Are There Foods That Burn Fat? The Science Behind the Weight Loss Claim | BarBend (2024)

It’s happened to plenty of strength athletes. You’re scrolling your social media feed and come across posts listing out foods that burn fat — read: green tea and and apple cider vinegar — promising to shed fat from your frame just by eating or drinking them.

And yet, there is a chasm of scientific difference between foods that may boost metabolism and foods that literally burn fat. Spoiler alert: foods don’t do that. Here, you’ll get the skinny on off-touted fat-burning foods before you try eating or drinking certain things in the (false) hope of experiencing rapid weight loss.

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

Can Food Burn Fat?

No matter what claims a well-meaning nutritionist might make about a supposed superfood’s capabilities, there is no food you can consume that directly burns belly fat. The best fat-burning foods simply don’t exist.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t foods that boost metabolism, reduce cravings, and influence other factors that contribute to weight loss. However, incinerating body fat is not a task food can perform. Your weight gain, maintenance, or loss is certainly affected by your food choices — but not because fat is burned by food itself.

[Read More: 8 Natural Fat Burners]

“Eating one food item cannot ultimately lead to fat burning all by itself,” Douglass tells BarBend. “There is no magical food that accomplishes this…It is important to pay attention to your food if your goal is weight loss, but fat burning is more complicated and complex than consuming a product and watching fat melt away.”

What Makes a Food Good for Fat Loss?

The qualities that make a food good for fat loss can fall into several categories. General characteristics to look for include foods that increase your satiety, elevate your metabolic rate, and reduce blood sugar levels. (1) Of course, this also mandates that you keep your caloric intake at a low enough level to ensure sustainable weight loss.

[Read More: Best Fat Burners]

“The foods that would be helpful in promoting someone’s goals of weight loss would be foods that are healthy in a general sense, and that leave you feeling full and satiated, and will preserve your healthy tissue and muscle mass. This means you’re getting all of your essential macronutrients without the empty calories that are going to cause your body to store more fat.”

Foods to Eat on a Weight Loss Diet

If your goal is to reduce your body weight by eating healthy foods, consider beginning with a balanced macronutrient spread including a variety of micronutrients, and then tinker from there. This means starting off with an appropriate ratio of complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lean protein. (2)

To figure out what macronutrient ratio might suit your goals, check out BarBend’s macronutrient calculator.

[Read More: Fat Loss for Athletes: The Right Way to Approach Calories and Hormones]

Nutrient-Dense Foods

One of the simplest ways to lose weight is to optimize the micronutrient content of your foods within a smaller caloric package. In other words, if you can acquire your key nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin D, and calcium while ingesting fewer calories, you can shed weight in the process. This can prevent you from overeating while contributing to improved overall health.

“The appeal of something that’s nutrient-dense is that it can be high-fiber or high-protein, or have antioxidants and other beneficial components that can help you to feel good for longer, which is very important,” Douglass says.

[Read More: Do Fat Burners Work?]

On the other end of the spectrum, foods lacking a lot of nutrients — like sugary drinks — won’t be giving your body the nutrients you need to function at your best. “Low-nutrient foods may make you hungrier throughout the day, and you may experience cravings at the end of the day that you’ll fulfill with foods that you wouldn’t normally consume because your body is looking for those nutrients from anywhere it can find them.”

Foods That Maintain Body Functionality

If you’re focused on losing weight, make sure you’re focusing on maintaining your health first and foremost. To do that, consume foods that allow your body to function optimally.

This includes minerals like magnesium and potassium, along with essential vitamins and antioxidants that protect your cells from an accumulation of damage. (3) It also means eating adequate healthy fats — like olive oil or avocado — to ensure that your cells run smoothly. (4)

[Read More: What Is a Healthy Body Fat Percentage?]

“Following a restrictive diet might help you to see a significant lowering of your weight on the scale…but it can damage your metabolism in the long run,” Douglass says.

“This can also mean that you’re not meeting any of your macronutrient or micronutrient needs for your body to function,” she continues. “When people eliminate entire categories of macronutrients — like carbs — they’re usually also cutting out things like whole grains, which are important for health.”

