Burn Your Belly Fat - Part 5
Belly Burner #5: Eat Fat to Burn Fat
As the saying goes, it takes money to make money. The same holds true for fat. If you want to burn fat, you have to eat fat. Before you start pouring lard on everything like Paula Deen on her cooking show, let me explain.
There are many reasons to include healthy fats into your diet, especially the healthy fats from nuts. Eating nuts has been found to keep your cholesterol at a healthy level, reduce oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance. Several studies have found an association between increased nut consumption and a lower risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, and more. [32]
Other healthy fats that you can eat are avocados, olives, olive oil, coconut oil and chocolate.
In a study published by the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in the New England Journal of Medicine, eating a handful of nuts per day can decrease your chances of dying from any cause, by up to 29%. [33]
If all these health effects aren’t enough to convince you to swap your regular butter for almond butter, this may. In a study authored by Aleix Sala-Vila, Ph.D., increasing your nut consumption to a diet that’s already rich in healthy fat (Mediterranean diet) could help you lose 2 inches off your waist in a year. That’s 1.5 inches more than people that followed the Mediterranean diet without adding nuts. [34]
The reason for this is twofold. Nuts are packed with protein and fiber. This keep you fuller longer. Also, nuts contain polyunsaturated fats, the healthy kind of fat. This type of fat is burned off more easily than saturated fat.
Additionally, walnuts are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which we discussed the importance in our last belly burner tip.
