Foods That Boost Your Metabolism

There are foods that make you fatter and foods that make you skinnier. What's the difference? The foods that make you fatter take minimal energy to burn. They are immediately processed and stored at fat. Foods that make you skinnier are actually foods that speed up metabolism by using up more energy to digest them.

The foods that speed up metabolism are classified as "negative calorie foods". These foods do not have some mystical properties that erase the number of calories in your body (don't I wish?) so the name can be a bit misleading.

Instead, what these foods do is make your body work harder when digesting them. These foods possess a low amount of calories to begin with but are full of fibrous materials that the body cannot easily break down.

So this means that your body requires 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! Then your body uses stored fat as energy to complete the digestion process, thereby boosting up your metabolism.

Are you confused? Here is another example to explain what I mean.

Half of a grapefruit contains about 40 calories and it takes your body 90 calories to digest it. You have used all of the grapefruit's 40 calories PLUS 50 additional calories from stored fat resulting in a net calorie loss. This is where the term negative calories comes from.

It works the opposite for most of us. We eat a decadent 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. Problem is, unless you are exercising regularly to actually USE those calories, they're going to just sit there around your waist accruing like the interest of a retail credit card until one day it will hit you and you'll wonder, "where did this thing COME from?!"

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, carrots cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato, onion, and radish; go easy on the dressing. Use toppings like raisins or sunflower seeds sparingly.

Steamed vegetables make a healthy side dish using foods like broccoli, green beans, spinach, zucchini, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cabbage and asparagus. You can add garlic if you choose.

Fruit cup - strawberries, apple slices, cranberries, mango, orange, pineapple, raspberries, tangerine, papaya, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon.

Smoothies - 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 better than juice from concentrate.