Boost Your Weight Loss Efforts With Veggies
If you’re trying to lose weight, vegetables are a must. Not only are they extremely low in calories but they also contain a range of health boosting nutrients that support your body’s fat burning processes in countless ways. In this article I’m going to be taking a deeper look at why vegetables are the perfect weight loss food and providing you with a number of suggestions for incorporating them into your daily diet.
How Do Vegetables Help You Lose Weight?
1) Vegetables Are Low In Calories: The majority of vegetables contain well below 100 calories per serving. Therefore, by making sure all your meals contain plenty of vegetables, you can significantly reduce the amount of calories per serving and this supports healthy weight loss.
2) Vegetables Contain High Levels Of Fiber: Most vegetables are rich in fiber (an indigestible type of carbohydrate that supports good bowel health and more). Although your body cannot digest fiber, fiber rich foods do require more calories to digest than foods that are lacking in fiber. This means by eating plenty of vegetables, you’ll burn off more calories during digestion and put on less weight as a result.
3) Vegetables Are Packed Full Of Vitamins, Minerals & Phytonutrients: Vegetables are an excellent source of health boosting vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. While these nutrients don’t directly support healthy weight loss, they do ensure that your metabolism remains optimal and prevent it from slowing down. Therefore, by eating vegetables regularly, you can ensure that your body continues to burn the maximum number of calories possible.
4) Vegetables Contain Lots Of Water: Almost every vegetable is over 50% water. Like vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, water doesn’t directly burn body fat but it does keep you hydrated which helps maintain your metabolism and supports your body’s fat burning processes.
3 Tasty Vegetable Marinades
One of the biggest complaints people have when it comes to vegetables is that they don’t like the taste so they avoid eating them completely. However, if you’re willing to do a little preparation, you can make vegetables just as tasty as your favorite foods without adding many excess calories. The section below lists three of the best tasty vegetable marinades which you can use to add an extra kick to your veggies (each recipe creates enough marinade for one serving of vegetables, so if you’re eating more vegetables, simply adjust the number of ingredients):
1) Sweet Chili, Lemon & Onion Marinade: Combine 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl, stir all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon until they’re fully combined and then add your vegetables to the mixing bowl and coat them in the marinade.
2) Honey, Garlic, Ginger & Soy Sauce Marinade: Combine 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl, stir all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon until they’re fully combined and then add your vegetables to the mixing bowl and coat them in the marinade.
3) Honey, Lemon& Wasabi Marinade: Combine 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of wasabi, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl, stir all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon until they’re fully combined and then add your vegetables to the mixing bowl and coat them in the marinade.
Summary
Not only are vegetables tasty and good for your health but they’re also essential if you want to lose weight and keep it off. The good news is that with a little planning and preparation, you can easily make them part of your daily diet without compromising on taste. So if you’re not eating vegetables on a daily basis already, re-read this article, start taking action and make veggies part of your daily diet today.
