No matter if you’re five pounds overweight or 35 you may be wasting your energy worrying about the number on your scale. Because it turns out we’ve been focusing on the wrong measurement all along.
A growing stack of studies has revealed it’s actually body fat, rather than weight alone, that poses the biggest threat to our health. In a recent large study, that included over 50,000 middle-aged and older adults, researchers confirmed that a high body fat percentage, but NOT a high body mass index (BMI), is a risk factor for dying in the next few years.
Beware of killer body fat
Body fat over 38 percent in women and 36 percent in men were linked to an increased risk of dying in the following four to six years, according to the research published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.1
But the surprises didn’t end there. According to researchers, it was the folks with the lower BMIs that faced the highest risk of dying. Experts theorize that the lowest body mass indexes may be a sign of unhealthy rapid weight loss or perhaps chronic illness.
But one thing is for sure, simply being thin doesn’t always equal being healthy. And shifting your focus to fat loss could literally help save your life. (Bonus, those numbers on the scale will drop too.)
Following are four foods that have been proven to turbocharge fat loss. Add them to your diet plan to help you shed the fat that’s putting your health, and life, at risk.
1. Coffee:
We’re big fans of coffee around here. There are a lot of health benefits to this often maligned beverage. But you can add one more to the list, and that’s fat loss. It’s the caffeine content in coffee that gets the credit for this benefit.2,3 Coffee can briefly bump up your metabolism by 11 percent and turbocharge your fat burn up to 20 percent.4,5,6,7
2. Green tea:
Studies show green tea can help you shed fat, especially stubborn belly fat.8,9,10 Like coffee, the caffeine in green tea makes it a natural fat burner. But this palate pleasing beverage has another fat burning trick up its sleeve. Green tea is rich in the antioxidant EGCG, which has been shown to boost fat loss, by increasing fat-burning brown fat in particular.11,12 In fact, in studies green tea extracts have been shown to turbocharge metabolism by 3 to 4 percent, and fat burning up to an astounding 17 percent.13,14,15
3. Coconut oil:
The unique medium chain triglycerides find in coconut oil are both natural appetite suppressants and calorie-burn boosters. In fact, research has found they can cause you to eat far fewer fat-building calories, while also spurring your body to burn off up to an extra 120 calories a day with no extra effort on your part.16,17 But what makes coconut oil the most interesting is that it appears to target the belly fat that has us so concerned. According to studies published in the journals Lipids and ISRN Pharmacology, just two tablespoons of coconut oil a day sent volunteer’s belly fat plummeting.18,19
4. Nuts:
People tend to shy away from eating nuts because they fear their fat content. But the truth is nuts are a terrific weight loss food that helps target belly flab too. To begin with nuts are very filling so when folks eat them they tend to eat less fat-building calories overall. Plus, according to research, nuts appear to boost metabolism and, most importantly, they turbocharge belly fat loss.20,21
References:
1. “Relationship Among Body Fat Percentage, Body Mass Index, and All-Cause Mortality: A Cohort Study,” Ann Intern Med. 2016;164(8):532-54
2. “Body weight loss and weight maintenance in relation to habitual caffeine intake and green tea supplementation,” Obes Res. 2005 Jul;13(7):1195-204
3. “Relationship between basal metabolic rate, thermogenic response to caffeine, and body weight loss following combined low calorie and exercise treatment in obese women,”Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1994
4. “Comparison of changes in energy expenditure and body temperatures after caffeine consumption,” Ann Nutr Metab. 1995;39(3):135-42
5. “Normal caffeine consumption: influence on thermogenesis and daily energy expenditure in lean and postobese human volunteers,” Am J Clin Nutr. 1989 Jan;49(1):44-50
6. “Effects of caffeine on energy metabolism, heart rate, and methylxanthine metabolism in lean and obese women,” Am J Physiol. 1995 Oct;269(4 Pt 1):E671-8.8
7. “Effects of caffeine ingestion on NE kinetics, fat oxidation, and energy expenditure in younger and older men,” Am J Physiol. 1995 Jun;268(6 Pt 1):E1192-8
8.”Green Tea Catechin Consumption Enhances Exercise-Induced Abdominal Fat Loss in Overweight and Obese Adults,” J. Nutr. February 2009, vol. 139 no. 2 264-270
9. “Effects of catechin-enriched green tea beverage on visceral fat loss in adults with a high proportion of visceral fat: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial,” Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 315–322
10. “A Green Tea Extract High in Catechins Reduces Body Fat and Cardiovascular Risks in Humans,” Obesity, Volume 15, Issue 6, June 2007, Pages 1473–1483
11. “Green tea catechins, caffeine and body-weight regulation,” Physiology & Behavior, Volume 100, Issue 1, 26, April 2010, Pages 42–46
12. “Green tea and thermogenesis: interactions between catechin-polyphenols, caffeine and sympathetic activity,” International JOunral of Obesity, February 2000, Volume 24, Number 2, Pages 252-258
13. “Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans,” Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Dec;70(6):1040-5
14. “Green tea extract ingestion, fat oxidation, and glucose tolerance in healthy humans,” Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Mar;87(3):778-84
15. “Effects of encapsulated green tea and Guarana extracts containing a mixture of epigallocatechin-3-gallate and caffeine on 24 h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in men,” Br J Nutr. 2005 Sep;94(3):432-6
16. “Covert manipulation of the ratio of medium- to long-chain triglycerides in isoenergetically dense diets: effect on food intake in ad libitum feeding men,” Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1996 May;20(5):435-44
17. “Twenty-four-hour energy expenditure and urinary catecholamines of humans consuming low-to-moderate amounts of medium-chain triglycerides: a dose-response study in a human respiratory chamber,” Eur J Clin Nutr. 1996 Mar;50(3):152-8
18. “Effects of Dietary Coconut Oil on the Biochemical and Anthropometric Profiles of Women Presenting Abdominal Obesity,” Lipids. 2009 Jul;44(7):593-601
19. “An open-label pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of virgin coconut oil in reducing visceral adiposity,” ISRN Pharmacol. 2011;2011:949686
20. “A review of the effects of nuts on appetite, food intake, metabolism, and body weight,” Am J Clin Nutr July 2014, vol. 100 no. Supplement 1 412S-422S
21. “Nut consumption is associated with decreased health risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome in U.S. adults: NHANES 1999-2004,” J Am Coll Nutr. 2011 Dec;30(6):502-10
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