22/10/2020
How Spicy Food Can Help You Lose Weight
Have you ever walked into a hot wings restaurant and scoffed at how ridiculous it must be to try the really hot flavors? I mean, who in their right mind would want to eat something that hot?
What if we told you that spicy food could help you to lose weight?
Oh, we have your attention now, don't we?
Spicy food, especially peppers, contains an active ingredient called capsicum - and this ingredient has been shown on multiple occasions to help your body burn more fat and assist you in weight loss.
See how spicy food can help you lose more weight.
Spicy Food Raises The Body’s Thermogenic Effect
Perhaps the most obvious way that spicy food helps you lose weight is that it causes a natural reaction that contributes to weight loss.
Think back to a time where you had eaten something spicy - did it make you sweat, heat your body, and perhaps even cause you to run around the house looking for water? In many cases, it is the thermic effect of food.
All foods have a thermic effect, and some are much higher than others.
For example, vegetables have a shallow thermic impact because they’re not difficult for your body to digest. However, they still need to be “heated” to become digested and metabolized.
On the other hand, spicy foods like peppers have a much higher thermic effect. They heat your body and can cause sweating, panting, and running for water in severe cases.
This thermic effect causes your body to burn more calories.
Luckily, you don’t need to eat a bunch of spicy peppers to have this effect. Even a small dosage of capsicum can increase your body's thermogenic effect and result in additional weight loss.
Spicy Foods Cause More Efficient Fat Oxidation
This is the best and most important reason why you are trying to lose weight, including peppers or capsicum, into your routine.
Capsicum has been shown in many clinical studies to boost your body's ability to oxidize fat. By this, we mean utilize fat as fuel.
You want your body to use any fat stores that you might have when it needs fuel. If it doesn’t use fat, it uses muscle, which leaves the fat intact and reduces your muscle mass.
So, if you’re exercising, for example, you certainly want your body to burn up as much fat as it can. Indeed, this might be your only reason for working out!
The benefits of this are twofold:
You can use it more readily as energy for a workout.
You can use it to increase your energy levels since fat is very calorically dense.
Looking Forward
So, as you can see, years of research have shown that capsicum, an active ingredient in peppers, can be manipulated to boost your body’s ability to maximize weight loss.
Take advantage of this natural process of your body, and enjoy more spicy food!
