5 Cooking (and eating) methods that burn calories
When your body has any work to do-whether it's walking, running, or even just heading to the kitchen for a snack-there are calories to be burned. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, after you eat a meal, your body is actually eliminating calories as well as absorbing them; after all, digestion takes work too. But, of course, some foods are slower to digest so they use more energy (i.e., they contain "active calories"). In fact, how you prepare certain foods can up the "active" ante of your calories, and it's often only a matter of making a slight changes to your cooking (and eating) techniques. Here's how:
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1) Prepare pasta Venetian style: When you eat pasta in Venice, it is cooked al dente, so it's chewy food, not the gummy mush that many of us pour onto our plates here. Get pasta perfectly al dente by cooking at the shorter end of the time scale. If the box says 8 to 12 minutes, check the pasta at 7 to 71⁄2 minutes. Spoon out a noodle and take a nibble. It should be firm but cooked, with no crunch. When it's done, drain immediately and serve.
See 10 healthy pasta dinners
2) Drizzle with vinegar: Vinegar is good at slowing down stomach emptying. In a 2005 study, Swedish researchers found that when men and women ate 2 tablespoons of vinegar with three slices of white bread, their blood-sugar levels were 23% lower than when they ate white bread sans vinegar. When you order from the deli, have them splash a little oil and vinegar on your sub instead of mayo.
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3) Eat more than one food at each meal: The Active Calorie Plate includes a balance of a variety of foods for a reason: It slows down digestion. Whenever you're faced with eating a meal that consists primarily of one macronutrient-say, a plate of spaghetti with a side of sourdough-think about Active Calorie foods that will make the calorie burn better. Garlic is one. Meatballs are another obvious addition.
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4) Time your carbs: Go ahead and have that doughnut once in a while (like on a Friday). Just eat it early in the day instead of late afternoon or, worse, late night. Quick-burning carbs seem to spike insulin more when you eat them later in the day. So if you're going to have them, have them at the morning meal, then stick to Active Calorie foods later. When you eat them early on, you also have the full day ahead of you to burn off those quick-burning calories through daily activity and exercise. It's not a license to have a pastry every day. But once in a while is fine.
See 13 breakfasts that boost weight loss and energy
5) Sweat before you snack: Exercise helps you use all calories better. A single workout improves your insulin response for a full day. That's because exercise empties out the stored carbs in your liver and muscles and gives the new blood sugar you produce after eating somewhere to go. The more often you move throughout the day, the healthier your insulin response. Insulin helps control your blood sugar, energy levels, and appetite, so a healthy insulin response is key to weight loss and maintenance.
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