled "Calcium and dairy acceleration of weight and fat loss during energy restriction in obese adults." Zemel states in his paper that low-calcium diets increase lipid accumulation and lipogenesis and that high-calcium diets in rats increases fat loss. He conducted a study with 32 obese adults who were broken into three groups - those who received a standardised diet, those who received a high-calcium diet and those who received a high dairy diet. Zemel observed that participants in the standardised diet group, "6.4 +/- 2.5% of their body weight was lost, which was increased by 26% (to 8.6 +/- 1.1%) on the high-calcium diet and 70% (to 10.9 +/- 1.6% of body weight) on the high-dairy diet"

While one study cannot say conclusively that a particular food can be considered to be one of the fat burning foods, it is always beneficial to know that specific foods may be of special benefit when used in a balanced eating routine.

It's also worth noting that studies like these should not be used to make conclusions about foods for weight loss in isolation.

The key dietary guidelines that you need to adopt for weight loss and health, (not as exciting as saying "this supplement or food will make you lose weight") is:

1. Eating enough fruit and vegetables every day (7 serves),

2. Eating atleast 30 gram of fiber each day,

3. Cutting your fat intake to 30 % or less per day and then replacing your fat intake with unsaturated fats,

4. Eating wholegrain cereals and breads,

5. Consuming low fat sources of protein,

6. Drinking enough water (2 liters per day - not enough water intake on a daily basis can lead to such things as kidney stones),

7. Consuming low fat dairy,

8. Low salt products - many products contain salt - look for low salt or no salt alternatives,

9. Reduce your alcohol and sugar consumption.

It's true its not as exciting as saying that drinking milk can help you to lose weight. But it's tried and true and if you combine these fat burning foods strategies with exercise, weight loss will come eventually.

Better to eat your carrots cooked.

Generally, we are advised to eat vegetables raw where-ever possible, however with carrots, you will probably get the most nutrients out of them by steaming or cooking them lightly until they are still crisp but softer.

Research completed in 2003 and published in the European Journal of Nutrition by Livny et. al., compared 15 mg of cooked carrots, pureed carrots and raw carrots. They gave test meals to eight volunteers along with skimmed milk yhogurt and 40 mg of sunflower oil and then took blood samples to extract beta-carotene levels in their blood. Results showed that "More beta-carotene was absorbed from puree as compared to raw carrots". You can read the research abstract here.

So when you're cooking your meal, and you eat your carrots cooked you can be sure that you are getting the optimal amount of beta-carotene's out of your carrots. No more feeling guilty for not eating them raw !

More Fat Burning Foods tips and articles.

Foods Suspected To Be Functional Foods For Weight Management

A summary of the published review: Dietary fats, teas, dairy, and nuts: potential functional foods for weight control? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81 No. 1, 7 - 15 January 2005.

Food is our greatest asset and some cultures have used it medicinally for centuries. Today, in our western culture, it's called function foods. Foods have been researched for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, so why not obesity ? This newsletter discusses a review of research published in January 2005 looking into four distinct food groups that could help in the prevention of obesity. Later on, we also put together some novel ways of using these ingredients in your recipes.

The functional foods reviewed by Marie-Pierre St-Onge, were dietary fats (specifically medium chain triacylglycerols and diacylglycerols), tea, milk and nuts.

In their review of the literature regarding these four food types, they found that specifically dietary fats may have the most to offer in the fight against obesity, but may only offer benefits in preventing weight gain rather than inducing weight loss.

DIETARY FATS

Medium chain triacylglycerols (MCT) have been studies extensively as they travel directly to the liver instead of through adipose tissue. See the diagram here. This has made the MCT's a hot target for research into weight loss diet and thermogenesis. MCT's can be found when extracted from oils such as coconut oil and the researchers observed that products made with coconut oil were comparable in appearance and taste to those made with conventional cooking oils.

Researchers at the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University recently conducted a 4 week crossover feeding experiment to compare MCT and long chain triacylglycerols (LCT) on energy expenditure and body composition in both men and women. The researchers found that energy expenditure indeed increased when the MCT were consumed more than with those who consumed the LCT's - however thermogenesis was increased slightly. They also found a small trend in lower energy intake after MCT were consumed at breakfast, that is participants tended to eat less after consuming MCT dietary fats.

Research has had some concerns with MCT's though as they have reportedly increased total cholesterol, LDL's, triacylglycerols and glucose concentrations when 70 g of MCT oil was consumed over 21 days. The authors suggest that by combining plant sterols with MCT's total and LDL cholesterol concentrations are lower than those observed after long chain triacylglycerols consumption. So MCT is not without its downside but its undesirable cardiovascular side effects may be able to be counteracted in this way.

Diacylglycerols have also been researched and in some studies found to be even more effective than triacylglycerolds in assisting weight loss. A weight loss study conducted with both obese men and women found that body weight loss was greater in subjects who consumed foods containing diacylglycerols as opposed to those who consumed triacylglycerols, although the percentage change in the intra-abdominal adipose tissue did not differ. The researchers attribute this to diacyclglyercerol's ability to increase energy expenditure, fat oxidation and reduce appetite, but concede that the overall effect is very small and will only be effective when used as a part of a rigorous weight loss plan.

