8 Superfoods for weight loss

Superfoods are foods that can help you lose or maintain weight, either by helping you to eat less or to burn more calories. The advantage to these foods is that they may help you do just that - if you eat them instead of some higher-calorie choices.

1. Green Tea

In a recent study, volunteers who drank a bottle of tea (fortified with green tea extract) every day for three months lost more body fat than another group who drank a bottle of regular oolong tea. Except for the different teas, their overall diets were similar. Researchers suspect that the catechins in green tea may trigger weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories and mildly decrease body fat.

2. Soup (broth or tomato-based)

Calorie-containing liquids generally are less filling than solid foods, but soups are the exception, says researcher Richard Mattes from Purdue University. In Mattes' study, participants were fed 300-calorie servings of various soups before eating their lunches (they could eat as much lunch as they wanted). Mattes found that the study participants tended to take in fewer total daily calories on days when they had the soup, suggesting that eating low-calorie soups (the broth- and tomato-based ones) before meals may reduce hunger and increase feelings of fullness.

3. Low-calorie green salads

Having a low-calorie salad as a first course can help you feel fuller and reduce the calories you eat during that meal.  Consider that two cups of fresh spinach leaves, 10 slices of cucumber, one medium tomato, and 1/4 cup of grated carrot has a grand total of 67 calories 5,5 grams of fibre.

4. Yoghurt

Yogurt is a dairy food, and several studies have found that including dairy products as part of an overall lower-calorie diet may give you a weight-loss advantage. One study looked at a group of obese adults who ate three X 170-gram servings of fat-free yoghurt a day as part of a diet reduced by 500 calories from their normal intake. The study found that this group lost 22% more weight and 61% more body fat than another group of participants who ate the reduced-calorie diet without emphasizing calcium-rich foods. Even more impressive: the yoghurt eaters also lost 81% more stomach fat.

5. Beans

Beans help you feel full for onger, which means they may work to curb your between-meal appetite. They also give you a big fibre and protein bang for a minimum of calories. One-half cup of kidney beans has around eight grams of fibre and seven grams of protein, all for about 110 calories. 

6. Water

Water is a keeping-it-off super-food because it's a great alternative to other calorie-containing beverages. When you drink beverages that have calories you are not likely to compensate by eating less food. You can get your water via unsweetened tea, regular water with lime or lemon, or cucumber. 

7. High-fibre, whole-grain cereal

Whole grains in general help boost fibre and the nutritional value of your meal. One of the easiest ways to give your daily diet a whole-grain boost is to have a bowl of high-fibre whole-grain cereal as breakfast or a snack.

8. Grapefruit

A study found that grapefruit may help encourage weight loss and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Study participants who ate a grapefruit at each meal for 12 weeks lost an average of 1,6 kilograms, while a comparison group that didn't eat grapefruit lost 0,27 kilograms, according to a recent pilot study by Scripps Clinic in San Diego. The researchers noticed that, after the meals, the grapefruit eaters also had reduced levels of insulin and blood sugar.

Bear in mind that grapefruit can interfere with the effectiveness of some medications, so check with your doctor or pharmacist if you're taking medication.

 

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