Thermogenic food may be a woman’s new best friend.
Long purported by bodybuilders as a way to drop the fat and stay trim, one secret to burning fat in your diet is to increase your intake of naturally thermogenic foods. “Dietary Induced Thermogenesis” is the way by which certain foods escalate the metabolic process that your body uses to break down foods by heating up the body and thereby burning the food more quickly.
How does thermogenesis work?
Think of your body as a furnace and food is its fuel. A faster metabolism means that the fuel is burned faster for energy (and less is stored away as fat) and slow metabolism means that the fuel is burned more slowly (meaning more opportunity to store unused fuel as fat). A good way to encourage your “furnace” to burn more is to eat foods that jumpstart the heating itself.
There are numerous examples of foods with these properties.
Chili peppers
It’s easy to imagine the thermogenic effect that chili peppers have on the body – it’s the reason you might start to sweat. Along with a vast array of other health benefits, chili peppers contain capsaicin , which works to reduce blood clotting and lower cholesterol. This, in turn, makes blood circulation and other bodily functions more efficient, easing fat loss.
Celery
Celery is great for weight loss because of its high water content, which encourages you to be full more quickly. The act of eating and digesting celery burns the same number of calories as the celery has naturally. Also, celery has diuretic properties – those that encourage you to urinate fluids out of the body – so this prompts metabolism to increase and fat to be broken down.
Lean Meats
Fat has a low thermogenic effect, while protein — which is much harder to digest — has a higher thermogenic effect. This is why eating lean meats like chicken, turkey and fish is a good idea to get your thermogenic processes going.
Low-Fat Yogurt
Similar to the high protein counts found in lean meats, yogurt contains proteins because of its fluid milk origins. This makes low-fat yogurt another great food for fat loss, due to the combination of protein and – as the name implies – low fat content.
Whole Grain Bread
Whole grains are preferred over enriched or processed grains because they retain their casings, thus contain more fiber. Fiber satiates naturally, so you are less likely to overeat. Because whole grains keep their original form, they are another example of foods that require more complex digestion, and therefore have a higher thermogenic effect.
Women can benefit from eating thermogenic foods through literal fat burning and weight loss. By understanding the digestive processes involved with eating these foods, it’s clear why women should embrace the thermogenic lifestyle to burn fat.
