Look at the fat-burner supplements out there and you’ll quickly see some similarities on their labels: The ingredients include caffeine with a side of caffeine, topped off with more caffeine. While coffee’s special kicker has been shown to aid fat loss, it’s not the only food compound that can. There are plenty of options that exist in nature that help reduce body fat by other mechanisms than speeding up your heart rate. Prepare to meet three common foods with fat-burning properties. Are you eating enough of them to lose weight?
NAVY BEANS
These white legumes contain resistant starch, a type of fiber that both contributes to feeling full and controls blood sugar. Resistant starch makes it through most of the digestive system intact until it’s broken down in the large intestine and converted to energy. A study at the University of Colorado found that subjects who ate five grams of resistant starch in a single meal (equivalent to about one-half cup navy beans) versus various other amounts burned 23% more fat. Use them in just about any recipe that calls for beans.
Want to pass on the bean gas? You can take supplemental resistant starch, which gives you the best of the bean in a broken-down form. Hi-maize (hi-maize.com) sells it in bags that you can mix into protein smoothies.
HERRING
A 2012 study in Nutrition Journal found that overweight and obese subjects taking 25 micrograms (about 1,000 IUs) of vitamin D a day lost “statistically significant” body fat over 12 weeks. Silvery, iridescent herring is one of the world’s best sources of vitamin D, containing more than 100% of the recommended daily value in a one-ounce serving.
Grill it and dress with a mixture of mustard, lemon juice, and its own oil for a dinner packed with protein and healthy fats. Or, if you’re not a fish lover, you can get your vitamin D in a pill. Vitamin D3 supplements (the technical term for the good stuff) are available at gnc.com.
GREEN TEA
Teas may be seen as a lighter coffee alternative, but in the case of green tea, it’s not the caffeine content alone that makes it an effective fat burner. Catechins, antioxidants in green tea, appear to have a fat-reducing effect on their own. The journal Obesity found that subjects who consumed two servings of catechins (totaling 886 milligrams) in green tea (the equivalent of about 11 cups) reduced their waist circumference and lost more than 21⁄2 pounds of fat over 90 days—no workout required—relative to the control group.
If hot drinks leave you cold, SlimQuick Pure Men Extra Strength offers catechins along with BioPure Green Tea, its own extract that helps with the absorption of catechins for a more potent fat-burning effect. Pick it up at slimquickpuremen.com.