8 METABOLISM BOOSTING FOODS THAT BLAST BELLY FAT

Do you overhear people talking about their metabolism but you just are not sure what it is? Your metabolism is basically referring to how efficiently your body burns calories. The more efficient your metabolism- the more calories you will burn- the more fat you will burn!

Will These Metabolism Boosting Foods Help?

There are some factors that can influence your metabolism rate: age, sex, genetics and lean body mass. As you get older your metabolism will naturally decline. Too many people unfortunately also blame their genes for their slow metabolism and associate this to why they are fat. The truth is that even though genes do play a role you can still improve your metabolism by eating the right way and exercising…SO stop playing the blame game!

Here are 8 of my top metabolism boosting foods that will help you lose belly fat and allow you to access that beach body for the impending summer

Number 1…Green Tea

There was a study that found that those who drank 3-5 cups of green tea a day actually lost 5% of their body weight. Green tea is packed with powerful flavonoids and antioxidants that will also help to kick out chronic diseases in addition to boosting your metabolism. Of course I would not just drink green tea and hope for a miracle to happen! But drinking it daily or taking an extract is going to be another spoke in the wheel towards your body transformation.

Green tea has also been shown to detoxify your body and inhibit the bad bacteria… It triggers your body to burn fat and activates your metabolism.

  Number 2…Almonds

Increasing your nut intake will help slow your blood sugar as well as help to boost your metabolism. Almonds are one of my favorite metabolism boosting foods because they are packed with healthy monounsaturated fats and they also taste pretty darn good!

A study conducted at Purdue University found that those who ate tree nuts such as almonds saw an increase in their metabolic rate resulting in greater weight loss than those who did not eat them. Just be careful not too eat too many of them because nuts do have a higher caloric content. Eating a handful a day or a 1-3 Tbsp. of natural almond butter is what I recommend.

Number 3…Eggs

Eating a high protein breakfast in general is going to boost your metabolism and I have found that eating whole eggs to be the easiest and most efficient way of doing so. Eggs have a good amount of protein and I usually always recommend them to my clients who struggle to organize their daily food to… boil them for 7 minutes the night before and stick them in the fridge until the next morning.

Number 4… Salmon

You could not ask for a better metabolism boosting food. Packed with protein and loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids! If you are not already taking an omega-3 supplement (which would be in your benefit to do so) then you should be eating plenty of wild caught salmon. The omega-3′s help to balance out the over-abundance of omega-6′s in the body, which will reduce inflammation while also burning, belly fat. Unfortunately most people shy away from fats even though they are extremely healthy…your body needs these fats.  

Number 5…Hot Peppers

Hot chili peppers have been found to be effective for weight loss because they cause a thermo genic effect in your body meaning that they increase the heat. Just make sure your stomach can take the heat or else you may find yourself in a load of trouble later on.   If you were not used to eating hot peppers I would work your way up from the milder ones such as jalapenos to the hot habaneros.

Number 6… Wild Blueberries

Berries, especially the wild blueberry are very powerful antioxidants that kill off the damage causing free radicals that are probably currently having a party in your body! The reason we want to fight against free radicals is because they cause damage to cells which leads to fat gain, limited muscle growth and can even cause diseases.

I usually mix a 1/2 cup of wild blueberries into my shake every morning and it seems to do the trick, not to mention they taste amazing!

Number 7… Probiotics

Probiotics are the tiny live bacteria that naturally occur in your   gastrointestinal tract. Having more of these tiny little friends help   food pass through you efficiently and also improve nutrient   absorption. They can also lower chronic inflammation in addition to supporting your   body’s ability to produce brain neurotransmitters. In other words   it’ll make you smarter!

Number 8…Bee Pollen

This one is my all time favorite! It might sound a little weird at first but bee pollen has been found to boost your metabolism by normalizing chemical imbalances that cause abnormal weight gain. Bee pollen from honeybees is naturally low in calories and it contains 15% of its weight in Lecithin. The nutrient Lecithin is beneficial because it will help break down fats and help prevent them from being stored as fat. I usually put a teaspoon in with the blueberries in my morning shake.

I hope you got something out of this post on my 8 best metabolism boosting foods…now over to you to take action by eating them!

On this glorious Devon morning whilst drinking a cup of freshly brewed Topsham coffee I am going to address this age-old question…“Does coffee make you fat?” Coffee in the past has raised a few issues and so I am going to give you everything you need to know about this controversial beverage.

 First things first, there are huge differences between drinking a couple of mugs of organic brewed coffee a day and the crazy concoctions most people leave Starbucks with. There are a ton of health benefits to coffee but those benefits can quickly go when people start filling it with rubbish.

I hate to break the bad news but a “venti caramel frappuccino with whip cream” from Starbucks is not going to improve your health this is the kind of “coffee” that is going to make you fat. However there is the good old-fashioned cuppa Joe that I personally like to drink just about every day.

Why Coffee Doesn’t Make You Fat

Coffee is full of antioxidants providing benefits to your health. The antioxidants neutralise the damage causing free radicals that cause inflammation within your body. Coffee will also see fat at bay as it improves your cell’s sensitivity to insulin. A recent study also found that those who drank coffee actually helped prevent the onset of diabetes by 7% with every cup of coffee that they drank!

I am so convinced that the antioxidants in coffee are so powerful that I have recently started supplementing them into my diet…along with a ton of other antioxidants!

In addition to boosting your metabolism some of the other health benefits drinking coffee can enable include: reducing chronic inflammation, Cancer prevention, Alzheimer’s disease prevention, Parkinson’s disease prevention and it will also promote better mood…which is always a good thing!

Does Coffee Make You Gain Weight…Um No!

A few old school cats complain than coffee can increase your heart rate and blood pressure, but they should also know these symptoms are also very temporary. Both your heart rate and blood pressure should return to normal once the caffeine in the coffee has been metabolized. In fact, there have been more recent long-term studies on coffee consumption that found no correlation between drinking it and cardiovascular disease.

Even athletes have found that it helps improve their strength, athletic performance and work capacity. A study by the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that the intervention group who consumed coffee at 4mg per kg of bodyweight prior to training saw significantly higher strength gains than the placebo group. This is also another reason why coffee can help you burn fat as you are able to have more strength work in your workout- you will therefore train harder and get better results.

Coffee Burns Belly Fat…But Only If

For the most part I would recommend just about everybody to drink coffee on a regular basis and you should never worry about it making you fat unless your loading it up with a bunch of rubbish. Stay away from the obvious sugary sweeteners, artificial sweeteners and cream. If you are very sensitive to caffeine than you can drink decaf but you should also know that there is some speculation that the decaffeinating process actually leaves a chemical residue behind, but there have been no studies that have backed this claim.

 So the next time your friend asks, “Does coffee make you fat?” you will be able to respond with “No, but that venti caramel frappuccino with whip cream will!”   

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