10 Superfoods That Help You Lose Fat

Superfoods have earned their stellar reputation as superstars of the food world by being nutritionally dense and rich in nutrients. But what if those foods could help you to lose weight and belly fat in addition to delivering their powerful nutritional benefits? The good news is that many of them do!

Research Reveals the Top 25 Superfoods

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Here are 10 superfoods to add to your diet for their nutritional and weight loss benefits:

1. Jalapeno Peppers

Jalapeno peppers are rich in minerals and nutrients, making them a surprising superfood that many people don’t think of. It’s the alkaloid capsaicin in jalapenos that gives them their spicy flavor and is also responsible for their potential weight loss benefits. According to Bioscience Reports, capsaicin is correlated with a decreased risk of obesity. It’s been shown to increase fat oxidation and energy expenditure in study subjects. If you love all things spicy, then jalapenos will be a welcomed superfood to try.

Whip up these Jalapeno Poppers for a fun snack to attack cravings. Learn five more surprising benefits of spicy food here! >

2. Salmon

Packed with omega-3 fatty acids and protein, salmon’s nutritional benefits help make it a superfood. Research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids can help reduce the risk of cardiac problems. Eating salmon regularly may also help speed up weight loss for men, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity. Many salmon recipes also happen to be relatively low in calories, making it a lean option that can be prepared in many delicious ways. Check out these mouthwatering salmon recipes. >

3. Spinach

Loaded with nutrients, dark leafy greens like spinach provide essential vitamins for to skin, bone and immune system health benefits, says Healthline. Spinach is also incredibly nutrient dense. A cup of raw spinach has just seven calories but provides more than 56 percent of your recommended daily allowance for vitamin A and all of your daily vitamin K, says Healthline. On top of all that, researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that spinach boosted weight loss by 43 percent and reduced food cravings by up to 95 percent. This Creamy Spinach Stuffed Chicken recipe is an easy way to fit spinach into a Flex meal.

How to Eat More Leafy Greens

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4. Pomegranate

Pomegranates are rich in vitamin C, potassium and fiber and are thought to help with heart disease and cancer prevention, says Healthline. While there’s a lot of focus on pomegranate juice—which does have more antioxidants than individual seeds—eating the seeds whole gives you the benefit of fiber and added vitamins and minerals. Fiber can help keep you full longer and support weight loss. A study, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, found that giving obese and insulin resistant mice pomegranate seed oil for 12 weeks decreased body weight, body fat and improved peripheral insulin sensitivity.

Embrace those pomegranate benefits! There are some really great ways to fit pomegranates into your day. Get inspired by these delicious recipes. >

5. Almonds

With lots of nutrients delivered with a satisfying crunch, almonds make a “superfood snack” or a great addition to meals. They can easily be tossed into salads, cereals and yogurt or incorporated into cooking. A study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, found a link between daily almond consumption and weight loss—specifically belly fat. On the Nutrisystem plan, almonds are a PowerFuel, which are foods that offer high-quality proteins while also containing essential amino acids and healthy fats.

6. Flax Seeds

Flax seeds are a nutrient-dense and fiber-rich “superseed.” Flax seed recipes are usually easy to make and are packed with superfood benefits. They can be tossed into a variety of dishes to ramp up their nutrition power. Flax seed also contains both soluble and insoluble fiber, says Healthline. This helps to ensure healthy and gradual digestion that keeps you fuller longer. It is this digestive superpower that is likely to help assist with weight loss.

9 Seeds You Need to Be Eating

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7. Blueberries

While most berries are good for you and can be considered superfoods, blueberries are said to be one of the best, particularly when it comes to their ability to help you lose stubborn belly fat. According to the University of Michigan, research shows that blueberries may help to burn belly fat because of their high antioxidant content.

While blueberries are tasty to eat on their own, there are also many great ways to cook or bake with them to increase your consumption. The naturally sweet goodness of blueberries makes them a healthy alternative to many sugar-laden desserts—a common healthy diet downfall. Be sure to check out these 10 reasons you need to eat more fruit like blueberries! >

8. Avocado

Here at The Leaf, we love avocados! Avocados are rich in potassium as well as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which are “healthy fats” essential to a weight loss plan. That’s because your body needs fat to help you feel full and satisfied after eating, to provide quick-burning energy and to aid in the absorption of vitamins and minerals that you consume. As a “whole food” source of healthy fat, avocados have that power. People who regularly eat avocados have significantly lower body weight, BMI (body mass index), and waist circumference, and higher HDL (good cholesterol levels) than people who don’t eat the fruit, according to a study published in Nutrition Journal.

