When it comes to weight loss in this day and age, so many foods are either put on a pedestal as ‘superfoods’ or demonized as detrimental to your fat burning goals.
This makes it hard to keep up with what you should and shouldn’t be eating if your goal is to lose weight.
However, if you’re trying to shed a few pounds, recent scientific research has indicated that one unexpected food might be able to assist you in your weight-loss journey. That food is the chili pepper.
If you’re wondering how chilis can benefit you when trying to lose weight, read on!
We’re going to be explaining the numerous ways chili peppers can help you to get rid of excess fat and the science behind them.
Why Chilis Helps With Weight Loss?
Chilis Improves Metabolism
One of the main reasons why chili peppers are recommended for weight loss is that they have been proven to help boost your metabolism.
Your metabolism is the product of many chemical reactions that take place within your body.
These metabolic reactions are what convert the food you eat into energy whilst also eliminating toxic substances from your system.
The reason chili is helpful at speeding up metabolism is because it contains a substance called capsaicin.
Capsaicin is what makes chili peppers so spicy, but it also raises your body temperature, which helps your body to burn fat more effectively.
If you’ve ever wondered why you start to sweat slightly when you eat a hot pepper, that’s the capsaicin at work.
Chilis Suppresses Hunger
Another surprising benefit of chili for weight loss is that consuming chili can reduce feelings of hunger.
This is obviously ideal if you’re trying to lose weight because you’ll be less tempted to snack throughout the day or end up binge eating in response to your caloric deficit.
Capsaicin is also responsible for chili’s hunger-reducing effects. This was only discovered relatively recently, in 2014, when a study compared people who consumed chilis as part of their diet to those who did not.
The results showed that those participants who consumed the chilis experienced fewer cravings and reported feeling more full.
Chili Peppers Are Low In Calories
Something else you should know about chili peppers is that they are low in calories.
A 100 gram portion of chili peppers (not that most people would want to eat this much chili in a single sitting!) is only 40 calories.
This means that you can comfortably add enough chili to your diet on a regular basis without worrying about compromising your caloric deficit in the process.
How To Maximize Chili’s Weight Loss Benefits?
We have discussed three separate benefits of consuming chili peppers as part of your diet, but it’s important to note that simply increasing how many chili peppers you eat per week probably won’t yield noticeable results unless you pair your chili increase with other weight loss strategies.
In order to experience the full metabolic and satiating benefits of chili peppers, you should do your best to do the following:
- Think about the other ingredients in your meals. If you want eating chili to contribute to overall success when it comes to weight loss, you can’t just throw some chopped up chili peppers into an enormous bowl of mac and cheese, for example. Make sure you’re cooking with healthy ingredients for the most part and you’ll be more likely to see real results.
- Pay attention to portion size. Portion sizing is something you’ll need to get to grips with when you start your weight loss journey. Many of us don’t really know what an actual portion of any given food is supposed to look like. For example, the standard portion of pasta is supposed to be about 75 grams, but most people are accustomed to making significantly more than this.
Although you may not put on quite so much weight from overly large portion sizes if you eat enough chili thanks to the metabolic benefits, consuming chili is unlikely to be able to reverse the effects of overeating on a regular basis.
Therefore, you should make learning the ideal portion sizes for some of your staple meals a priority.
- Prioritize exercise. Even though it’s true that chili by itself can boost your metabolism and make it easier for you to lose weight, eating more chili will be more effective if you pair this weight loss strategy with other metabolism-boosting methods. The most effective way to improve your metabolism whilst burning calories is to exercise regularly.
Regular cardio combined with a good diet is the best way to ensure weight loss. Another form of exercise you should be doing to improve your metabolism is weight lifting.
Lifting weights not only burns calories during your workout, but it also helps you to continue to burn fat after working out, and even boosts your resting metabolism so you can keep losing weight continuously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Chili Be Bad For You?
If you have high blood pressure, suffer from stomach acid or acid reflux, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or take medication to slow blood clotting, you should speak to your doctor before incorporating chili into your diet since it may not be beneficial for you.
Additionally, some studies suggest that eating too much chili may result in cognitive problems such as poor memory.
How Much Does Chili Boost Metabolism?
Scientific research indicates that a meal containing chili can temporarily increase your metabolic rate by roughly 8% over its usual speed.
How Much Chili Is Too Much?
You should try not to eat more than 50 grams of chili per day to avoid potential negative health effects such as digestive issues.
Final Thoughts
Eating more chili peppers as part of your diet can help you to lose weight by speeding up your metabolism and reducing feelings of hunger in addition to being low-calorie.
If you incorporate more chili (within reason) into your diet alongside proper portion control, attention to macronutrients, and regular exercise, you should see weight loss results.
