Are there foods that burn fat?

No food melts fat. A few help you eat less, which is how all fat loss works. Protein costs the most calories to digest, and fiber and watery foods like vegetables fill you up for fewer calories. That’s the whole trick, and it’s a good one.

Why the idea sticks

Lists of fat burning foods take a small, real effect and stretch it into a promise. Grapefruit, chili and green tea get the headlines. The foods that make a real difference are ordinary.

The effects that are real

• Protein costs more to digest. Your body uses about 20 to 30% of the calories in protein just to process it, against 5 to 10% for carbs and 0 to 3% for fat. On a mixed diet, digestion uses about 10% of what you eat. Protein is like a purchase with a fee: of every 100 calories, 20 to 30 go to the cost of handling it.
• Some foods fill you up far more. In a 1995 study of 38 foods, each served as 240 calories, boiled potatoes kept people fullest, at more than three times the fullness of white bread. A croissant filled them least, at under half.
• Fiber helps you stick to it. In a 6-month study of 345 adults on calorie-cut diets, the amount of fiber they ate predicted their weight loss better than anything else, regardless of calories and the rest of the diet.
• Vegetables first shrink the meal. In a 2004 study of 42 women, a low-calorie salad before lunch cut the calories eaten at the meal by 7 to 12%.

What to do

• Build meals around protein and vegetables, then add the rest.
• Eat foods that still look like they grew, since they tend to fill you up more per calorie.
• Skip anything sold as a fat burner. See do fat burner supplements work.