7 Winter Foods That Help You Lose Weight

              
By Marygrace Taylor, Prevention
   

The farmers' market is shuttered until spring, and all you want to do is curl up on the couch and eat your favorite comfort food. Yep, it must be winter. 

            

[post_ads]This might be the time of year when you normally bust out the stretchy pants. But cold-weather food doesn't have to be all about mac and cheese, hot cocoa, and fresh-baked cookies. There are plenty of delicious, wintry foods that won't send the scale skyrocketing. Here are 7 weight loss–friendly picks to add to your menu this month. (Repeat after us: No more dieting. Ever. Instead, learn how to eat clean—with zero deprivation!—and watch the pounds drop off, with Your Metabolism Makeover!)

             

             

Mint

You might not be growing much mint in your garden this time of year. But the fresh leaves are still easy to find at the grocery store, and something about the icy-cool flavor feels right during the winter months. Best of all, a mere whiff of the stuff might make the pounds come off easier. Subjects who sniffed peppermint every 2 hours for 5 days ate 1,800 fewer calories over the course of a week than when they sniffed a placebo scent, found one Wheeling Jesuit University study. (Plus, it's great for debloating after a junk food binge.)

              

             

Grapefruit

Have some with breakfast instead of those pale, mealy strawberries. Grapefruit is at its best in the winter—and it's got weight loss cred to boot. When obese adults ate half a grapefruit before their meals for 12 weeks, they lost an average of 7% of their body weight, found research published in Nutrition & Metabolism. In addition to being high in water, grapefruit is a top source of vitamin C, which experts suspect could boost fat-burning during exercise.

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Oatmeal

Your usual morning smoothie might start to seem pretty unappealing once you spot icicles hanging outside of your front door. So trade it for a piping hot bowl of oatmeal. (Avoid these common oatmeal mistakes.) A cup of the cooked stuff delivers 4.5 grams of fiber, which can help keep hunger at bay for hours. When participants ate oatmeal for breakfast, they ate up to 50% less at lunch, compared with those who ate cornflakes, found one Columbia University study.

               

               

Barley

[post_ads]Like oatmeal, barley is a hearty, warming whole grain that's loaded with fiber. (You'll get 6 g per cup of the cooked stuff.) Specifically, it has a type of soluble fiber called beta-glucans, which findings suggest could be particularly potent at keeping blood sugar and insulin levels balanced. (Buh-bye, chocolate chip cookie cravings!) Cook it with milk and fruit like porridge for breakfast, or toss warm barley with beans and veggies for a satisfying winter salad.

               

               

Cayenne pepper

Add an extra spoonful to the turkey and bean chili you make nonstop this time of year. Cayenne pepper contains capsaicin, a phytochemical that may give your metabolism a small boost. How so? Capsaicin may activate receptors that stimulate brown fat, cranking up your body's calorie-burning capacity, according to findings published in the journal Open Heart.

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Split peas

Sure, you could make a big pot of split pea soup during the summer. But chances are, you're a lot more likely to whip up a batch when the Polar Vortex strikes. And when you do, get ready to kiss your snack-food cravings good-bye for the day. At 16 g of fiber per cup of cooked split peas, you're gonna feel full for a long time.

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