Need a bikini ready body for that Bali holiday trip? Picking the right food helps shed some extra pounds. Here is a list of the top 5 foods that can do just that, and how you can incorporate it into your daily life.

Rolled Oats

Rolled oats are loaded with soluble fiber. Soluble fiber givea us long lasting energy and satiety over a long period of time, curbing our appetite. Half a cup of it is able to provide us with about 5 grams of dietary fiber. The easiest way to take rolled oats is to make overnight oats.

Recipe:

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/3 cup fresh fruit

1 tablespoon chia seeds

Pinch of salt

Pinch of cinnamon

Method:

Mix everything in a mason jar and keep overnight in the fridge. Add crunchy fruits or nuts when serving for texture.

Avocado

Avocado is a superfood capable of helping you shed some pesky pounds. It is amazingly packed with nutrients, especially essential fatty acids and fiber that help keep our hunger pangs at bay. A 100g serving gives us 15g of healthy essential fatty acids and 7g of fiber. Avocado slices can be added to our salads, as filling for sandwiches and can go even good on its own. However, you may want to toss the cut avocado with lemon juice to prevent browning.

Broccoli

Broccoli belongs to the cabbage family and is incredibly nutritious. Broccolies are loaded with fat fighting Vitamin C, Calcium, Manganese and fibers. This combination of nutrients helps our body fight leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger along side ghrelin. Basically, leptin tells our brain that we are full and we should stop eating. Preparing broccoli is fairly easy, it can be blanched, added into soups or even stir fried into a deliciously slimming side dish.

Green Tea

Green tea is the unprocessed tea leaves that we use to brew tea. Compared to black tea, green tea has more polyphenols known as catechins that help boost our metabolism. Studies show that Japanese test subjects who took green tea daily lost 0.2- 3.5kg more weight as compared to the control group over a 12 month period. Green tea as an alternative to water is easy and tasty. For white collars, we suggest filling up a 1.5 liter tumbler to the office and sip throughout the day.

 Coffee

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. But did you know that coffee helps us lose weight as well? Coffee contains caffeine. Caffeine helps to stimulate our central nervous system, boosting heart rate and overall metabolism. In other words, caffeine helps our body use more energy rather than storing it. Besides that, caffeine also promotes lipolysis, a process that breask down fats into smaller molecules to generate energy for the body. Hence, a cup of joe a day, helps us burns off more energy in the form of fats. However, people who get palpitation after drinking coffee are advised to avoid it.

References

1. Kath eats real food. 2016. OVERNIGHT OATS. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.katheats.com/favorite-foods/overnightoats. [Accessed 17 August 2017].

2. Kris Gunnars. 2017. 12 Proven Health Benefits of Avocado. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-proven-benefits-of-avocado#section3. [Accessed 17 August 2017]

3. Martin SS, A Qasim, and MP Reilly. Leptin Resistance: A Possible Interface of Inflammation and Metabolism in Obesity-Related Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 52.15 (2008): 1201-10.

4. Mielgo-Ayuso J, Barrenechea L, Alcorta P, et al. Effects of dietary supplementation with epigallocatechin-3-gallate on weight loss, energy homeostasis, cardiometabolic risk factors and liver function in obese women: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Br J Nutr 2014;111:1263-71

5. Healthline. 2017. Can Coffee Increase Your Metabolism and Help You Burn Fat?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.healthline.com/nutrition/coffee-increase-metabolism#section6. [Accessed 18 August 2017].