Foods That Boost Your Metabolism

by Alexa Bjorkin

Some foods that make you fatter and others make you skinnier. Why is this? The foods that cause you to gain weight take little energy to burn. They are processed right away and then stored at fat. Foods that make you skinnier are usually foods that speed up metabolism by using up more energy during the digestion.

The foods that speed up metabolism are classified as “negative calorie foods”. These foods do not have some mystical properties that erase the number of calories in your body (don’t I wish?) so the name can be a bit misleading.

Instead, what these foods do is make your body work harder when digesting them. These foods possess a low amount of calories to begin with but are full of fibrous materials that the body cannot easily break down.

So the net result is your body uses more energy to convert that food into fuel (burns more calories) than the total amount of calories in the food to begin with. Therefore, there is a negative amount of calories. Essentially you have used enough energy to burn up the calories of the food you ate PLUS some more. Your body then uses stored fat as additional energy to complete the digestion process, thereby boosting up your metabolism.

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

Half of a grapefruit contains about 40 calories and it takes your body 90 calories to digest it. You have used all of the grapefruit’s 40 calories PLUS 50 additional calories from stored fat resulting in a net calorie loss. This is where the term negative calories comes from.

For most of us, it works just the opposite. We devour a rich chocolate brownie that contains 175 calories but our body on uses 75 calories to digest it. We now have GAINED 100 calories to be stored as fat for later use. That’s not a good thing. Unless you are working out regularly to burn up those calories, they’re going to just sit there around your waist adding to your already bulging midsection.

I have created a comprehensive list consisting of mostly fruits and vegetables, to help get you started with negative calorie foods that boost your metabolism. Incorporate these into your menu and you should start to see and feel some healthy changes in your body.

Salads - lettuce, tomato, onion, carrots cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and radish; go light on the salad dressing. Use toppings like raisins or sunflower seeds sparingly since they are higher in carbohydrates.

You can also try steamed vegetable as a side dish using items such as broccoli, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, green beans, spinach and zucchini. You can flavor with garlic if you like.

Fruit cup - strawberries, apple slices, cranberries, mango, orange, pineapple, raspberries, tangerine, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon.

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

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