Certain ingredients have the ability to stimulate metabolism or satiate greatly, which helps maintain weight.

People who want to lose weight should not do diets that cause rapid weight loss. Ideally, try to eat a balanced diet, without excesses, and choose well the foods they include in the menu.

To reduce calories, you have to start by consuming fewer foods rich in fat – especially the saturated type – and simple carbohydrates. On the other hand, it is important to increase the consumption of foods that promote weight loss, such as fruit, legumes, vegetables and nuts.

FOODS FOR WEIGHT LOSS: NOT ONLY CALORIES COUNT

When choosing foods that help lose weight we should not only be governed by calories. There are other factors that influence:

• “Filling” foods help you lose weight

Foods that satisfy, that is, that make us feel full, are a great help to regulate appetite. Feeling more satiated, we don’t feel the urge to eat out of anxiety.

• Foods that activate metabolism help burn calories

Many people relate the concept of metabolism with fat burning but not everyone knows that some foods are able to activate this process in the body. How can they promote the transformation of fat into energy?

The body gets all the nutrients it needs from food through metabolism but metabolism is a complex physicochemical process that involves a multitude of reactions. Simplifying a lot, one substance becomes another and this new substance becomes another … so until you get the energy!

To produce each of these changes, the action of different enzymes and substances is necessary, which act as if they were knives that allow food to disintegrate until energy is released.

Some foods provide these substances. Therefore, adding them to the diet can help activate the metabolism, which improves the availability of energy to function daily and reduces the risk of fats being stored in the body.

7 FOODS THAT HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT

The last decade has seen a huge increase in interest in food as medicine. The enormous amount of knowledge about the virtues of food has reached our days through Western naturopathic medicine, Ayurveda or traditional medicine.

Hundreds of laboratories around the world work every day to discover new properties of food. In this article we have compiled 7 foods that provide large amounts of nutrients and that, due to their properties, help you lose weight.

TANGERINES

Tangerines have two substances that activate cellular metabolism and contribute to “burning” calories and optimal energy levels.

• Nobiletin acts on the physiological processes that manage the fate of fats in the body, according to a study by Western University, published in the Journal of Lipid Research.
• Vitamin C, on the other hand, participates in the production of energy from fat.

Consuming the whole tangerine is the most common and advisable, but you can also add its juice to drinking water.

PISTACHIOS

According to a study published at the University of California, regular consumption of pistachios can improve our diet, lower blood pressure, and contribute to weight loss.

Although nuts are reputed to be caloric, they have other attributes that make them suitable for weight control, as shown by another study from Purdue University in the US. According to this study, nuts, including pistachios, can help maintain weight. The reason is that, because of their nutrients (fiber, protein and healthy fats), eating these fruits makes us feel full. Thus, if we take a handful of pistachios, we feel satiated, so we curb the need to eat more.

In addition, the need to chew nuts slows down the intake process and pistachio decreases this rate especially, because the peel must be removed before consuming them.

CHARD

Cellular energy. A serving of 175 g of cooked chard provides 40% of the daily requirement of magnesium, a mineral necessary for cellular mitochondria to produce energy. In addition, its consumption contributes to improving the functioning of the organism for several reasons:

• Its protein is involved in the formation of glutathione. Magnesium is also needed for many tissue-forming proteins to be synthesized. It is also involved in the formation of antioxidant glutathione.
• Its fiber helps keep the energy level constant. Swiss chard is also rich in fiber, essential for the release of glucose into the blood to be gradual and the energy level to remain constant.
• Its vitamin K contributes to maintaining cardiovascular health. Just one cup of Swiss chard offers triple the daily needs of this essential vitamin for blood clotting and cardiovascular health.

BEANS

Bean proteins provide essential amino acids for the formation of tissues and for the functioning of the body, but also their digestion requires an increase in metabolic rate.

• Metabolic increase. The “thermic effect of food” is the number of calories we burn to process food. When digesting proteins, the metabolic rate increases by 15-30%. On the other hand, to digest fats it only does so by 0-3%.
• Rich in protein. 20% of the weight of beans is protein. To increase their digestibility, they should be soaked at night. They can then be cooked with cumin, bay leaf, turmeric or nutmeg.
• How to prepare them. In traditional cuisine, Tolosa beans are combined with onion, garlic, collard greens and, to go chopping between spoonful and tablespoon, pickled or fried pip arras (chilies).

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

Animal studies have shown that apple cider vinegar makes it easier for fats to be converted into energy instead of accumulating them. It also activates the expression of genes that inhibit the accumulation of fat in the liver and abdomen.

• Keep in mind that 30 ml of apple cider vinegar daily is an appropriate dose. Taking a larger amount can cause side effects in some people, such as digestive discomfort or damage to tooth enamel.

CHILI OR CHILLI PEPPER

Chili peppers are rich in capsaicin, a pungent substance that stimulates metabolism.

• According to a study published in Appetite, consuming around 140 mg of capsaicin a day causes us to burn 50 more calories. 50 g of Chilli peppers contain 50 to 500 mg of capsaicin.
• It also reduces appetite: consuming Chilli before eating makes us feel satiated before and leads to consuming fewer calories, especially those that come from carbohydrates.
• On the other hand, capsaicin has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.