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What to Eat to Boost Your Metabolism

Food That Boost Your Metabolic Rate

Why is it that certain foods make you fat yet others don’t? This is because the food that make you put on weight take very little energy to burn. They are processed almost immediately and usually saved in your body as excess fat. Foods that make you skinnierare often food that are harder to digest and therefore speed up metabolism by utilizing more energy in the course of digestion.

The foods that speed up metabolism are regarded as “negative calorie foods”. Unfortunately these foods don’t possess any magical components that erase the number of calories in your body (don’t we wish?). So the name can be a bit misleading, but they are still helpful.

What actually happens is that these foods cause your body to work harder throughout the digestion process. Foods that boost your metabolism already contain a decreased level of calories in the first place. Also, they are full of fibrous elements that the system can’t easily break down; therefore, it utilizes a lot more energy throughout the process.

So the net effect is your body uses more energy to transform that food into fuel (using more calories) than the overall amount of calories in the food to begin with. As a result, there is a negative quantity of calories. Essentially you have used enough energy to burn up the calories of the food you ate PLUS some more. Your body next uses stored fat as extra energy to complete the digestion process, thus increasing your metabolism.

Are you puzzled? Here is another example to explain what I mean.

Half of a grapefruit consists of about 40 calories and it takes your body 90 calories to digest it. You have applied all of the grapefruit’s 40 calories as well as 50 extra calories from stored fat resulting in an overall calorie loss. This is where the definition of negative calories arises from.

In fact, for many people, it generally functions just the opposite way. We consume a rich fudge brownie that contains 180 calories but our system only uses 80 calories to digest it. We have basically GAINED 100 calories which will be kept as fat for later use. That’s not a healthy thing. Unless you are exercising regularly to burn up these calories, they are going to just stay there around your midsection adding to your presently pudgy belly.

I have integrated below, an extensive list consisting of largely fruits and vegetables, which should help get you started with negative calorie foods that help to improve your metabolism. Use these along with your normal menu items and you should begin to observe and feel some apparent modifications in your body.

Salads are always an excellent choice. Create your own utilizing lettuce, tomato, onion, carrots cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and radish. Be certain not to load up on the salad dressing. You can include toppings like raisins or sunflower seeds used in smaller amounts.

Steamed vegetables make a nutritious side dish utilizing foods like broccoli, green beans, spinach, zucchini, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cabbage and asparagus. You can add garlic if you wish.

A low fat fruit cup is a nutritious dessert. Try using strawberries, cranberries, mango, orange, pineapple, raspberries, tangerine, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, apple slices, and watermelon.

Smoothies are always a desired item. You may use any combination of the fruits above mixed with ice or low fat frozen yogurt. You can also make use of these fruits in their juice form, then again fresh-squeezed is healthier than juice from concentrate.


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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under Obesity, losing weight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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