TEA

Tea is the popular beverage that virtually everyone has consumed at some point in their lives. The research has looked into three types of tea, black tea, green tea and oolong tea. While you'll find that many weight loss supplements contain green tea, the research reviewed here found that studies looking into green tea have significant design flaws. Dulbo et. al. found that green tea extract "significantly increased the rate of intrascapular brown adipose tissue oxygen uptake ..... and the authors concluded that green tea extract was a more effective potentiator of sympathetically mediated thermogenesis than caffeine alone." However, this study did not include a control group (a group which receives no treatment so that the treatment group can be compared to it, to see the effect) or a report of the statistical procedures, which nullifies its results somewhat.

Oolong tea however exhibited more promising results. Eleven healthy normal-weight women were tested after drinking water and again after drinking oolong and green tea in random order. The resting energy expenditure "remained low after water and green tea consumption, but increased significantly after oolong tea consumption." These results were more promising, however the study was only conducted over a 2 hour period, which does not give a clear picture of the effects the teas would have over a day.

In conclusion no clear yes, or no observations can scientifically be made about using tea to induce weight loss due to the lack of scientifically controlled and long term research existing at this time.

MILK

There has been widening interest in milk and specifically calcium in fighting obesity, to date no long term studies exist that can prove that milk or calcium have any effect on weight loss per se. While Heaney (1) found that the effects of calcium consumption is somehow linked to body weight regulation, the mechanism by which it works is still unclear and other dietary factors may be playing a role. The author notes that adults who don't eat fast food may drink more milk, while those who do eat fast food, drink less milk. There have been differing results obtained from different studies looking at the effects of dairy and calcium, some finding that there were no effects, while some found beneficial effects for weight loss. (Marie-Pierre St-Onge page 10)

In a study using 41 subjects (32 completed the study) researchers looked at the effects of 400 - 500 mg calcium supplement and a placebo pill(low-dairy group), 400 - 500 mg calcium supplement and 800 mg calcium carbonate (high calcium group) and 400 - 500 mg calcium supplement, a placebo pill, and three servings of dairy products (high dairy group). All subjects initially consumed 1 serving of dairy products. At the end of the study, subjects in the low-dairy, high calcium and high dairy groups lost 6.4%, 8.6% and 10.9% of body weight, while losing 8.1%, 11.5% and 14.1% respectively of fat mass. This data shows that calcium especially from dairy products can enhance weight loss efforts. It was noted that only data from subjects who completed the study (78% of participants) was recorded, so it's not known what effect the other 22% of participants would have had on the results.

While there is some evidence to suggest that milk and calcium may be considered functional foods for weight loss, more research needs to be done to make any conclusions about the functionality of milk and calcium for weight loss.

NUTS

Therefore have been some promising and differing results from research conducted with Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachio, peanut and pecan nuts.

Some studies reviewed here suggested that nuts such as almonds may be able to prevent absorption of energy into the body (2) thereby causing weight loss, while another study found that 100 g almonds consumed per day over 4 weeks produced a slight weight gain.

Most of the studies conducted with the different types of nuts found that there was no weight gain after consuming the nuts, even though the total energy intake had increased. A study conducted with peanuts found that participants resting energy expenditure increased by 11 % after 19 weeks which shows a small increase in overall energy expenditure. The author concludes that while there is some evidence to suggest that nuts may have benefits for weight loss, more research needs to be done and at present only speculation about nuts and weight loss can be made.

Conclusion:

Some foods examined here do have the potential to become weight loss functional foods, but particularly for dairy, nuts and tea, more research realistically needs to be conducted before such claims can be made.

As for dietary fats, there is more research supporting replacing dietary fats with medium chain triaclyglycerols and diaclyglycerols, however it is still unclear what long term effects that they will have and may only be beneficial when used in weight maintenance - not in a weight loss situation and would only be effective when energy restriction and increased physical activity are included in the weight loss plan.

References:

Marie-Pierre St-Onge Dietary fats, teas, dairy, and nuts: potential functional foods for weight control? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81 No. 1, 7 - 15 January 2005.

(1) Heaney RP Normalizing calcium intake: projected population effects for body weight Journal of Nutrition 2003;133:268S-70S.

(2) Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, et al. Dose response of almonds on coronary heart disease risk factors: blood lipids, oxidized low-density lipoproteins, lipoprotein(a), homocysteine and pulmonary nitric oxide: a randomized, controlled, crossover trial. Circulation 2002;106:1327-32.

Given that no conclusive conclusions can be made about any of the foods discussed within this paper, but that dietary fats such as those contained within coconut oil may be beneficial in maintaining weight. I thought I'd share some ideas about how to include coconut oil in your diet.

Salad Dressings:

1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1 clove of crushed garlic or teaspoon minced garlic
sea salt to taste.

Put all ingredients together and stir until all ingredients mix well.

Cooking Oil:

Mix 1:2 of coconut oil to canola oil and use as you would cooking oil. When you're cooking your favourite steak or shallow frying chicken - coat the pan with this oil.

Wishing you much health and wellness

Jenny Mathers.
Savvy Fat Burning Foods