If you’ve ever done a little online digging into the health food world, you’ll have noticed that not all calories work the same. The energy or calories you consume from bread are going to be more damaging to your weight loss routine than calories from nuts or fruit.
A general guide to follow is that, when trying to lose weight, all of your calories should come from healthy sources. This way your body will metabolise them in a more efficient way, rather than storing them as fat.
In the article below, we’ve listed six fantastic fat burning foods and other ingredients you can add to your protein shakes to help you burn fat.
Leafy Greens
One of the easiest foods to add to a protein shake – especially if it’s made in a blender – are your leafy greens. These vegetables have a great advantage as they’re loaded with fibre, which keeps you feeling hungry for longer, reducing your chances of snacking later in the day. Leafy greens are also exceptionally low in carbs.
To the technical side of things, leafy greens hold a whole range of vitamins, particularly vitamin K, which aids the body in strengthening bones and assisting in blood clotting. There are also studies that have revealed that the calcium in leafy greens encourages the body to burn fat quicker. This effectively makes leafy greens a natural fat burner.
Studies have also spotlighted that those of us who consume our leafy greens don’t eat as many unhealthy foods. Whether this is due to the high fibre content or something else entirely, it’s still a great motivator to add leafy greens to your diet.
Adding to Your Shake
You can easily add your leafy greens to your protein shakes by simply blending them into whatever shake you’re already making. Although they get a bad rap and don’t look too appetising when they’ve turned your shake to a green goo, they actually don’t have a taste at all – especially when you blend them with citrus.
Cottage Cheese
The addition of cottage cheese to a protein shake or smoothie might seem quite odd, though the science is there to back it up. Although the ideal time to consume a cottage cheese-infused protein shake is prior to bedtime, it can still promote weight loss.
Aside from being a favourite low-cal snack, cottage cheese is also packed full of nutrients that you might not be aware of. It’s filled with one of the highest protein contents in a dairy food and that means it digests slowly, forcing you to stop snacking.
Adding to Your Shake
To make the best shake with cottage cheese, do your best to add in lime and vanilla. You’ll end up with a great tasting protein smoothie that you won’t regret later. Take a look at a few recipes and you might just find your new favourite protein shake
Matcha Green Tea Powder
The crown jewel in green tea’s crown is undoubtedly matcha and it should certainly find its way into every one of your protein shakes. It’s jam-packed with antioxidants and it’s also a slow caffeine releaser, which means you’ll have energy throughout the day without needing to snack.
The best part of traditional and organic matcha powder is that studies have found the exotic green powder tells the body to burn fat much faster. That means your pre or post-workout smoothie will tell your body to speed up its metabolism and oxidise that annoying belly fat.
A final killer feature of green tea matcha powder is that studies have shown drinkers of matcha powder had recorded weight losses of three extra pounds (or over a kilogram) without making any other changes to their diet or workout routine.
Adding to Your Shake
Getting your fill of matcha green tea isn’t difficult at all. The powder is fine and easily mixable in shakes and smoothies, so simply add a few teaspoons to your next shake and let the powder do its work.
Cocoa Powder (Not Chocolate Powder)
Another fantastically high antioxidant powder is cocoa powder. It works wonders for post-workout fat burning. You’ll find that cocoa powder is also extremely high in fibre, leaving you full for longer and its high iron and protein content leaves you with the building blocks for the physique you’re chasing. Cocoa powder also works to boost your metabolism, helping you burn fat a whole lot faster.
Something to keep in mind is that raw cocoa powder is bitter, so you’ll need a sweetener. If you’re making a milky protein shake, add in some stevia or another zero-calorie sweetener or you’ll be stacking on extra carbs that you don’t need.
Adding to Your Shake
The best protein shakes to add some cocoa powder are milk-based ones with more neutral palettes. Think banana, milk and cinnamon or similar shakes. Wveryone’s taste palette might be different, but you’ll certainly want to rethink trying a spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder in an orange and kale smoothie.
Berries
In line with our other high-fibre foods, berries are fantastic for weight loss protein shakes. Their high fibre content is fantastic to keep you feeling full for longer and will block unnecessary snacking. Berries, including strawberries, are also high in antioxidants and that means hindering free radical development within the body. They can also help reduce belly fat through being a diuretic.
Of course, berries are delicious and easy to add to just about any protein shake. They’re naturally sweet too, so you can use them as a substitute for sugar or honey in certain shakes, cutting back further on added calories.
Adding to Your Shake
Berries go great in oat protein shakes especially when paired with nuts. A few easy ways to add berries to your shakes are to simply drop them into one of your favourite protein shakes. They’ll add a burst of colour and a sweet aftertaste.
Coffee
You likely already add coffee to many of your protein shakes already, but let us tell you why it’s a great idea to keep doing so. The caffeine found in coffee is fast releasing, unlike matcha, and this allows coffee to stimulate the body to get your moving and ready to go – which burns more calories.
The most enticing part about coffee is that it directly tells the body to ‘melt’ fat cells. Coffee does this by pushing up levels of epinephrine, the hormone that tells the body to break down fats and migrates fat cells into the blood.
Adding to Your Shake
The easiest way to add coffee to your shake is to brew one first and mix it in later. It’ll pay to spend some time learning to brew a great coffee and adding it into your shake as you’ll certainly taste it even though it’ll likely be mixed in with bananas, oats and milk.