When it comes to losing fat and building muscle, eating less food is not the answer to getting lean and cut. Others will try to tell you that losing excess fat is simply a matter of using more calories than you eat. What they don’t tell you is that eating less will slow your metabolism.
Part of the secret to eating the right amounts of food while keeping your fat levels in check is to use the thermic effect of food to your advantage.
The thermic effect (also referred to as specific dynamic action) is the incremental energy requirement above your resting metabolic rate used due to the cost of digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested food.
Translation: Some of the foods you eat speed up your metabolism more than other foods.
You’ll find it much easier to reduce your fat levels if you consume plenty of foods with a higher thermic effect. Proteins tend to have a much higher thermic effect than other types of foods.
Calculating the thermic effect: A general guideline used by some to calculate the thermic effect of the foods you eat is to take your total calorie consumption and multiply that by 10% to get the total get the number of calories for the thermic effect. This method is a gerneral estimation, and the thermic effect for different food types can range from 3-30%.
In general:
- Fats: Thermic effect of about 3%. Keeping certain levels of fats in your diet is necessary, but fats tend to be high in calories and have a low thermic effect.
- Fibrous vegetables: Thermic effect of about 20%. Many fruits and vegetables are negative calorie foods. Get a good portion of vegetable in at least 2-3 of your 6 daily meals.
- Proteins: Thermic effect of about 30%. High protein foods are essential for muscle gain and fat loss. Think of these foods as your metabolic stimulator. One portion with each of your 6 meals.
How to do it:
- Correct Portions: Each meal you eat should have a portion about the size of your palm/ fist of protein and a portion of complex carbohydrate (like whole grains). Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Spread your protein intake evenly throughout
- Eat, not drink: Eat your protein instead of drinking it. Protein shakes have their place, but the thermic effect is much greater when your body has to break down solid proteins.
- Weight Lifting: Yes, weight training increases the thermic effect of the foods you eat, according to a study in the journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
- Vegetables: Again, eat plenty of vegetables, particularly fibrous vegetables.
- Fruit: One or two pieces of fruit per day.
- Never go too low: Never drop your carbohydrate intake below 25-30% of your total calories.
You will always need at least some carbohydrate intake to keep your body moving and your metabolism roaring. Carbohydrates provide your body with the energy needed so that you can get the workout you need. They are energy source for your muscles, and without some carbs, you won’t be able to get in the type of workout you need to build muscle.
Negative calorie foods: Foods that burn more calories than they provide to you are called negative calorie foods. You can see a list of these foods here. Get your daily fruits and vegetables, but don’t over-rely on these foods in your diet. Eat in the right portions, and you’ll be fine.
It’s virtually impossible to gain weight using a diet that is very high in foods with a high thermic effect. Rely more heavily on these types of foods for fat loss, but keep your carbohydrates in place for weight gain and adding more muscle.
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Related posts:
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- Tom’s Top 10 Burn The Fat Foods
- How to Quit Junk Food Forever
Tags: diet, nutrition, protein, thermic effect
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Good one. Another benefit of eating high protein is the thermic effect advantage.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Thanks Mehdi
February 15th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Dude – I love your stuff but I simply cannot agree with you on only one or two pieces of fruit per day.
RT
February 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am
RT- Yeah, fruit is healthy stuff. Some fruits are bigger than others, some people are bigger than others. Purpose here is to get people to actually start eating some fruit each day above the big fat zero that they might be eating now, not to limit them to 1-2 pieces.
BTW- I never said to eat “only” 1-2 pieces. It’s a general guideline, similar to when someone hears you say to drink a gallon of water per day. That doesn’t mean you can’t drink more than a gallon, but that a gallon is a good starting place. 1-2 pieces is a good guide, and 3-4 pieces of fruit every day could be overdoing it for some smaller people.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 am
There are a lot of myths about negative calories, apples and oranges are certainly not “negative calorie” foods. Most fruit is around 11% sugar and packs a lot of energy.
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Peter- Most places I’ve read have a close consensus about which fruits go into the negative calorie category, but apples and oranges weren’t included in all lists, so there is some discrepancy as you’ve pointed out.
I don’t think that’s too terribly important though. Bottom line is that eating a diet of good food with correct portions of protein, fruits, and vegetables will help to keep fat levels down. I’ll let the scientists worry about the minutia from there.
August 26th, 2009 at 5:28 am
It was said that certain foods speed up our metabolism more than others, but i wondered to what point we can talk about “speeding up” metabolism. Isn’t it rather because of the nature of “light” food such as vegetables that it is also easily and rapidly digested instead of causing our metabolism identify the food as vegetable and reacting to it? In the same line i wonder how digestion time and thermic effect of food is related to eachother…. thank you
August 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am
@Eduard – I’m not sure I understand your question, but when we say “metabolism”, that’s shorthand for “the amount of calories you burn while resting”. [Of course "metabolism" has a more complete and scientific meaning beyond the scope of this article.] So the harder your body works – even while resting – to digest your food, the higher your metabolism is. A person with a PhD in exercise nutrition would probably cringe at the oversimplification, but there you have it. Hope that helps!