Foods that Help Burn Fat

Have you increased your intake of calcium because you heard that it can help with weight loss?
Several studies in the past few years have supported that higher intakes of calcium can help regulate how fat cells release fat for burning and converting to energy. It seems that it also matters where you get your calcium from: in these studies, calcium from low fat dairy products had a greater impact on fat burning than calcium supplements. This is good news for people who like and can tolerate dairy products and want to lose weight!

However, if you've increased your calcium intake by eating more yogurt and drinking beverages that contain yogurt or milk, the choices you make may actually slow your weight loss or cause weight gain. Why? 

Because yogurt and dairy drinks in the U.S. and some other countries are sweetened with sugar to satisfy the demand for sweet foods! About 20% of the calories Americans eat are from sugar from all types of food. For a typical person not on a weight loss diet, that's about 400 Calories a day just from sugar! Now, if you think about the fact that you could lose one pound a week by reducing your calorie intake by 500 Calories a day, getting rid of all that extra sugar just about covers it. Here's some tips for getting the most from the (lowfat) dairy products you choose:

• Most popular flavored yogurts contain about 170 Calories per 6 ounce serving, with about 33 grams of carbohydrate.  A very low fat dairy serving should only contain 90 Calories and 12 grams of carbohydrate (from natural milk sugar or lactose).  So, the extra 21 grams of carbohydrate is from the small amount of fruit, but mostly from sugar or other sweeteners. So, for every serving of yogurt, you're eating 5 teaspoons of sugar. If you ate four servings of yogurt a day, this would add up to 320 extra calories from sugar alone! Adding calcium this way is certainly not going to contribute to weight loss very quickly!

TIP 1 - Instead, buy nonfat, plain unsweetened yogurt. Add your own fruit and even if you add a teaspoon or so of sugar or honey, you'll be much better off. Or, if you really need a very sweet flavor, add a little sucralose to help sweeten without the calories. 

• Yogurt drinks and smoothies are another place where calcium comes at a high price in terms of sugar and extra calories. In an 11-ounce yogurt drink, there are 60 grams of carbohydrate and only one serving of low fat dairy. So, about 48 grams of carbohydrate are coming from sweeteners and the small amount of fruit added. That's 12 teaspoons of sugar - about as much as a 16 oz. soda pop!

TIP 2 - Here, the solution is to avoid the pre-made yogurt drinks and make them yourself with plenty of fresh or frozen fruit, nonfat, plain yogurt and a small amount of sweetener or buy the low sugar version of these drinks.

• Last but not least, special coffee drinks can be a great source of calcium for those who don't like the taste of plain milk. However, the blended drinks are quite high in calories and sugar. Once again when you subtract the milk sugar, there can be as much as 7-8 teaspoons of sugar in a small coffee drink. 

TIP 3 - To get the benefits of calcium in your coffee drinks, order skim milk lattes without whipped cream, sugar, or other syrups.  

2 final points:  
Getting calcium from low fat dairy products like skim milk and nonfat yogurt is key for weight loss. High fat dairy products do not contain any more calcium, are higher in calories (which can lead to weight gain) and their high saturated fat content contribute to the risk of heart disease and other diseases. And, if you take calcium supplements for the benefits of increasing or protecting bone mass and skeletal health, that's a different story - calcium has multiple benefits and many sources in the diet - you don't have to eat dairy products to get these other benefits.