Don’t go for wacky diet plans or completely give up your favourite meal. Chilled soups, cherry tomatoes and a bowl of green beans can help you lose weight in summer
The secret to weight loss is to choose healthy foods and take in fewer calories than you burn. And it’s just easier to make better food choices during summer, when heavy, high-calorie dishes seem less appealing.
The best foods for weight loss in summer are light and refreshing.
Chilled soups: Cold soups are among favorite low-calorie dishes. Chilled soups like gazpacho or cucumber-dill that contain lots of chunky vegetables are a great way to start a meal.
Mulberry: These sweet, juicy summer berries are tasty both fresh and dried in trail mix or in a salad.
Strawberry: Who can resist a bowl of juicy red berriesIJ Pop them freely because they’re the perfect summer snack: filling, light on calories and laden with nutrients from omega 3 fats to cancer-fighting polyphenols.
Sweet corn: If you love carbs — and have a tough time fighting off the urge to nosh them nonstop — then this is the veggie for you. Each cob contains three grams of appetite-taming protein, plus 138 milligrams of phenylalanine — an amino acid that quickly soaks into brain cells, where it dampens carb cravings for up to three hours.
Cherries: Sweet, juicy cherries contain just 87 calories per cup — and if you enjoy them three times weekly in place of heavier desserts, you could shed up to five pounds this summer alone, say researchers at the University of California, los Angeles.
Bell peppers: Bell peppers are a good source of beta carotene and top the charts of vegetables as an important antioxidant.
Mango: Dense with antioxidants plus protein and omega 3 fats — mangoes are a delicious, low-calorie way to bulk up meals with exotic flavour, ensuring “healthy” fare.
Watermelon: If you’re looking for a slimming snack, watermelon is the best.
Green beans: Add half a cup of green beans to your evening meal and you’ll feel full almost twice as quickly — and stay full for three hours straight, say Stanford University researchers.
Garlic: Sneak one clove into a meal, and your hunger pangs could disappear within 10 minutes of enjoying the first few bites, according to studies at Chicago’s Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.
Cherry tomatoes: When it comes to fat-burning potential, cherry tomatoes are off the charts. According to Yale University researchers, just adding a cup of these sweet gems to your daily diet could help you shed up to three pounds every month — without making any mega diet changes.
Kiwis: These sweet, tart treats are now showing up in even the smallest grocery stores. And nibbling one or two of them daily could help you reach your weight loss goals a whole lot sooner. That’s because kiwis are loaded with chlorophyll — a green pigment that heals and energises the liver, increasing this organ’s ability to burn fat for fuel.