Calorie-burning foods help your body to use calories at a higher rate than you can consume them. Everyday foods, including everything from sunflower seeds and asparagus to salmon and wheat, can help to boost your metabolism and burn off calories. Choosing calorie-burning foods, in conjunction with regular exercise, can help you both lose weight and improve your overall physical health.
Vegetables
Nutrient-rich broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, asparagus and other vegetables, can help you to burn calories at a high rate. Jan McCracken, in "Healthy Carb Cookbook for Dummies," explains that certain vegetables "fire your metabolic furnace" and help your body to use more calories than the vegetables actually contain. These calorie-burning vegetables often have a high fiber content, which further contributes to your overall weight loss.
Peppers
Hot peppers and other spicy foods, such as jalapeno and serrano peppers, spicy mustard and chili sauce, can help you burn off calories more quickly. Author Jean Carper explains in "Food: Your Miracle Medicine" that even a teaspoon-sized serving of spicy foods can speed up your metabolism by as much as 25 percent. Carper also recommends both fresh and dried ginger, which can increase your metabolism by 20 percent.
Seafood
Seafood such as lobster, salmon and sardines can help to increase your metabolism and your body's caloric consumption. C. Elias, in "Fat Burning Foods: An A-Z List of Foods that Burn Fat to Start a healthy Diet," explains that you have to use more calories to digest the lean, low-fat meat of some seafood---more calories than the seafood actually contains. The omega-3 fatty acids in seafood will also contribute to your weight loss and your body's overall health.
Grains
Whole grains, breads, cereals and pastas can help your body to consume calories more quickly. In "So You're Fat. Now What?," author Salvatore Joseph Tirrito explains that digesting the complex carbohydrates contained in whole grains requires more time and energy from your body. For example, converting complex carbohydrates in a 150-calorie meal into simple sugars can use as many as 200 calories.
Nuts
Almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds, along with other types of seeds and nuts, can help your body to burn off more calories. McCracken explains that the protein and fiber content of nuts and seeds can help you to feel full and burn calories at a higher rate. Small snack servings of nuts will stave off hunger between meals and help you to lose weight. McCracken notes that nuts and seeds also provide healthy sources of vitamin E and essential fatty acids for a well-rounded diet.
References
- "Healthy Carb Cookbook for Dummies"; Jan McCracken; 2005
- "Food: Your Miracle Medicine"; Jean Carper; 2009
- "Fat-Burning Foods: An A-Z List of Foods that Burn Fat to Start a Healthy Diet"; C. Elias; 2010
- "So You're Fat. Now What?"; Salvatore Joseph Tirrito; 2009
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