©JohnnaKnowsGoodFood

I am a bit of a fire. 

I mean, my girlfriend is constantly complaining about how much I eat.  

However what she doesn’t realize is that although I eat mountains of food  – because I eat the right foods I never put on fat. 

 Obviously I have a cheat day now and again (come on, who doesn’t), but the majority of what I eat are foods that give me plenty of energy and are low in calories. 

 I lift weights, do kickboxing, running and plenty of other physical challenges in a day, so I need the energy foods if I don’t get enough then I get fatigued, and I bet you feel the same way when you try to eat a perfect diet. 

However let me share with you a few tasty fat loss snacks that you can use to keep the fire alive inside you while keeping the calories low. 

Legume Heaven 

Legumes such as chick peas, beans and lentils are a God send for people like us – active folks who want to stay in good shape, but want to feel good and not run down like some poor deprived dieters. 

Legumes have a low caloric load but they seem to give you long lasting energy, for some reason. Tim Ferriss is a massive advocate of beans and goes to advise a meal plan of eating just beans, lean meats and vegetables about 4 times a day for fat loss, and to be honest I couldn’t agree more. 

I have followed an eating plan like this before – I recommend canned beans as raw ones take a lot of preparation (one of the only things I recommend buying canned). This eating plan saw me drop an incredible amount of body fat, and I was already pretty lean.  

Look at the calories on the back of the can before you buy, some cans will have two servings and be only about 20 carbs for the whole can, 10 grams of protein and almost zero fat. 

If you hate the taste of legumes then you can easily add some sauces or herbs and spices to them, but I find them great with good old salt and pepper. 

Take a can to work with you and a can of tuna or other fish and you have a beautiful meal that is low in calories, high in energy, vitamins and minerals and can be eating cold for a great taste. 

Breakfast  

I have found that the best breakfast for taste, being natural and low in calories is oats with banana and yogurt. 

This is honestly one of the most refreshing, filling breakfasts I have stuck with. 

Sure oats are a bit high in carbs but because you are consuming it so early in the morning it is a great time to be having a carb fuel up. 

Any bit of fruit with your breakfast will give you a good spark for the day – something else that I recommend for those of you have brass buns is to have a cold shower in the morning. The funny thing about a cold shower is that it is actually quite nerve wracking those last few seconds before you dive in there. 

It makes you feel alive, you are in such a hurry to clean yourself and get out and when you get out you feel amazing. Just like diving into a lake on a hot sunny day and it being such a relief, when you get out you feel a surge of energy. 

Not really food related – but if you are anything like me you can use a burst of energy in the morning. 

Meat & Vegetables 

Not all of us live on a section with enough grass to grow a season of vegetables, some of us do, but it is becoming more of a luxury these days. 

Frozen veggies are my solution to this – and if you are worried about the quality of them, let me assure you of something. 

Obviously if you can get to a farmers market and but fresh, local produce it will be a bit better for you than frozen or canned vegetables. 

However most brands of frozen vegetables contain a great mix and they are delicious if you add a few sauces, salt & pepper and a few herbs and cook them up. 

Most brands are also snap frozen so they are picked from the fields then sent to a massive chiller and frozen, and kept frozen until they sit too long in your back boot after you forget to unpack the groceries. 

A lot of people won’ t buy frozen vegetables because they think the nutritional value has been diminished too much, but I like to buy some fresh and some frozen, just to make sure you are getting good value. 

Including a lean meat with vegetables is a powerful fat loss meal because the meat helps you to feel full while helping your body recover from exercise, not to mention the thermic effect that meats create (the extra calorie burning process that eating protein results in). 

How these foods create fat loss 

Okay so you probably already know all of this, but I will say it again because it always helps to be made aware of things you “know” from time to time.  

I mean, I “know” that I should save money, but my brain often won’t let me because I want a 73 Les Paul… 

True weight loss can only come through one avenue – creating a calorie deficit in your body. 

If you consume more calories than you expend each day then you may get lucky and still maintain your weight, but do this for too long and too often and you will put on weight. 

Some folks (the tall, skinny ones) are lucky as they seem to have metabolisms that are so efficient they can eat whatever they want and never put on a single pound of fat. 

However some of us are a bit more sensitive. 

So the only way for most of us to lose weight is through creating a calorie deficit which means one of two things: 

1 – either reduce the calories you take in, or,

2 – exercise to burn off calories and don’t change your diet. 

Obviously if you can combine these two then you are synergizing your efforts and you will be appropriately rewarded with ultra fat loss, but those kinds of meals I described above are low calorie options so you can create the calorie deficit easier. 

*Johnny Palmer is a trainer, writer, fitness nut and a true practitioner – not the average arm chair expert. He trains kickboxing, strength training, running and calisthenics, a no bull, no fluff approach to results. Check out his latest blog post on extreme weight loss tips or visit his home page for tips on how to get abs.