7 Foods You Must Know For More Effective Weight Loss (for busy people)

Springtime always feels like a fresh start to me - a chance to shake things up and make positive changes in my life.?

And when it comes to making those changes, I believe there's no better place to start than with our health. As the weather warms up and the world around us comes to life, it's the perfect time to focus on building healthier habits that will benefit us all year long.?

So let's take advantage of this season of renewal and commit to prioritizing our health and wellbeing.?

But please, don’t do radical changes in your diet and don’t try to eat 100% right at the beginning.?

It’s not sustainable and doomed to fail.?

A much smarter way is starting with small, simple habits that can help you make progress without doing extreme changes, so you can easily stick with it for years. If you’re tired of yo-yo dieting, that’s the way to go.?

So here are?7 selected foods?you can easily incorporate into your busy routine, which can help you lose weight, feel more energetic and improve your health. Some of them are quite familiar, and some of them are quite unknown.?

Those are some of the foods we also recommend to our clients (see their results here ).?

I will also explain how and when you can easily insert those foods into your busy routine.?Let’s begin!?

1) Berries?

There’s a famous quote saying that?people gain weight between the meals, not in the meals. I think that it’s true for most people. So it’s essential to think about easy snacks that promote weight loss and boost your energy.?

And the ultimate snack is fruits. Especially berries.?

Berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, are low in calories but high in fibre and antioxidants. They can help satisfy your sweet tooth while also providing your body with important nutrients.

?? How to use:?Eat fresh berries as a snack between meals, or add them to fruit smoothies (ideal for breakfast). In most European countries you can find healthy berries everywhere.?

Check out my previous article to learn why fruits are great for weight loss!?

2) Oats

One of the most important habits for weight loss (that most busy people neglect) is having a balanced and healthy breakfast. As you can?read in my previous article , a weight-loss-suitable and healthy breakfast can kickstart your day and help you avoid excess calorie consumption all day long.?

And what’s the ultimate breakfast for busy people??

Oatmeal.

Oats are great for multiple reasons: they are cooked in only a few minutes, they contain a lot of protein, fiber and iron, and it has a low glycemic index so it keeps you full for longer. Compared with other refined cereals which are packed with sugar, oatmeal is the perfect solution for breakfast.?

A?study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2016 ?found that consuming oatmeal for breakfast helped participants to feel fuller and eat less at subsequent meals compared to a breakfast of cornflakes. The study also found that participants in the oatmeal group consumed fewer calories overall during the day.

?? How to use:?Simply add oats to your breakfast, ideally as an oatmeal bowl with fresh fruits. You can also try oat-based foods and add oats to your smoothies.?

Check out the recipe for the “champions oatmeal” in my recent article.

3) Beans

Beans are the most perfect food on earth, but nobody eats enough of them. If we put aside its tremendous health benefits (it even counts as a superfood!) and talk purely about weight loss, we can see why eating beans is so helpful to our waistline:

1)?High in fiber- takes us a place in our stomach- reduces overall calorie consumption and makes us very satiated.?

2)?Low-calorie density- it’s very hard to consume excess calories when eating legume-based meals.?

3)?Easy to cook and eat- nowadays you can find cooked beans in every supermarket (canned, frozen or in cartoon pack) that save you the long process of cooking beans from scratch.?

Listen, if you’re serious about losing weight and keeping it off you?must find ways to stay in a calorie deficit without being hungry. Beans (and legumes/pulses in general) are the most ideal foods for that goal.?

??How to use:?Use frozen/canned/packed beans to save the cooking process. My favourite dish with beans is rice and beans or tortilla with beans. Generally, tex-mex dishes are great for incorporating beans into your meals!?

Check out my article about beans for more information and recipes!

4) Green Tea

Now, that’s surprising! How does green tea help us lose weight??

Green tea is rich in a quite famous antioxidant compound called?EGCG.?

The?EGCG?(epigallocatechin gallate) can increase metabolism by activating the sympathetic nervous system and inhibiting the breakdown of hormones that regulate metabolism. They also increase the oxidation of fatty acids, leading to more fat burning.?

The impact of EGCG on our caloric balance may be quite small (around 30-50 cal/day) but in the long term, it’s still worth it.?

Also, green tea has other health benefits, and it’s much lower in caffeine compared with coffee, which improves our sleep quality.?

So why not switch one coffee a day for green tea??

5) Chestnuts

Have you ever heard about chestnuts??

Those delicious, brown nuts have a very special taste, and you can find them in many international cuisines, and also in Christmas markets!?

I bet you didn’t know how good chestnuts are for weight loss. Why? Well, there’s something very unique about those nuts.?

Most nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews) are very high in calories and fat (roughly 600 cal/100g). Even though those nuts are healthy, they aren’t so good if we want to remain in a calorie deficit.

However, chestnuts are different. They practically have zero fat, making them much lower in calories (only 200 cal /100g) and a great source of healthy carbs. They are also very satiating and satisfying, making them a perfect food for weight loss!?

??How to use:?search for 100g vacuum packs of ready-to-eat, peeled and roasted chestnuts. It’s great as a snack you can take anywhere, and it also goes well in many recipes and dishes. It might be hard to find in certain countries, but it is worth the search!

6) Sweet potatoes:

Understanding the concept of the?glycemic index?is essential for your understanding of weight loss and nutrition. Sounds like a complex term, but let me briefly explain:

The?glycemic index (GI)?is a measure of how quickly and how much a particular food raises blood sugar levels after it is consumed. Foods with a high GI are rapidly digested and absorbed, causing a sharp increase in blood sugar levels, while foods with a low GI are digested and absorbed more slowly, causing a slower, more gradual increase in blood sugar levels.

Guess what? Sweet potatoes have a relatively low glycemic index, compared with other carbs like potatoes, rice or pasta.?

It will keep you satiated for longer, it will help you consume fewer calories and keep your calorie intake in check. Plus, it’s a great source of carbs, and it’s delicious!?

??How to use: it’s a great base for lunch, whether cooked, roasted or added to stir-fries. In most big cities you can find places that sell “buddha bowls”, where they’ll usually add cubed sweet potatoes.

7) Flax seeds

If we’re talking about simple, super healthy foods- we must mention?flax seeds.?

Flax seeds are one of the most accessible, cheap and impactful superfoods you can find. It helps you lose weight because it’s high in fiber and protein, 2 essential nutrients that help you stay fuller without eating a lot of calories.?

But there’s another interesting benefit for flax seeds. And if you’re using your brain a lot, listen up:

Flax seeds are among the best sources of?omega-3, which is an essential nutrient for brain function, productivity, focus and memory. For most people after 40, it’s harder to reach the minimum requirement of this fatty acid, so eating flax seeds might help!?

I’ve been eating this every day for the last 4 years. Has my brain function improved? Depends on whom you ask, but I think that yes!?

?? How to use:?Remember the oatmeal we talked about earlier? Sprinkle 1-2 tsp of flax seeds on your cooked oatmeal. Also, it’s recommended to grind the seeds (in a simple coffee grinder) to maximise nutrient absorption.?

We hope you'd find those foods helpful for your weight loss journey. We recommend adding them gradually into your routine, one every week.

If you'd like to have a chat with us,?book a 25 min discovery call here ?and check?my website.

Happy Spring

Gil & Noam