It doesn't matter what age you are, everyone wants a smaller belly or, at least, a flat tummy. And it seems like, with every bite of your favorite foods, we get further and further away from that goal.
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But that just means, some other foods need to start being our favorites. Like these foods that actually help shed off that midsection of yours. What vegetables are good for losing belly fat? Here's our top five:
5. Cauliflower
According to experts, it's the fiber in cauliflower that's going to help you trim your stomach fat. A 1-cup serving of cooked cauliflower has 3 grams of fiber.
Adding more fiber to your diet helps you lose weight, says Harvard Health Publications, and reduces your risk of heart disease and diabetes, two risk factors of excess belly fat.
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It's not only the fiber in the cauliflower that's good for belly fat. It's low in calories, which can help reduce your calorie intake for overall weight loss, including your belly.
A 1-cup serving of cooked cauliflower has 28 calories, 0.5 gram of fat, 5 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of protein.
4. Squash
There are two types of squash, summer squash, and winter squash. Both offer specific advantages. Summer squash is good for weight loss because it is the lower of the two in calories.
Spaghetti squash is a type of summer squash that is a particularly good diet food.
One cup of spaghetti squash has only 42 calories and contains moderate amounts of potassium and vitamin A.
It also has 2.2 grams of dietary fiber that can help curb your appetite.
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While summer squash is lower in calories, winter squash offers its own weight loss benefits.
Winter squash is higher in calories and carbohydrates than summer squash, and it is also much higher in dietary fiber.
For example, acorn squash, a specific type of winter squash, has 115 calories per cup but also has 9 grams of dietary fiber.
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That is three times the fiber of spaghetti squash. Not only does dietary fiber help satisfy your appetite but it
directly aids in weight loss by slowing down the rate that your body absorbs sugar and glucose. This keeps your blood sugar levels stable and discourages your body from releasing unwanted insulin that will store fat.
3. Celery
Celery is what is known as a negative calorie food. It contains fewer calories in terms of nutrition than it actually takes to digest- hence the term “negative calorie food”.
In other words, you can actually eat this to lose weight.
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In addition to being a negative calorie, it is high in vitamin C and calcium and is best enjoyed raw.
Enjoying fresh celery juice before a meal can even help you lose weight and burn belly fat eating it, as it is said will actually end up burning calories for you.
2. Broccoli
When it comes to losing belly fat, non-starchy vegetables are superior to starchy vegetables like potatoes because non-starchy vegetables have a lower energy density than starchy vegetables.
Cooked broccoli has 0.3 calories per gram and a baked red potato has 0.9 calories per gram and fewer calories per serving, with 27 calories for a cup of cooked broccoli versus 154 calories for a medium, baked red potato.
If you top your potatoes with sour cream or mash them with butter, your belly fat might be here to stay.
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1. Cabbage
Cabbage is one of those vegetables that has an indirect tie into belly fat.
While it doesn't burn and help shed belly fat like the other veggies, it does help with one crucial thing: bowel movements.
That's right, cabbage can be used as a natural laxative to keep your body on a regular bowel movement schedule getting rid of extra unwanted weight and waste.
