Fast track fat loss

Fast track fat loss

Buy frozen vegetables
Chopping veg after a hard day is too much like work and might discourage you from eating the healthy stuff. Freezing seals in the sweetness and nutrients of vegetables, because they are grown in their normal season and processed within four hours of picking. In fact, Australian researchers found that the vitamin content of frozen peas, cauliflower, beans, sweetcorn and carrots was substantially higher than that of fresh imports.

Eat more fibre
One of the best ways to fill up without filling out is to eat fibre. Not only does it take a while to chew, but as it hits the fluid in your stomach it expands, activating the fullness receptors that tell you when you've eaten enough. Your daily recommended amount is 18g, which you'll get from 90g wholemeal pasta (dry weight), 30g bran flakes and two oranges.

Plan ahead
Instead of reading a free paper or listening to a podcast on your morning commute, take the time to review your eating plan. By thinking ahead to what food challenges you might encounter during the day, you can prepare yourself mentally to resist any temptations.

Spread coconut oil
Have this Caribbean favourite on toast - it's full of medium-chain fatty acids that, according to a study published in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, your body digests more easily than the fats in butter and other spreads, rapidly converting them into a source of energy. It also contains two-and-a-half per cent fewer calories per gram than other oils and fats.

Take gPLC every day
No one is ever too busy to pop a pill. This daily supplement contains l-carnitine, an amino acid that helps to improve carbohydrate metabolism within the muscles, so there is less chance of it being stored as fat. It also encourages your body to use fatty acids as an energy source.

Eat every three hours
If you want to lose body fat, you need to feed your body at prescribed times and not leave it to when you 'feel' like you should eat. If you leave too long between eating your body secretes excessive amounts of the stress hormone cortisol, which promotes fat storage. People who always eat similar amounts every day are also less inclined to binge, so they have the best chance of losing weight, says research from Liverpool John Moores University.

Chill and chew
Save the Prodigy album for the treadmill and stick on some mellow music when you eat. Studies show that people who listen to more relaxing music during meals chew more slowly, which results in eating less. A recent study found that people who chewed each mouthful of pasta between 20 and 30 times ended up consuming 70 per cent fewer calories than when they ate at their normal rate.

Get up and running
If you want to kill two birds with one stone, then tame your appetite with a run. Researchers at Loughborough University discovered that after 60 minutes of aerobic exercise, a man's appetite was temporarily reduced because the heat generated circulates blood away from the stomach and intestines. This appetite suppression lasts for about one to two hours.

Go green
Don't wait for your bananas to ripen. Green ones contain resistant starches, which can help lower weight and cholesterol levels. Researchers at the University of Colorado in the US found that resistant starches help us lose fat faster because they change the order in which the body burns food. Usually carbohydrates are used first, but when resistant starch is present dietary fat is converted into energy before it has a chance to be stored as body fat.

Snack on liquorice
Stick a liquorice bar in your pocket before you head to the office. The childhood favourite contains an active ingredient called glycyrrhetinic acid, which can help reduce body mass. Researchers at Italy's University of Padua also found that it contains an enzyme that can reduce the appetite.