Men’s bodies tend to burn fat more efficiently than women’s bodies. Women have an extra layer of fat which makes it harder for women to lose weight. Men also tend to have more lean muscle mass, which makes men’s bodies better fat burners. This doesn’t mean, however, that losing weight and burning fat are effortless for men. Here are some of the best fat-burning foods for men, taking into consideration a man’s metabolism and preferences:
Lean proteins: Lean proteins speed metabolism because they require more energy to digest. Because a man’s body has to work harder to digest them, these are great for burning fat and boosting his metabolism. And because men tend to be carnivores, lean proteins such as leaner cuts of beef and pork, as well as turkey, chicken, and salmon are an excellent choice to help men burn fat.
Oatmeal: It is becoming widely known that complex carbohydrates boost metabolism by helping the body to maintain proper insulin levels. When insulin production is spiked, that’s a signal to a man’s body to store fat, according to a professor of nutrition and medicine at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Oatmeal breaks down slowly in the stomach. This causes less of an insulin spike than other breakfast foods such as doughnuts and bagels.
Peppers: Hot peppers are great fat burners, if you can take the heat! According to Men’s Health, in a study from the late 1980s, eating just one spicy meal helped men boost their metabolisms by as much as 25 percent. Habaneros, jalapenos, and even cayenne contain capsaicin, which boosts thermogenesis, the rate at which the body burns fat.
Coffee/green tea: Coffee, of course, contains caffeine which also works to speed up the heart rate, thus speeding up metabolism. FitFAQ also recommends coffee as a metabolism booster because of its ability to free fatty acids that are stored in the body, making them available to be used for energy. Another study done by Laval University in Quebec discovered that men who drank coffee along with a spicy meal were able to burn nearly 1,000 calories a day more than a control group. Green tea also boosts metabolism in the same manner as coffee. The antioxidants found in green tea known as ‘catechins’ are a powerful metabolism booster. According to a study done by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, those who consumed 690 mg of catechins daily from green tea had significantly lower body-mass index compared to those in the control group.
