Douse your food in Tabasco. Capsaicin—the spicy compound found in the white membrane of chili peppers—has been shown to rev up your metabolism and can torch somewhere near an extra 50 calories. Eating salsa may boost fat burn a little bit, says Cassity, but don’t let that give you license to pile on the chips and guac. You still need to watch out for overall calorie intake.
Fuel up on fiber. In addition to making you feel full, longer (and therefore helping you eat less), fiber can help you burn through as much as 30% more calories, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition. “Fiber has roughage,” says Gans. “And roughage takes a longer time for your body to break down and requires more energy to digest.”
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Sleep more. Researchers found that dieters who logged 8.5 hours of shut-eye burned more fat than those who slept 5.5 hours. While both groups lost a similar amount of weight (6.6 pounds), the ones who got a full night’s rest dropped the majority of their weight from fat while those who slept less lost most of theirs from muscle.
Increase physical activity outside of the gym. In a recent U.K. study, 34 overweight women completed the same 150-minute-a-week exercise program, and while some women lost up to 7 pounds of body fat, others gained up to 5. The researchers think that the women who lost the most were the ones who maintained or increased their physical activity beyond the gym; those who gained weight had cut back on their everyday activity. “If you’re going to the gym, you don’t want to negate it by eating a lot afterward or no longer taking the stairs,” says Cassity. “You have to live the same life—if not improve on it—when you pick up exercise.”
Eat breakfast. A study conducted by the U.S. Navy found that people who ate breakfast daily helped boost the metabolisms of its personnel by as much as 10 %.
Pump iron. Lifting weights can help you torch a few more calories even after you finish your session, according to a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Women who did an hour-long strength-training program burned 100 more calories in the next 24 hours than when they didn’t hit the weights.
5 Smart Strength-Training Shortcuts
Choose tuna swimming in water. Stick to tuna packed in water not oil. Three ounces of water-packed chicken of the sea contains 109 calories and 2.5 g of fat compared with 158 calories and 6.9 g of fat in the oil-soaked kind. Plus, it’s a good protein source that’s rick in omega-3 fatty acids, which can help reduce your risk of heart disease and help prevent depression, says Gans.
Drink chocolate milk. McMaster University researchers compared the effects of downing low-fat chocolate milk, fat-free soy protein drink, and a traditional carbohydrate recovery drink after exercise. Not only did the milk drinkers gain more muscle than those who drank the soy and carbohydrate beverages, but they also lost twice as much fat.
Drink cold water. German researchers found that your metabolism can increase by as much as 30% during the 10 minutes after you drink a cold glass. Why? They speculate that your body burns more calories as it tries to warm the water. (Search: How many glasses of water should you drink a day?)
Brew a cup of green tea. A 2010 Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics study found that after 3 months, people who drank two glasses of decaf green tea a day lost 2.6 more pounds than those who drank an herbal brew. Researchers believe that catechin compounds in green tea may prevent fat formation and stimulate your metabolism.
Say yes to yogurt. A study in the International Journal of Obesity found that eating yogurt as part of a low-calorie diet may help burn more fat. People who tucked in three 1-cup servings a day lost 22% more weight and 61% more fat than those who dieted without including yogurt. Even better—most of the fat lost was from the belly.
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Eat an orange. People who don’t get enough vitamin C burn 25% less fat when working out than those who have adequate levels, say researchers. They also found that people who are vitamin-C deficient can quadruple their fat burn after taking 500 mg of the nutrient.
Do intervals. You’ve probably already heard it, but doing interval training—alternating between periods of intense exercise and recovery—burns more fat and calories than exercising at a steady rate. University of Guelph researchers found that cyclists who switched between cycling for 4 minutes at 90% of their max and 2 minutes of recovery for an hour burn up to 36% more calories after their workout than those who biked at a moderate pace for the same amount of time.
