In today’s ” Q and A’s”… I’m covering “The Best Foods To Burn Fat And Lose Weight”
The answer to this is probably different to what you’re expecting – especially if you’re confused about how calories can affect your training efforts.
I hope you enjoy today’s Q and A, and don’t forget to submit your questions!
Take care…Hugs..
For a more detailed answer see Ross’s written response below.
Caloric Density And What Are The Best Foods To Burn Fat And Lose Weight?
There is no question that some foods are better than others when it comes to fat burning and weight loss. Obviously, eating a lot fried foods or foods that are high in trans-fat is not a good idea if you want to lose weight and be healthy in general, but the reality is that people can have weight loss success eating many different types of foods.
Some people do very well on low-carb plans where they eat a lot of protein and fat (ideally healthy fats) and many other people do well on lower fat and higher carb programs. On the other hand, fruits, which are considered healthy, can inhibit weight loss in some people due to the type of sugar they contain (fructose).
Therefore, the “best foods” for fat burning and weight loss can vary from person to person. Fortunately, there are some foods and general eating strategies that work for virtually everyone and they are the focus of this Q&A.
When it comes to specific foods for losing weight, the best overall category of foods is vegetables. Most vegetables have a significant amount of nutrients, few calories, and they are filling, so they are an ideal food for weight loss. That said, vegetables do not contain everything you need for a healthy body, so it is still important to have a balanced diet with adequate amounts of quality protein, healthy fat, complex carbs, water, and other nutrients.
In terms of general eating habits, perhaps the best strategy is to eat 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day instead of 2 or 3 larger meals. One of the biggest problems people have when trying to lose weight is controlling the amount they eat at one time (portion control). Eating too much during a meal is problematic for numerous reasons, but a main issue is your body is forced to store any extra (unneeded) calories as fat.
Eating small meals is very useful for eliminating big meals from your diet. Many people get hungry and eat way too much at night, because they did not eat enough earlier in the day. By spacing your meals and calories throughout the day, it helps prevent the large hunger cravings that lead to big meals and overeating at night.
Eating too much can even be a problem if all you eat is healthy foods, because any time you eat too much, you will gain weight and increase body fat. This is one reason why the specific foods you eat is not the only thing that matters. Fortunately most healthy foods are more difficult to overeat than unhealthy foods, which are often made up of empty calories that easily get turned into fat.
When trying to figure out what foods lead to overeating and which ones lead to weight loss, a good thing to focus on is caloric density. Essentially, caloric density refers to the number of calories a food contains relative to the overall weight of the food. This may seem like a strange thing to focus on, but it is a very good measure of how different foods will affect your weight.
Caloric density is so useful, because the weight of the foods you eat is actually more important than the number of calories in the food. Researchers have found that two people with similar body sizes and appetites will eat approximately the same weight in food during a meal, regardless of how many calories are contained in those foods.
For example, if two people have a snack and one person has raw vegetables while the other person has chips, the person eating vegetables will consume a lot less calories than the person eating chips. This is because chips have a lot of calories per ounce, while most vegetables have very few calories per ounce.
While not true in every case, healthy foods generally have better caloric densities than unhealthy foods. This is because healthy foods contain more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water than unhealthy foods and all of the ingredients add weight to a food, but do not add calories.
To give you a better understanding of how caloric density works in real world situations, let’s take a look at potatoes. A medium sized baked potato is around 5.3oz/150g and has 110 calories. This breaks down to about 21 calories per ounce (28.3g). Now compare that to baked potato chips, which contain about 120 calories per ounce.
This means that if people eat equal weights in food, the person eating potato chips will consume 6 times as many calories as the person eating a baked potato (without toppings). This comparison is to baked chips which are often marketed as healthy alternatives to regular chips, but obviously they are still very bad for weight loss.
To complete this comparison, regular chips tend to have between 140 and 160 calories per ounce, so baked chips are somewhat better from a caloric density standpoint, but not by all that much. I have known many people who routinely ate 8 ounces of chips or more at one time, but I have never seen anyone eat 3 pounds of baked potatoes at one time 🙂 , which would be the caloric equivalent of 8 ounces of baked potato chips.
For a little more perspective, vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower have 10 calories or less per ounce. Even carrots, which some people say you should avoid due to their sugar content, only has about 12 calories per ounce. This means that an entire 1 pound (454g) bag of carrots has less than 200 calories, which is equivalent to less than 20 chips.
While I do not recommend eating a pound of carrots at one time, 🙂 it does illustrate the point that it is very difficult to gain weight by eating vegetables and even carrots are a great food to help you lose weight and burn fat. Of course, you don’t want to only eat high carb foods…. as high protein and healthy fat sources are also important, even though they usually have higher caloric densities.
As for high protein sources with good caloric densities, some examples are oven roasted turkey breast and canned tuna, which both have fewer than 35 calories per ounce. Now compare that to hamburger (85% lean), which around 70 calories per ounce and most hamburger is not that lean. 75% lean hamburger has about 80 calories per ounce and higher fat hamburger has even higher calories per ounce.
Finally, when looking at foods that are good for fat burning and weight loss, you can never forget about water. Besides being an essential nutrient, water adds weight to meals (with 0 calories) and helps fill you up to minimize overeating. It also has numerous health benefits, such as preventing dehydration and allowing for optimal filtering of toxins through your body.
Admittedly, eating for weight loss and fat burning is more complicated than just eating foods with low caloric densities, but it is a good place to start. Just remember to keep things in perspective and always try to have a healthy balance of carbs, protein, fat, and other nutrients.
By Ross Harrison
VFT Fitness Expert
© Virtual Fitness Trainer.com
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