Yogurt for Burn Fat

Adding yogurt to your diet may rev up your body's fat-burning engines, speed weight loss, and trim your tummy, according to a new study.

Researchers found that obese adults who ate three servings of fat-free yogurt a day as part of a reduced-calorie diet lost 22% more weight and 61% more body fat than those who simply cut calories and didn't bone up on calcium. Yogurt eaters also lost 81% more fat in the stomach area than non-yogurt eaters.

Plain, low-fat yogurt is one of the best sources of calcium — a mineral that may fight fat. According to Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., director of the Nutrition Institute at the of Tennessee, not getting enough calcium triggers the release of calcitriol, a hormone that causes us to store fat, whereas meeting our daily calcium needs helps us burn fat more efficiently. Like turkey, yogurt and other dairy foods are leading sources of leucine, which also helps fight fat.

In a 12-week study of 34 obese adults, researchers from the University of Tennessee studied the effect of adding yogurt to a reduced-calorie diet. The group that consumed 1,100mg of calcium a day, which included three servings of fat-free yogurt, lost 22% more weight, 61% more body fat and 81% more stomach fat than those who followed the low calorie diet without the yogurt.