There are many great ways to use avocado that you may never have thought of. It can be a healthy substitute for mayo, a topping for salads, a baking ingredient for cookies or brownies and even a base for pudding. It’s creamy texture and versatile nature help it to shine as a superfood to help you lose fat. Here are more superfood facts about avocados! >

9. Black Beans

Black beans are packed with potent plant-based nutrients that are believed to help protect against cancer, says Medical News Today. They’re also an inexpensive and easy-to-cook-with food that can be incorporated into many different dishes. For those looking to drop some pounds and lose fat, some of the best news is that consuming beans was linked to “reduced body fat percentage” in a study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Another study, published in BMC Proceedings, shows that certain compounds in the beans might help to strengthen the body’s insulin resistance and protect against obesity.

How to Eat More Beans

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10. Apples

As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what if it could keep the pounds away, too? Apples are rich in weight-loss-friendly fiber and help slow the digestion of food. This helps you to feel fuller with fewer calories. For these reasons, they can definitely play a vital role in your efforts to lose fat.

Apples are one of the most versatile fruits, with so many different ways to cook and prepare them. Try them out in this unique Instant Pot Apple Cake. Of course, apples are also delicious and nutritious all on their own or sliced with peanut butter. Check out this awesome video from The Leaf and learn five reasons to eat more apples! >

The post 10 Superfoods That Help You Lose Fat appeared first on The Leaf.

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Habitbull app: amazing resource to keep on track

I'm not sure how widely used these habit apps are. But I just started my fitness/weight loss journey and trying to be consistent with three things. 1) eat under 1400cal 2) work out: skipping/YouTube videos once a day 3) go for an hours walk

In my head I feel like I've been consistent. But it's really easy for 3 days of consistency to feel like 2 weeks.

I starting using habitbull - which I thought was worth sharing. It's a really user friendly, and has a calender where you can enter colour coded goals. So you just tap the date on each goal and you can set it to a simple yes or no which is red or green and can set it to week or month view.

I found 3 really important benefits: - It's so much easier how consistent I've been - so if I'm not seeing results I can be accountable and realistic. -Its also a great positive reinforcer that I look forward to turning that date green.
- I'm using myfitnesspal, fitbit and other resources so it's so much easier to have a central system for it all.

I hope this helps some of you guys :)

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50 pounds down, 15 more to go: Reflections on willpower and responsibility

Over the course of the past decade I have had many false starts on my weight loss journey. Here, we are no stranger to the fact that weight loss is as much about psychology as it is about technique. All the CICO in the world won’t help you if you can’t stick to it.

After many false starts, I concluded that perhaps I was simply deficient in willpower and discipline. And my weight loss journey paused for a long time, until two psychological puzzle pieces fell into place.

Now, for the first time in my life, I demolished my obesity and am only 15 pounds away from a normal BMI.

Below are some of my reflections on the psychological understandings on willpower and responsibility that I had to come to before things finally clicked.

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The first thing that I had to learn was realizing that willpower is not something you possess, reserved for the special chosen few. Willpower is something you do. Anyone can have willpower - all you have to do is make the decision to do what you know you have to do.

In essence, willpower is deciding to do something and following through - consequences be damned. Oh, it’s going to suck, but you are gonna do it. Willpower is disregarding the future in that moment of making the decision: focus on the now.

The second thing I had to realize was that no one is coming to save me from myself. Life sucks. And no matter how much you complain about that, no one is going to solve it for you. If you want to change it, you are the only person that can change it. The burden of fixing your life rests entirely on you.

Internalizing that willpower is painful, and that reaching my goals will hurt, gave me a sort of grim and gritty determination, giving me the strength to continue on my darkest days. Internalizing extreme responsibility gave me a deeper sense of purpose, let me virtually eliminate cheat days, and helped me with consistency.

These were the two psychological puzzle pieces that, when put together, gave me a truly deep sense of purpose and helped me begin my weight loss journey in earnest.

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Videogaming Helped Me Lose Weight

It all started in April of 2019. My job at the time was on the second floor and the elevator was out. I let out a sigh and slowly made my way up the stairs. This quite the challenge for a 10 year smoker who weighed 294lbs. By the time I got to the door I was already sweating and panting. It was then that I realized that I was tired of being overweight.

