Why Fiber Is Great For Weight Loss
In fact, fiber is great for your over all health as well, not just weight loss. But before we discuss what makes it so awesome, what is fiber anyway? It is a component (for lack of better word) in many fruits and vegetables that is in layman’s terms a filler. It fills up your stomach but our digestive system cannot actually absorb it. So while you feel full (and you are) you don’t actually get any calories from the fiber that makes you feel full.
Not surprisingly all the foods high in fiber are also low in calories. Which makes them an excellent addition to any diet. Who wouldn’t want a food that makes you feel full without a ton of calories attached? In addition to this, fiber also acts as a colon cleanse. Since our body cannot absorb it, it moves through the colon cleaning it of bacteria, toxins and any other waste. Fiber just gets better and better doesn’t it?
To maximize the above effects you should drink plenty of water after consuming foods rich in fiber. The water makes it swell, which will make you feel full faster and will improve its effectiveness at cleaning colon. It is recommended to get 40 grams of fiber a day, but if you didn’t eat a lot of fiber before, you should scale it up slowly and allow your body to get used to it.
So what foods are rich in fiber? As was mentioned above most fruits and vegetables have it, but the ones that contain the a large amount are: green peas, figs, raisin bran, spinach, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, plums, pears, cherries, carrots, Brussels sprouts, nuts, tomatoes and lettuce.
Quite a list, so you should have no problems getting the 40 grams a day, and will have a large enough selection to not eat the same thing every day.
