Foods That Burn Belly Fat

That is absolutely well known scientific fact, and as a chemist myself I can state without a doubt that the only process that burns belly fat is your own metabolism. However, there are foods that you can eat to help your metabolism to break down your fat deposits into the sugars it needs to generate the energy your body needs.

Negative Calorie Foods

Have you heard of 'negative calorie' foods? If so, here is some news for you: there are no such things. There are no foods that contain fewer calories than are needed to digest them. If the foods that burn belly fat do so because they are claimed to contain no or very few calories, then they will be of little use to you nutritionally because the main purpose of the food you eat is to provide the raw material for the ATP energy that keeps you alive.

We are organic beings, and so we eat organic food to keep us alive. No organic substance contains no energy. Even lettuce leaves contain more energy than is used to consume and digest them.

So, Rule #1 in discussing foods that burn belly fat:

NO NEGATIVE CALORIE FOODS!

So What Are Foods that Burn Belly Fat?

They are foods that do not offer a rapid source of glucose after digestion. We shall use glucose as representing energy because that is the base carbohydrate used along with oxygen in cellular respiration to generate energy and release carbon dioxide.

Sugars, for example, are rapidly metabolized to glucose by our digestive system. Carbohydrates, such as bread, chips, fats, cream, cookies, alcohol in beer and spirits, avocados, fruits and most other foodstuffs we eat are metabolized to glucose. The glucose is allowed to enter our body cells by the action of insulin, where it then undergoes the various chemical reactions involved in cellular respiration .

Atkins Was Right

But what if you body lacks carbohydrates in the diet? What does it do then?

In fact, the much maligned Dr. Atkins had the answer to that, although his theory was flawed in a way that is discussed elsewhere on this website. However, his diet actually works, because a low carbohydrate diet actually does burn fat.

Proteins are Foods that Burn Belly Fat.

Without energy your body cells die, and since your brain cells use most of the energy we generate, these are the first to go. The reason the brain cells use most of the oxygen we breathe in is because the brain cells need most energy. However, enough of that for now because this is not about the brain.

Energy is generated in your body mainly by means of the process of cellular respiration. There is another method, but that is not relevant at the moment. Cellular respiration generates what is known as aerobic energy, or energy created by glucose and oxygen (aerobic means 'with oxygen'). More on that on my page on aerobic eneregy .

Aerobic energy needs glucose and oxygen, and we know where the oxygen comes from, but what about the glucose? That comes from digestion of carbohydrates. Glucose is available only from molecules known as carbohydrates that by definition contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Carbo = Carbon, or C Hydr = Hydrogen, or H Ate = Oxygen, or O.

Every carbohydrate (or carb) that you eat contains these three atoms in various combinations to form molecules - and NO OTHER TYPE OF ATOM.

Take proteins, for example. They are formed from carbohydrates and amino acids. Chemically, amino acids also contain C, H and O, but also N - nitrogen. Hence the need for nitrates in plant fertilizers. Plants need nitrates to grow, we eat plants (perhaps with animals as an intermediary) and fro the nitrogen we consume amino acids are formed, and from them come proteins.

Carbohydrates do not contain anything but the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and that is all that is needed to generate energy. Plus extra oxygen that we breathe in.

Foods that Burn Belly Fat are Carbohydrate Deficient

Absolutely correct: foods that burn belly fat are carbohydrate deficient. In fact they are generally proteins. If you include a lot of protein in your diet then you will start to burn off your fat. If you exercise your abdominal muscles at the same time, that fat is likely to be lost from your belly.

The reason for this is that once your metabolism has used up all the available glucose in your blood - remember glucose is made from the carbohydrates and sugars in your diet - then it will turn to its emergency energy stores. We are not talking about creatine phosphate and glycogen here that are the emergency energy stores that athletes use up in their first two minutes or so of running, but of longer-term energy stores: fat.

When you are born, you have a certain number of fat cells that never decrease. They can grow as necessary but they never grow less. Your body uses these fat cells to store a powerfully strong carbohydrate known as fat that can generate a lot of glucose when metabolized - that is what fat is: a store of potential energy used by your body in times of need. To burn belly fat you must make that time of need come now!

By reducing the carbohydrate content of your diet and increasing the protein, your blood glucose will diminish and your body will turn to its fat stores to use up as energy. That's how you can burn fat, that's how you can lose weight and get slimmer, and that's how you can choose foods that burn belly fat!

Atkins got it right but he made one fatal error. He tried to make money by marketing the nutrients needed along with the diet at a fairly high price. The adherents of his Atkins Protein Diet didn't buy them, and began to suffer dietary deficiencies.

Because, by eating only proteins, mostly animal proteins, his adherents were lacking the plant chemicals: the phytochemicals - the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and everything else in a properly balanced diet were lacking.

What was lacking in the Atkins method was a balanced diet.

However, you can overcome that by eating predominantly fish, chicken and other lean meats, trying to avoid the fats, and also including fresh colored fruits and vegetables such as peppers, blueberries, acai berries, plums, broccoli and so on. However, do not eat sweet fruits to excess because they contain fructose that can itself be metabolized to glucose.

You want your body to have to use your body fats for glucose, while you consume the vitamins, minerals, other chemicals and also the proteins needed to maintain a good nutritious diet that helps your immune system to fight disease.

So forget negative calories and think instead of intelligent diets that offer your body more proteins and nutrients than carbohydrates, and your own metabolism will work out the rest. The result will be a reduction in your fat stores, although there will be no guarantee that your diet will consist of foods that burn belly fat.

That comes with exercise and the muscles you work. As you exercise each part of your body, the fat will tend to be removed from the fat cells closest to the muscles you are working - so work your stomach muscles and the fat needed for that exercise will be taken from the fat cells around your belly.

It is very simple: nature is wonderful and uses the simplest methods possible, and if you could only learn from nature and the wonders of your own body, you would realize that there no foods that burn belly fat. Your own body will do that if you only give it the raw materials with which to work.

More on this topic to come along with dietary recommendations.

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