Losing weight really isn’t all that mysterious, but there are some common misconceptions you need to be aware of. For instance, you aren’t going to lose weight by starving yourself. In fact when you do this, your metabolism will slow down and you may well gain, rather than lose weight. It’s important to eat regular meals, but you do have to eat the right kinds of foods.

Some types of food are especially good choices for when you want to lose weight. Along with a routine of regular exercise, these fat burning foods cause your metabolism to speed up, helping you to keep burning off calories even after you’re done exercising. Some of these foods follow.

Vitamin C-rich fruits. You’ll find plenty of this vitamin in citrus fruits including lemons and limes, grapefruit and oranges as well as in papayas, watermelon, tomatoes and others. Most of these fruits are also a good source of fiber, making them even better fat burning foods. Vitamin C  works with carnitine, an amino acid to help you to use stored energy (which is to say, fat).

Apples and pears are good sources of pectin, which helps you to use up stored energy and reduce the amount of calories that your body is able to store as fat. Apples are also a good source of antioxidants that can help to prevent metabolic syndrome, a condition which can lead to an accumulation of fat around the abdomen.

Dairy: milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products give you the calcium you need to burn of fat. By making dairy products part of a healthy, lower calorie diet, you’ll be able to speed up your weight loss efforts.

Chili peppers: Hot peppers are something which should be part of any weight loss diet. Chilies are high in capsaicin, which also boosts your metabolism shortly – an effect which lasts for as much as 2 minutes following eating them.

Getting plenty of fiber and protein in your diet are also important if you’re trying to lose abdominal fat and weight. It takes more energy to digest protein than it does fat, so it’s something which helps out any diet. Lentils and other beans are good sources of fiber and protein and should be added to your diet along with whole grains and low fat dairy products.

Vegetables which are high in fiber like cabbage, sweet potatoes, beets, cauliflower and broccoli are excellent fat burning foods and should also be a regular part of your diet.

The most important thing to remember about losing weight is to burn off more calories through physical activity than you take in as food. When you exercise regularly and make sure to add the foods mentioned here to your diet, you’ll be able to burn off fat and lose weight much more quickly.