FAT BURNING FOODS (MYTH OR FACT?!)

Green Tea, Chilli, Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemons (in water, which has become the latest fad mind you), Vegetable Juices…..all these & many more are widely considered to be “fat burning foods”. Because of this notion, it is not uncommon to see people flocking to the grocery store, buying said items in droves, with the hope of finally being able to lose that stubborn fat that can’t seem to get/stay off their waistlines, no matter what they seem to do.

In truth, whilst all the above have their various health benefits, not a single one will burn fat off your body. And the reason is simple. For fat loss to take place, you must consume a hypo-caloric diet; eat less calories than it takes to maintain your bodyweight for an extended period of time. This is the primary mechanism by which fat loss takes place. Everything else, is secondary.

Therefore, knowing this, we can now see how drinking a shot of ACV (apple cider vinegar) every morning, will not do a thing to aide your fat loss goals, if you are overeating for the rest of the day. Neither will adding slices of lemon to your water bottle in the morning, nor will drinking green tea like it is going to run away from your kitchen cupboard. At the end of the day, ALL successful fat loss programs can be boiled down to following these steps:

1. Eat a hypo-caloric diet.

2. Consume enough dietary protein for muscle growth.

3. Resistance train regularly using weights, your bodyweight or a combination of both.

4. Sustain this until you have lost a satisfactory amount of body fat.

Now, this is not to say that these foods don’t provide ANY fat loss benefits at all. Let’s take green tea for example, which has caffeine. Caffeine is a potent appetite suppressant. This helps with dietary satiety, making it a lot less likely for you to exceed your calorie budget for the day.

Vegetable juices on the other hand are chock full of fiber. Fiber digests very slowly and therefore helps to keep you fuller for longer. Again, making it easy to eat and abide by your calorie deficit.

Even chili, as unassuming as it may seem, slightly increases your core body temperature, which has the potential to up-regulate your metabolism.

I will say this though. All these effects are very slight, and by themselves, none of the food stuffs listed above will burn fat off your belly. In conjunction with the 4 main fat loss principles outlined above however, what may seem irrelevant initially, can most definitely compound into something significant in the long run.