Foods That Boost Your Metabolism

Why is it that some foods that make you fat and others don't? This because the foods that cause you to gain weight take very little energy to burn. They are processed almost immediately and usually stored in your body as fat. Foods that make you skinnier are usually foods are harder to digest and therefore speed up metabolism by using up more energy during the digestion.

The foods that speed up metabolism are considered "negative calorie foods". Unfortunately these foods don't possess any magical properties that erase the number of calories in your body (don't we wish?) so the name can be a bit misleading, but they are still beneficial.

What actually happens is that these foods cause your body work harder during the digestion process. Foods like this already contain a decreased amount of calories to begin. They are also full of fibrous materials that the system can't easily break down; therefore it uses more energy during the process.

What this means is that your body creates more energy to turn the food into fuel (burns more calories) than the total amount of calories in the food to begin with. Thus, there is a negative amount of calories; you've used enough energy to burn off the calories of the food you ate PLUS some! Your body then has to use stored fat to convert into energy to finish the digestion process. In turn, you speed up your metabolism.

Did I confuse you? Here is another example. I'll keep it simple.

Say you eat a half of a grapefruit that contains 40 calories and it takes your body 90 calories to digest it. You have used all 40 of the grapefruit's calories PLUS 50 calories from stored fat resulting in an overall calorie loss.

For most of us, it works just the opposite. We devour a rich chocolate brownie that contains 175 calories but our body on uses 75 calories to digest it. We now have GAINED 100 calories to be stored as fat for later use. That's not a good thing. Unless you are working out regularly to burn up those calories, they're going to just sit there around your waist adding to your already bulging midsection.

I have included below, a comprehensive list consisting of mostly fruits and vegetables, which should help get you started with negative calorie foods that help to raise your metabolism. Use these along with your regular menu items and you should start to see and feel some noticeable changes in your body.

Salads - lettuce, tomato, onion, carrots cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and radish; go light on the salad dressing. Use toppings like raisins or sunflower seeds sparingly since they are higher in carbohydrates.

You can also try steamed vegetable as a side dish using items such as broccoli, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, green beans, spinach and zucchini. You can flavor with garlic if you like.

A low fat fruit cup is a healthy dessert. Try using strawberries, cranberries, mango, orange, pineapple, raspberries, tangerine, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, apple slices, and watermelon.

Smoothies are one of my favorites. You can use any combination of the fruits above mixed with ice or low fat frozen yogurt. Remember, you can also use these fruits in their juice form but fresh-squeezed is healthier than juice from concentrate.