Fat Burning Nutrition

Jan 8, 2011
Olu Odebunmi

Learn how to adopt a fat burning nutrition plan for healthy, effective and permanent weight loss.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 1

Forget about the traditional three square meals a day. Eat between four and six small meals a day. Your body uses energy to process and assimilate each meal. Research by the University of Nottingham, U.K, concluded regular meals increase thermogenesis or heat production which increases metabolism and the body's ability to burn fat, and prevents insulin spikes that encourage fat storage.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 2

Eat breakfast. The term breakfast is self explanatory. You are breaking your 7- to 10-hour fast and providing your body with the fuel it needs to commence its daily activities. Breakfast kick starts your metabolism for the day and ensures your body burns fat efficiently. Failure to eat breakfast, as is common today, slows down your metabolism as your body seeks to conserve the little energy it has.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 3

Eliminate or reduce simple and refined carbohydrates in your diet. These provide quickly absorbed sugars which cause an insulin spike that drives excess energy to the fat stores on your belly, hips, butt, and thighs. Eat unrefined complex carbohydrates such as whole grains to provide sustained energy. To accelerate fat burning and weight loss, limit your servings of complex carbs to one or two meals a day.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 4

Eat more fruits and vegetables. Eat them as snacks and use them in your favorite recipes in place of complex carbs. For example, replace the whole grain rice or sweet potatoes in your evening meal, with some broccoli, courgettes, carrots or red peppers. The water and fiber in the vegetables will fill you up and ensure you do not miss the calories from the carbs.

Fat Burning Nutrition 5

Eat more protein. Focus on lean cuts of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans and legumes. Protein takes longer to digest, so your body expends more energy, thus increasing your metabolism. Protein also helps maintain lean muscle tissue which helps keep your metabolism high and in a fat burning zone.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 6

Eat healthy omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids in the right balance. Modern western diets are too high in omega-6 fats, which results in inflammation and weight gain. To redress the balance, eat foods that are high in omega-3 fats, such as flax seed oil, hemp seed oil, pumpkin seeds, walnut oil, and oily fish such as mackerel, salmon, herring and tuna.

Fat Burning Nutrition Tip 7

The bulk of the food you eat should be natural unprocessed organic foods. Processed, packaged, and refined foods contain additives and preservatives that can cause a build up of toxins in the body which may lead to inflammation and weight gain. A preponderance of low nutrient refined foods in your diet can cause cravings and blood sugar swings which may lead to over eating.

Grass fed organic beef and organic free range eggs should be part of your fat burning nutrition. Organic beef is a good source of conjugated linoleic acid which research shows helps fat burning, and organic eggs are a good source of omega-3 fats.

Sources

Springer Link: Effect of conjugated linoleic acid on body composition Accessed January 8 2011

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Beneficial metabolic effect of regular meal frequency. Accessed January 8 2011

Olu Odebunmi - Olu got hooked on the fitness bug way back in 1981. Lean and muscular at 55, and aging like fine wine he still works out three times a ...