That day I threw out all of my nicotine products, downloaded MyFitnessPal, and stopped going to fast food restaurants. I began to count my calories, fast intermittently, and take the stairs wherever I went but, I never actually worked out. Working out was always difficult for me mainly because I get bored easily. Enter: Ring Fit Adventure.

Ring Fit Adventure is a RPG workout game for the Nintendo Switch. It uses a leg strap and plastic ring in which you attach the controllers to in order for your movements to be inputted into the game. Now, when I first saw this game I thought it was just another Nintendo gimmick like Wii Fitness or Wii Sports. Boy, was I wrong.

Now Ring Fit didnt come into play until the end of December or 2019. At this point I had already lost 60lbs. At the time I was a streamer for Mixer (RIP) and I decided it would be a fun idea to stream the game and see if it would help me lose weight! Streaming the game was a great motivator for me considering that the game makes you break a sweat. Here is a clip of me during my first workout. It was not but, I kept at it. I streamed the game almost every other day and kept pushing myself further and further. The game calculates the total amount of time you are exercising by how much you movement you are imputing. Heres me pushing myself to a full hour.

While the game is difficult it is by no means not fun or entertaining! There is mechanic in the game where you make smoothies to give yourself buffs and jamming out while making them. There are bosses that have powerful attacks that you have to put up a beefy defense and sometimes the ring-con has a mind of its own! It also helps when you have a dog who loves to encourage you along the way.

In three months of me streaming and playing I had lost 30lbs! I wanted to continue pushing myself but, the pandemic hit and just kinda screwed everything up as Im sure a lot of you know. On top of that Mixer shut down and I had to move my streaming over to Twitch. I fortunately kept my health up and was able to hit my goal weight of 194lbs by my birthday on 5/15!

Currently I am back to streaming Ring Fit Adventure on Twitch every Wednesday and I am now sitting at 1851bs and I have set my new goal to 165lbs. Not only did is this game helping me lose weight but it is also motivating me to workout outside of the game. I have been trailing running as much as I can and lifting weights at home! Its also a great tool to show yourself how much you have grown! The game will tell you how many times you have done an exercise!

Who would of thought that a game would help me with my weight loss journey? I like looking back onto this clip of me doing overhead squats for the first time compared to this clip of me doing them with ease last month.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you know that if I can do it, so can you! If you ever need any help, want to know more about the game, or would like to know where to watch me let me know!

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Weight loss Diaries: Day 1

I woke up late and unmotivated but I still got up and worked out. Although it was only 15 minutes, I'm still proud that I stood up and did it. By the way, I'm following Chloe Ting's 25 Days Thigh Slimming video. If you have any recommendations for slimming thighs and decreasing overall body weight and fat percentage, please tell me in the comments. I also started counting calories but I still eat what I would normally, just in controlled portions. Also, I won't be eating after 6:00, I think it's called intermittent fasting? Not sure tho. Looking good so far?? I don't know but I hope to keep this up. For real, this time.

A quick message to myself: Please stay committed to this. Aren't you tired of starting then falling apart midway? Not even midway, just a week after starting this journey, again. This will all pay off, you don't need to be good and expect 100% on the first day. It's ok to fail that, means you're trying. Give yourself a break, you can do it. 💖

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 18 November 2020? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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Started my weight loss journey last month. Despite the encouraging results so far, I don’t know what my endgoal is - please help me figure it out (M32, 178cm, 75kg)

During college I gained some weight, which I never lost. I am not overweight by any means (my highest was weight was 80kg), but I do have a noticable “beer belly”.

Since I am unemployed right now, I am using this time to make some changes in my life, and losing the belly fat is one of them. During the last month I started to count calories, achieving around 6-800kcal defiicit daily. The results so far have been great, I already lost 2kg, and already feeling much better. Tracking my progress is an amazing motivation for me.

Initially my goal weight was 70kg - the plan was to get down to a weight where I have no visible belly fat (priority #1), and once I get there, start to build up some muscle (priority #2).

Now I just picked 70kg as my goal because it was a nice round number, but I don’t actually know what I should be aiming for. If I google ideal weight for my height I get very different results, and according to some of them I am almost there - which cannot be the case, as I still have a noticable belly fat - e.g..: I cannot wear slim cut shirts.

What would be a good way to figure out my ideal weight?

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