Foods With Properties That Contribute to Weight Loss

While food does not directly burn fat, some foods have properties that can boost your metabolism and accelerate fat loss. This is not to say that omega-3 fatty acids or capsaicin can offset a high-calorie diet.

But fatty fish, cayenne peppers, and chili peppers may be able to accelerate a small amount of the fat loss in a diet that is already geared toward weight management. (5) (6)

[Read More: Does Cayenne Pepper Really Burn Fat?]

“Despite their name, metabolism-boosters aren’t magical,” Douglass cautions. “They simply help everything you’re eating to work better together.”

Low-Calorie Food Options

While many foods are naturally lower in caloric density — think proteins like tofu and lean beef, and veggies like cauliflower and low-fat Greek yogurt — make sure you’re properly vetting foods that claim to be “diet” products before eating them.

“Weight loss isn’t just about eating foods that are low-calorie,” Douglass explains. “The danger of eating something that is artificially low-calorie is that it is usually abnormally high in sodium or some undesirable ingredients to make it taste better. So then you’re affecting your metabolism negatively, and possibly damaging your body through a high-salt diet. Things like that can defeat the entire purpose.”

[Read More: 7 Proven Strategies to Lose 2 Pounds Per Week]

You also might end up eating more of a low-calorie version of a certain food, Douglass points out, leaving you with a higher overall caloric intake at the end of the day. And in western and American diets, the salt factor that Douglass cautions about may be especially prevalent.

To help you figure you how many calories to eat per day, take BarBend’s calorie calculator for a spin.

How to Lose Weight

There are so many strategies out there marketed to promote weight loss, and several of them may work to some degree. The real question is whether a strategy will keep you healthy while helping you lose the weight you want to and keep it off in a sustainable fashion. The true answer encourages a comprehensive approach to wellness and a variety of foods that confer health benefits.

To learn more about various strategies that are popular among strength athletes, check out these BarBend articles:

• The 80/20 Diet Rule Explained (and Why You Should Try It)
• Intermittent Fasting 101 — A Guide to Benefits, Muscle Gain, and More

In general, there’s some basic advice to follow. “Be sure to frequently eat nutrient-dense foods like whole grains, fruits and veggies, and stay hydrated,” Douglass encourages. “Hydration is very important to overall body health and brain function, and your body doesn’t always know whether it’s hungry or just thirsty.”

Better Than Magic

Foods that burn fat just aren’t where it’s at. There’s no such thing as a food that magically torches fat, but implementing the right set of strategies can result in the next best thing. It’s not as fun to say as “Abracadabra,” but the words “balanced diet” can result in a loss of body fat that is nearly as miraculous as anything that a strength sports wizard might conjure up.

FAQs

If you still have questions about what foods are best to burn body fat, we have answers below:

References

1. Institute of Medicine (US) Subcommittee on Military Weight Management. Weight Management: State of the Science and Opportunities for Military Programs. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004. 4, Weight-Loss and Maintenance Strategies.
2. Lee E, Choi J, Ahn A, Oh E, Kweon H, Cho D. Acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges and hypertension. Clin Exp Hypertens. 2015;37(6):463-7.
3. Zehiroglu C, Ozturk Sarikaya SB. The importance of antioxidants and place in today’s scientific and technological studies. J Food Sci Technol. 2019 Nov;56(11):4757-4774.
4. Liu AG, Ford NA, Hu FB, Zelman KM, Mozaffarian D, Kris-Etherton PM. A healthy approach to dietary fats: understanding the science and taking action to reduce consumer confusion. Nutr J. 2017 Aug 30;16(1):53.
5. Salman HB, Salman MA, Yildiz Akal E. The effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on weight loss and cognitive function in overweight or obese individuals on weight-loss diet. Nutr Hosp. 2022 Aug 25;39(4):803-813. English.
6. Fattori V, Hohmann MS, Rossaneis AC, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Verri WA. Capsaicin: Current Understanding of Its Mechanisms and Therapy of Pain and Other Pre-Clinical and Clinical Uses. Molecules. 2016 Jun 28;21(7):844.

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