30 best fat-burning foods

Lose weight while you eat

If you're looking to get lean, look no further than these fat-burning foods.

Exercise and a balanced diet remain the cornerstones of weight loss. However, your body deals with food in different ways and this includes the way in which fat is burned and stored.

Some foods can be seen to encourage fat-burning, says Adele McGrath, nutritionist and director of fitness at Thirtysevendegrees Health and Fitness. “Protein promote a thermic effect of up to 30 percent, which is much higher than the rates for the other two macronutrients: fats and carbohydrates. This means that you will burn more calories digesting proteins than you will digesting either fats or carbohydrates. In other words, eating more protein will naturally increase your metabolic rate higher than eating either fats or carbohydrates.

“Except for a possible once-a-week cheat day, it's also important to restrict carbohydrate consumption. Keep your daily intake of carbohydrates to 25 grams or less. Your body prefers to metabolise the macronutrients in the following order: carbohydrates, fats, and then proteins. If you are consuming a lot of carbohydrates, the energy from fats and proteins will tend to get stored as body fat.

“Don't worry about consuming fats from natural sources. Fat is what you want your body to burn! If you are not consuming a lot of carbohydrates, eating fat will not make you fat. Furthermore, fat does not cause insulin spikes and insulin is a fat-storing hormone.

"Finally, exercising properly boosts your metabolic rate.”