Weight Loss Calorie Burning Foods?

Here’s another wonderful myth out there. The idea that there are actual foods out there that ‘help’ you lose weight. That by some sheer miracle, when you eat these foods the weight melts off your body. Everything from ‘fat burning‘ foods, to the infamous ‘negative calorie‘ foods.

Both of these ‘advertisements’ are trying to convince you that it takes more energy to consume these foods or the food itself is boosting your ‘fat burning ability’ (your metabolism). So you either have to burn more calories to consume the food in question than the amount of calories the food possesses (the so-called celery myth), or the food in question has some magical ‘thermal’ properties that increases your metabolism, which should then increase the amount of calories you are ‘burning off’ by eating the food!

Ladies and gentlemen, if either of these myth had any truth to them, would we have the obesity epidemic in our country today? Seriously folks. All of these foods that are advertised are just more snake-oil salesmen pitches. Don’t believe the hype. Remember, if it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is.

The reality is your metabolism can be ‘boosted’, but not by food, and surely not by a pill (natural or herbal). We all remember our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). It’s our internal ‘furnace’ in layman’s terms. That particular furnace value (or number) can be increased with exercise, the presence of lean muscle, increase cardiovascular efficiency (VO2 max), and a plethora of other factors, but to say a food item or pill can ‘boost’ it to increase your fat loss is just plain ole’ silly. In the end your metabolism fluctuates all day depending on a myriad of factors (which I listed), but lying around waiting for a food or pill to do it for you is just ridiculous.

There is no easy way out. You have to work at it. You have to be disciplined. You have to be consistent. And above all YOU have to take an active part in YOUR weight loss.

Quit depending on the ‘next best thing’ and get out there and do it. In the end it’s your weight, therefore your responsibility. It’s that simple.