Last month we looked at the importance of avoiding simple sugars if your goal is fat loss. This month I’m going to show what good foods you can put in your body to dramatically enhance your metabolism and fat-burning results. And although we don’t get much of it this time of year in Toronto, this article is all about heat. In order to get maximum effect from your nutrition, you need to learn about meals that are “thermic” or calorie-burning.
Up to 15% of the calories you burn in a day are attributed to diet. What does that mean? Simply put, it is the energy your body uses in the process of digesting and absorbing your food. So guess what? You have to eat to stimulate your metabolism, and if you don’t eat enough or often enough, you are in fact slowing down your metabolism, and compromising the body’s ability to burn fat. Sounds a bit counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? That you would have to eat more to lose weight?! Often, in the beginning, clients of our Toronto personal trainers are blown away by the sheer amount of food they can take in, and still experience fat reduction. But the key is choosing the right foods.
As a general rule, foods which are quickly or easily digested produce the least amount of increase in metabolism. That is because not much work is required in breaking them down and absorbing them. At the lower end of the spectrum are fats and simple or refined and processed carbohydrates (white rice, white flour, pasta), which we talked about in the last issue.
| The Macro-Nutrients | Calories per gram | % Metabolic boost |
| Fats | 9 | 5% |
| Carbohydrates | 4 | 10% |
| Proteins | 4 | 20-25% |
Owing to the fact that fats are (a) high in calories, and (b) easily absorbed so the resulting metabolic boost is relatively insignificant, it becomes important to moderate our fat intake. We’ll try to get this mostly from healthy, mono or poly-unsaturated sources like nuts, grains, seeds, fish, olive oil and flax seed oil for example. And we’ll minimize or avoid unhealthy, saturated sources such as animal fat, butter, dairy, egg yolks and pre-packaged foods like fast food, cereals and snack bars.
Now we know we’re supposed to avoid the simple carbohydrates, but equally important is to replace them with high-quality, complex or starchy carbohydrates, e.g., oatmeal, brown rice, yams, tomatoes and corn. These are slightly harder for your body to break down, and as a result you will be expending roughly twice the amount of energy in digesting them. Ok, so what do I mean by a 10% metabolic boost? Pretty much that for every 100 calories you take in from carbohydrates, your body is gonna burn around 10 of those in the process of digestion and absorption.
So what about proteins? For our purposes, we are referring to lean proteins such as the white meat of chicken and turkey, egg whites, tuna, salmon, and non-fat cottage cheese. You see, protein is the main building block of nutrition, and goes to, among other things, repairing and building muscle tissue. This is the first reason getting some protein with each meal is beneficial to metabolism. The second is that the process your body must undergo when digesting protein is much more difficult and time-consuming, so eating protein provides a 20-25% metabolic boost! So how can we best take advantage of this “thermic” or calorie-burning effect of food? Simple. You gotta eat! And more often, in fact, is better. I usually recommend that my clients get a meal every 3 to 3 1/2 hours, which consists of visually equal portions of a lean protein, starchy carb, and a fibrous carb. Fibrous carbs are basically veggies (or it could be fruit with breakfast), and these help move the food through the digestive tract, while supplying vitamins and minerals which your body needs.
Now, I appreciate it is not always possible to get to a complete meal every 3 to 31/2 hours. So if you having a hard time with this part, you may want to consider the use of a meal replacement powder. Ideally this would contain a nice balance of good quality protein, complex carbohydrate, some vitamins and minerals and fiber. You gotta become a hardcore label reader though, because many of the MR’s available on the market today are high in sugar or use an inferior protein source. If you have questions about something you read, just give me a call and we’ll get you squared away!
Ok, so let’s review. You’ll want to:
- Eat in a manner which is supportive to metabolism every 3 to 3 1/2 hours
- Attempt to get visually equal portions of a lean protein, starchy carb, and fibrous carb at each meal
- If you can’t get to a meal, use a meal-replacement supplement
- Avoid simple sugars, refined carbohydrates and saturated fats
Apply these principles and you can stay hot through these last few weeks of winter, at least in terms of burning calories. Summer will be here before long, and we want to unveil your new, sculpted physique in time for the beach weather! So get on it! You’ll want to check out part III of my “Fat Burning Nutrition Secrets” next month, when I reveal the single most important strategy clients of our Toronto personal trainers use to help them stick to their nutrition plan! Stay healthy!
