How the thermic effect of foods can work to your advantage
Most diet plans fail to explain how the thermic effect of foods can work to your advantage – or to your disadvantage – when trying to lose weight. That’s because many are more interested in boosting their bottom line than in your health and well-being. The information gap used to work in their favor, but not any more. Sorry, diet product peddlers, now the tables have turned. No pun intended.
If you are seriously ready to lose weight, keep it off and live a healthy lifestyle, then you are ready to understand what foods you should eat and why.
The Thermic Effect of food (TEF), in a nutshell, is energy burned during digestion. The scientific definition is the increment of energy expenditure above resting metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for storage and use.
Say what? What does this mean to all of us regular folk? Well, from the time the fork leaves our lips to the time each bite works its way out the other end, our bodies are burning calories to process it. So, with that said, is there a way to eat certain foods that will take more energy to digest, boost metabolism, and take advantage of the thermic effect? The answer is, yes.
Different foods have varying thermic effects, ranging from 3% to 30%. Foods like salmon, turkey, tuna, tofu, eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese, for example, have a thermic effect as much as 30%. This means your body burns 30% of the energy (calories) found in these foods simply by digesting them.
High protein foods are essential for turning fat into muscle. There are no other foods better to boost your metabolism and promote weight loss. Having one portion of high protein foods with each of your 5-6 meals is a sure way to a super hard working metabolism.
When you think carbs, think colorful – and not about the colored sprinkles on that doughnut! Complex and fibrous carbohydrates, or “colorful” carbs, like spinach, broccoli, asparagus, apples, legumes, and brown rice, for example, are next in line. These foods require our bodies to burn up to 20% of their calories just through the digestive process. A healthy portion of complex and fibrous carbohydrates should be included in each of your 5-6 meals to maintain steady energy levels throughout the day.
Now for the ugly stuff – fats and refined carbohydrates, or “ugly” carbs. Processed foods, foods containing refined white flour, white sugar, and basically anything that has been stripped of its natural fiber, oils and nutrients has a very low thermic effect of only 3%. Foods that fall into this category can easily be stored as body fat for this very reason. Commercial baked goods (cookies, crackers, cakes, etc), fried foods (doughnuts, french fries, etc), shortening and margarine are just some of the “ugly” carbs and harmful fats to stay away from. Keeping a small level of fat in your diet is necessary, but the wrong fats tend to be high in calories and can be very harmful.
When it comes to getting fat in your diet, stick to cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, herring and mackerel; you’ll get essential Omega-3 fatty acids PLUS protein all in one. Other sources of beneficial fats are avocados, olives, nuts, seeds and flaxseed. When cooking use unsaturated fats such as safflower, canola, soybean, sunflower or olive oil. You should include one serving of beneficial fat per day, equivalent to 3oz of fish or 1 tablespoon of oil.
Below is a list of recommended foods, by category, as well as some to avoid. Mix ‘n’ match, to meet the meal portion requirements. Servings of protein at each meal should be about 3 oz, or roughly the size of the palm of your hand (no fingers included). Carbohydrate portions should be about 2-3 oz, or roughly two heaping tablespoons.
Previous articles talked about going back to the basics, portion control and metabolism. It’s important to remember if you want to lose weight, the formula is simple. The number of calories you take in should be less than the number of calories you burn off. When you combine 5-6 healthy, small meals containing foods of a high thermic effect, drinking plenty of water* and engage in a regular fitness program you will find yourself a lean, mean weight loss machine!
*To calculate how much water you should be drinking – take your weight in pounds, multiply that number by 2/3 and that’s the number of ounces of water you should drink, per day. Example…if you weigh 150lbs, take 150 x 2/3 = 100 ounces, which is a little more than 3/4 of a gallon.
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November 1st, 2010 at 7:25 am
Thanks mate. Awesome site you got here. Have some extra websites to point to which have more information?