Fat Burning Foods to Eat to Lose Weight

It seems as if nearly everyone is looking for a quick way to lose weight and fat. While experts agree that a combination of diet and exercise is the best way to lose weight, tweaking your diet a bit can help further weight loss quicker. Add some fat-burning and metabolism-boosting foods to your diet to jump-start or maintain your fat loss.

Spicy Food

• Spicy foods such as peppers, curry and chili help kickstart your metabolism. Due to the "heat" in the food, spicy foods also tend to bring more satisfaction because of the increased taste. Try adding sliced peppers to veggie mixes and making chili out of a variety of meats and beans.

Protein-Rich Food

• Protein takes a large amount of calories to digest due to the complex molecular structure. As such, foods with large amounts of protein such as chicken, eggs, turkey and fish increase metabolism. All of these foods require a large portion of energy to digest compared with low-protein foods of the same caloric amount.

Green Tea

• Green tea contains an antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG acts as a stimulant without the jittery side effects that often accompany other stimulants such as caffeine. EGCG acts upon your nervous system, which in turn increases your metabolism. Women especially can benefit from adding EGCG to their diet.

Low-Fat Dairy

• Low-fat or skim milk and cheeses help whittle away at your waistline and keep your bones healthy in the process. Dairy contains large amounts of calcium, which is beneficial both for weight loss and increasing bone density. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, those who drank milk for breakfast compared with other beverages took in fewer calories throughout the day and ultimately lost more weight.