Home Page for List of Fat Burning Foods

Preliminary Rules for Fat Burning

Before we discuss the list of fat burning foods a few basic rules have to be defined. First of all - Are you overeating? If you are, fat burning foods will not be very effective. It is important that you determine:

your daily calorie count - how many calories do you eat in a day, and
you need to find out how many calories you require every day to remain healthy.

Determining Daily Calorie Count

There are numerous calorie guides that can tell you how many calories are in a particular food. An excellent one is: The Biggest Loser Calorie Counter: The Quick and Easy Guide to Thousands of Foods from Grocery Stores and Popular Restaurants--As Seen on NBC's Hit Show!

Every time you put food in your mouth, look on a calorie chart to see the number of calories you are about to eat and keep a list. Learn what size a serving is for each food and the suggested number of calories. Most people don't know how large a 'portion' or 'serving size' is for a particular food and overeat. This is fundamental to fat burning and losing weight. Once you understand what the correct serving size is and equate it to the number of calories, you are well on your way to controlling your weight.

Many overweight people will say that they don't eat that much and they can't understand why they weigh so much. Well, after taking a daily tally of the foods they eat, and totaling the calories, many are amazed by the number of calories they in fact eat in a day.

Become Label Savvy

When you read a nutrition facts label on a packaged-food product, at the very top immediately under the 'Nutrition Facts' is listed the 'Serving Size'. Pay particular attention to this amount. For example on a jar of peanut butter I found listed a serving size of 2 Tbsp (tablespoons) which in this case is 32g (grams).

All the information below on the Nutrition Facts label refers to one serving size portion. On this peanut butter jar it lists: 180 calories - calories from fat 150. Then it does a futher breakdown of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, and protein.

Becoming label savvy will help you to not only understand how many calories you can expect to get from a serving of a food, but also fat, carbohydrate, and protein distribution. This is all very important information. It's like the difference between black and white and color TV. Getting a good understanding of these values will maximize your fat burning abilities.

Ideal Body Weight

A general rule of thumb for your ideal body weight (IDB) is: for women 105 pounds for first five feet and 5 additional pounds per inch thereafter. For example a five-foot-four female would weigh 105 pounds plus (4 inches X 5 pounds/inch) or 20 additional pounds for a total of 125 pounds.

A man is 106 pounds for first 5 feet and 6 additional pounds per inch thereafter. So a five foot six male would weight 106 plus (6 inches X 6 pounds/inch) or 142 pounds.

Of course this is only a rough estimate since a person might have a small, medium, or large body frame and that would affect the final weight. But it does give an idea of how much your IDB is.

How Many Calories Do You Require Daily?

Too determine the number of calories you require daily go to: Mayo Clinic Calorie Counter and answer the questions.

Let’s say for example that you need 2,000 calories/day and you find that in fact you are eating 3,000 calories a day. In this case you are eating a surplus of 1,000 calories a day. This surplus is being converted by the liver into fat (about 1/3 of a pound of fat) and being packed in unsightly areas around your body (obviously this is the reverse of fat burning).

You would think a thousand calories is a lot. Think again a Big Mac, an order of fries, and a large coke can easily cross a thousand calories. And a lot of that meal is fat – this is not a fat burning food.

So before you look for negative calorie foods – to hopefully lose fat, you must get control of the number of calories you are eating every day. Otherwise you’re fighting a losing fat burning battle.

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