Four foods that help your body to burn fat

The foods that can aid your efforts

( Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

When you think of weight loss, what images do those words conjure up in your head? Endless celery sticks and a ban on bread? Sweating on a treadmill until you can no longer run?

In reality, maintaining a healthy weight needn't be so grim. But it should be a slow process, and there aren't any quick fixes that are healthy.

As British Dietetic Association spokeswomen Claire Pettitt recently told The Independent: "Following a healthy balanced diet and regular physical exercise are both important in maintaining a healthy weight because they each provide their own benefits and tend to have a cumulative effect."

But there are some foods that ease the process along, by helping your body to burn harmful fats.

Greek yoghurt

Greek yogurt is high in protein (although we'd skip the high-sugar honey) Getty Images (Getty)

The food is given its characteristic thickness because it is strained to remove the whey, an in turn sugar and carbohydrates. The end result is a yogurt with more protein, which takes longer to digest and stops you from eating more, according to WebMD.

However, modern manufacturing processes can interfere with the protein levels, so check the label on your Greek yogurt alongside others to check it hasn’t lost its punch.

Brown rice

Brown rice is one of many foods high in fibre Rex (Food and Drink/REX/Shutterstock)

Foods containing fibre, including brown rice, are slow to digest, and keep you full between meals, enabling your body to gain energy from fat stores.

You can only add fibre to your diet from plants. The NHS recommends eating fruit and vegetables, wholegrain bread, brown rice and pasta, and beans, peas and lentils to boost your fibre intake.

Chillies

Capcasin can boost the metabolism Getty IMages

If you can’t face a meal without it being doused in Tobasco sauce, or its trendier cousin Sriracha, this habit could help you to maintain a healthy body weight.

A study by researchers at the University of Wyoming suggested that capsaicin, a chemical which makes chillies hot, boosts the metabolism and helps the body turn harmful white fat into brown fat, CBS News reported.

White fat stores energy, while brown fat cells are thermogenic and burn stored fat.

Watermelon


 Watermelons contain vitamins A and C
 (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

This colourful fruit is 92 per cent water. By gorging on watermelon, you will fill your stomach with water, leaving less room for other food.

And while a recent study that drinking a 500ml, or a pint, of water before each meal can aid weight loss, water does not contain Vitamin A or C like a watermelon.