A little cellulite around your waist in winters can be camouflaged with the help of your jacket or sweater but what about summer when you won’t be able to hide it beneath your big furry clothes. Deposit of fat tissues around your belly or waist can prevent you from wearing short summer dresses or swimsuits.
What most of us are not aware about is that losing weight during summer is easier than any other period of the year as during summer we are easily repelled by high calorie or oil laden rich dishes and prefer light and refreshing food. So, switch to healthy summer food which works effectively in helping you lose weight.
Chilled soups
Cold soups or chilled soups are favored by most nutritionists as one of the best summer foods. Cold soups like cucumber dill or gazpacho are very low calorie dishes and contain high amount of necessary nutrients. As the major portion of cold soups consist of chunky vegetables, so it makes a great low fat breakfast which can fill your stomach quickly and can also prevent you from overeating. Besides being low fat, chilled soups are refreshing and help make your body temperature cooler. The journal Obesity Research published a study that including two servings of cold soups in the weight loss diet can hasten the progression of weight losing process up to a great extent thus are a value add to your diet chart. Hence, having chilled soups during the summer as in between meal snacking option or as breakfast will help you to cut down calorie intake.
Raw fruits and vegetables
Raw fruits and vegetables help you in losing weight faster than any other foods. Including raw fruits and vegetables in your everyday summer diet will help you to burn your calories more effectively and easily. Cooked and boiled food facilitate accumulation of fat in your body whereas raw vegetables and fruits prevent this process. Our bodies tend to burn 16% more calories on consumption of raw fruits and veggies than otherwise. Moreover, fruits and vegetables like orange, pineapples and lemons contain high amount of vitamin C which liquefy your body fat so that your body can easily flush it out. Furthermore, flushing out fat from your body will not only help you to obtain a slim body but will also adjust your body temperature so as to deal with the summer heat easily and effectively.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is one best food to maintain your weight and to prevent accumulation of body fats. It is rich in fiber which helps in decreasing your appetite and thereby prevents you from overeating. Fiber rich food tend to make you feel fuller quickly and also give you less hunger pangs. Oatmeal is a preferable food item before starting your everyday workout as it will provide you with blasting energy for longer periods which will in turn help you to exercise more intensely for longer duration. On a study conducted on athletes, researchers at Loughborough University found that the athletes who ate oatmeal for breakfast as well as for lunch burned more fats and also were able to work for longer hours than the athletes who had other food for breakfast and lunch.
Salad
Salads are healthy and very easy to prepare and are also rich in various necessary nutrients. Salads has remained a favorite food for people who are on low fat diet as it can prevent you from gaining weight without making you weak. Salads can fill your stomach with all the healthy vegetables and fruits and will also prevent you from over eating, as raw fruits and vegetables remain in your stomach for longer period of time as compared to cooked food. Researchers from Penn State University conducted a study on two groups of women where the first group was asked to have a salad before serving them with pasta for lunch and the second group was served only pasta for lunch. The researchers found that the women of the first group consumed less calories for the entire meal than women of the second group and therefore it proves that having salad everyday will help you in burning calories than without including salad in your meal.
Apple
An apple a day may or may not keep the doctor away but will surely keep the unnecessary fats at bay. This fruit can be regarded as one of the best preferred snack for your weight loss diet. Apple contains high amount of water and two different kinds of weight reducing fibers known as soluble fibers and insoluble fibers. The soluble fibers help in preventing blood sugar spikes and the insoluble fibers help control hunger pangs. Nutritionists all around the world consider apple as a snacking powerhouse because a medium sized apple contains 85% of water and about 5% of soluble fibers. Besides containing all the weight reducing qualities, apple also contains a flavanoid called quercetin which helps in fighting cancer, promotes healthy lungs and also plays a key role in reducing cholesterol damage in your body.
Low fat yogurt
If you wish to have a slim body within a few weeks, then you better modify your diet chart to include a low fat yogurt at the earliest. Researchers at University of Tennessee found that, women who consumed at least three servings of low fat yogurt on daily basis, lose weight faster than women who did not consume yoghurt at all. This dairy product contains calcium and certain bioactive compounds which slow down the process of fat production and also increases the process of fat burning around your belly and therefore helps you in getting rid of your excess fat quickly and easily. To increase intake of yogurt, you can also add it to sauces and salad dressings in your everyday diet.
Fish
Fish is one of the most highly preferred protein rich summer foods which help you in losing weight. Out of 38 common foods, fish like halibut or cod are rated among the most filling foods. A recent study from Karolinska Institute, Sweden claimed that people who had fish for lunch consumed 11% less amount of food at dinner in comparison to people who had beef or other foods for lunch. Therefore, this study clearly showed that the intake of fish protein reduces the calorie intake in comparison to beef proteins. Moreover, fish like tuna, salmon or sardines help in making your body very sensitive to leptin, a very important fat-burning hormone. The hormone leptin mainly functions as a decision maker as it is leptin which determines if the calories in your body should be stored as fats or should be burned for energy and additionally, leptin also suppresses your appetite.
Eggs
Eggs are excellent source for proteins and also help in keeping you fuller than other high protein source. In a study on eggs versus bagels for breakfast, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition demonstrated that people who ate at least two eggs for breakfast showed very low intake of calories in the next twenty-four hours (400 fewer calories) than people who ate bagels for breakfast. This study has also proved the common hypothesis that eggs stimulate higher satiety and can keep you filled for longer period o
f time than other protein sources. So having eggs for breakfast will help make you slimmer by cutting down on the calorie consumption and will also help you meet your daily protein requirement.
Peanuts
Peanut is the most common nut in America as majority of Americans regard it as the most preferable nut for consumption. People who eat more peanuts reduce the risk of gaining weight than people who prefer other kinds of nuts. It has been established that both fat and protein contents of peanut help in keeping the stomach full for longer durations. However, the exact cause of this quality of peanut has not yet been confirmed but it has been proved that consuming high amount of peanut can help you in reducing your weight by preventing you from overeating and also by cutting down the calorie intake.
Low and no calorie beverages
One of the main reasons for putting on weight during the summers are the ever tempting smoothies, sodas, sweetened teas or cold sweetened coffee drinks which soothe our body but add up enormous amount of calories too. The intake of beverages during summer skyrockets as thirst increases during this period and also having cold beverages can cool down our body temperature instantly and also results in accumulation of fats in our body. However, there are many low fat beverages available in the market, you can prepare some delicious low calorie beverages at home too, these will relieve you from the summer heat without adding any calories.
Fruit based desserts
Whole course meals remain incomplete without a dessert, but since most of the dessert items are filled with high amount of fats and calories, it becomes difficult to have it without ruining your healthy diet plan. Desserts during the summer plays an important role as they help in cooling down the body and make you feel less fuller. So, even when you are maintaining a healthy diet, you can still gulp down some delicious desserts without having to worry about your weight by having fruit based low calorie and low fat desserts.