6 Delicious Ways to Burn Off Belly Fat
Now that summer — and all those BBQs and trips to the ice cream shop — is coming to an end, many of us are trying to get our health back on track. You may think you need to take things out of your diet to drop a few pounds, but adding these healthy (and delicious) foods back in can help you reach your weight loss goals. Read on for six slimming superfoods that will help trim your waistline this fall.
Grapes halt the stress-gain trap.
They’re sweet, juicy, and in season right now, and munching on a heaping cup of grapes every day can double your belly fat loss — on any diet! According to Canadian researchers, grapes contain a unique blend of nutrients (vitamin C, resveratrol and cyanidin) that calm your adrenal glands, cutting their production of the fat-storing stress hormone cortisol by 33 percent.
Onions melt fat hormones.
The unique sulfur compounds in this flavorful vegetable switch on liver enzymes that speed the breakdown of fat-trapping hormones, pesticides, and other toxins within the body. It’s no wonder Dutch researchers say that incorporating 1/3 cup of onions (raw or cooked) into your daily diet can help you melt away 2 pounds of belly fat and pesky abdominal bloat in as little as 10 days!
Avocados flush out abdominal bloat.
Enjoying one medium avocado daily could trim 2 inches off your waistline in 10 days, plus help you shed 1 pound weekly without dieting, say researchers at the University of California at Riverside. Thanks goes to the fruit’s rich stores of carotenoids, nutrients that encourage kidney cells to flush out trapped fluids plus block lipogenesis (fat formation) inside abdominal tissues.
Red meat speeds metabolism.
You can triple your weight loss this month by eating 4 oz. of red meat four times weekly, Australian scientists say. The protein’s amino acids activate genes that promote fat metabolism inside abdominal cells, helping them burn an extra 100 calories of stored fat daily. Good news: Beef, pork, and lamb all contain this amino acid mix!
Eggs switch off hunger signals.
Great news from British scientists: You’ll shed an additional 17 pounds— and trim an extra 3 inches off your waist— by adding two eggs to your daily diet. This breakfast fave is packed with vitamin B-12 and choline, two essential nutrients that shut down stomach production of a hunger-promoting hormone (ghrelin).
Macadamias turn on energy engines.
Snacking on 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts daily can put slimming on autopilot, speeding your breakdown of belly fat by 25 percent and tripling your ability to keep the weight off permanently. That’s the word from University of Hawaii researchers, who say these gems brim with nutrients (magnesium and palmitoleic acid) that energize cellular mitochondria, encouraging them to burn fatty acids for energy.
This story originally appeared in our print magazine.
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