It goes without saying, any weight loss program must pay attention to exercise, diet and nutrition and overall health of our system…of which diet and nutrition are the most challenging for most people to follow medium to long-term when burning fat.

There are so many factors that come into play when trying to focus on a diet in any weight loss program…

• So much information, where do I start?
• Situations in my life I can’t control make me eat?
• Availability of good food – if you travel, you know what I mean?
• Society influences are mostly around BAD foods (parties, peers, TV, etc…)
• Lots of mis-information that focus on other goals such as muscle building at the expense of good nutrition and weight loss goals

Give that there is so much confusing information, so much debate over what is good for you and not and differing emphasis placed on the role of diet and nutrition to weight loss programs, the more we can simplify your dietary “must-have’s” in terms of weight loss foods, the more likely we all will be to follow and see our fat burn off.

Let’s stick with 1pf the most powerful weight loss foods:

1. Fibre

 Fibre is beneficial in many ways to our body – reducing heart disease, controlling blood sugar and seems to help in weight loss.

Specifically, soluable fibre tends to gel together in your system and collect sugars and starch slowing the absorption of these fat causing compounds lowering the probability that they will turn into weight in our bodies.

In addition – it’s been shown that eating the recommended amount of fibre helps give us that “full” feeling while not adding empty calories of carbohydrates or sugars.

First, how much should we be getting?  Fibre intake for a man ages 19 to 55 should come in around 38 grams in one day which can come from a variety of sources including whole grains and fruit.

For example, here are typical fibre quantities in popular foods…

a)  You will get approximately 3-grams of fibre from eating an apple, most of that coming from the skin (so you won’t get the same fibre from eating a peeled apple or drinking apple juice)

b) Now ceareals are really interesting…many of us assume that you get a substantial amount of fibre from any cereal we eat right?  WRONG!  The difference is rather remarkable and can play a huge difference in your fibre intake daily.  In fact, you can get nearly half of the recomended fibre intake for your entire day with as little as one serving of a high fibre cereal – from a weight loss perspective this makes sticking to your fibre intake goals especially easy. 

Let’s look at a few popular cereals in terms of fibre listed:

• Kellogs Rice Krispies – 0 grams
• Rasin Bran – 6 grams per 1 Cup serving
• Fibre-1 Cereal – 14 grams per 1-1/4 serving
• Nabisco Shreddies – 6 grams per 1-Cup serving

Notice that many popular ceareals have zero or barely a touch of fibre where others you can get over half of your daily fibre intake from as little as 1-cup. 

By choosing to eat just 1-cup of ceareal each morning high in fibre you can substantially increase your fibre intake, reduce your exposure to disease and help in your quest for weight loss.

Jeff