10 Foods You Should be Eating to Lose Belly Fat

10 foods you should be eating to lose your belly fat. Now most people trying to lose their belly fat do the exact same three things. Cut calories, adding more cardio, and dropping carbs. And then the belly fat doesn't move. And it's not because you're lazy. It's not because you're not trying. It's that none of those three things actually touch the thing that belly fat listens to. Hormones. Your belly fat responds to hormones more than it does anything else. And every food on this list was picked for one reason. Each one changes what's happening to the hormones inside of you. So your body stops defaulting to storing fat in the middle in your gut. Now a quick thing before we start. There are only two kinds of belly fat. There are the kinds that you can pinch and you can see it's the stuff you can grab. Then the second kind is the deeper one that you cannot see. It's wrapping around your organs, your liver, your heart, your kidneys. And the foods on this list go after both of those kinds of fats. And I'll tell you which one of these foods hit the hardest. And the very last food on this list is the one that even surprised me. My name is Dr. Michael Diamonds. I am a medical doctor. I'm also a scientist. I majored in biochemistry and microbiology. I'm a pro natural bodybuilder. My team and I of medical doctors at Sculpt by Science have taken thousands of clients to the leanest and healthiest they've been in their whole life. I'm going to do the same with you. Let's not waste time and dive straight in. Food number one is going to be a boring one, but it's powerful. It's oats, rolled or steel cut oats, and soluble fiber. This is the most direct evidence-based food on the entire list. And I mean that literally. Now before you click off, hear me out. Nothing here on this list has a cleaner paper trail. Oats are loaded with something called soluble fiber. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and turns into a thick gel inside of your gut. And you're seeing it on the screen as a form of this. And that gel slows everything down. And what happens is that food starts moving slower through your gut. And essentially what's happening is that sugar trickles into your bloodstream instead of flooding it. Think of a garden hose. Instead of having the garden hose fully opened up in the water, they're really flooding everything. It comes in slowly. And your body doesn't have to dump that big wave of insulin to deal with it. So here is why that matters. Insulin is a storage hormone. When insulin is high too often, your body sits in fat storage mode instead of being in fat burning mode. And it stores the fat where? In your belly first. So anything that can keep your insulin lower most of the time keeps your belly fat storage at a minimum at the same time. So that's lever number one. And half of the foods I pull on this list with the evidence. The researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center tracked over a thousand people's lives for five years. And with CT scans at the start and at the end, they found that for every extra 10 grams of soluble fiber someone ate per day, they built up to 3.7% less deep visceral fat over those five years. The deep dangerous fat that's around your organs, the fat that you cannot pinch. And if you think about it, 10 grams isn't much. It's just two small apples. It's a cup of green peas, half a cup of beans, and that's it. That's your 10. So if you find a doctor that's breaking this down for you, the actual mechanism useful, right? That's just not, hey, just eat clean. Hit the video with a gentle thumbs up. I'd greatly appreciate it. It supports me. It supports the channel and what I do. So again, I want you to start your morning with oats. I want you to add a tablespoon of ground. Keyword here is ground flax seeds on top. You can add a protein powder. My favorite right now is the ghost, especially the Oreo flavor. And aim to get soluble fiber from at least two different sources a day. Oats, beans, lentils, apples, flax seeds, sweet potatoes. They all count. And let me know in the comments below which soluble fiber you think you're going to start getting right now. What source from this are you going to start adding into your diet? I genuinely want to see where most of you are coming from because this will give me inspiration to make recipe videos for you. So stay with me because food number two goes after the very same deep fat through a completely different door. Food number two, salmon and sardines. In general, fatty fish. That second door I was talking about is inflammation. And inflammation is the most overlooked reason that people, especially us older people, don't talk about enough or don't pay attention to. It includes me. For years, I had no idea that this was the missing piece. So here's the simple version. That deep belly fat that's around your organs, it's just not sitting there. That deep belly fat is like a sludge, a toxic one. It's pumping out compounds that create low-grade inflammation all through your body. And that inflammation makes your insulin worse. And the way I want to describe to you how inflammation impacts, picture this. Imagine you get a knock on your knee and your knee's inflamed. Think about that. How much harder is it to walk? All of a sudden, you can't run or jump and you're thinking about it all the time. It's so annoying. The same thing is happening with this toxic sludge around your entire body. It's not working as well as it should. It's annoying. And all the processes that are supposed to be working fine inside of your body, aren't working well. And it makes things worse. Which, remember lever one? Tells your body as well to store more fat in that exact same place. So it's an endless loop. Belly fat drives inflammation. Inflammation drives more belly fat. And you never break the cycle. Especially because nobody's talking about this, right? No one told them this inflammation equation. Salmon breaks this loop. I'll tell you how. Salmon contains something called omega-3 fats. It is one of the most powerful ways to naturally calm and bring inflammation down. When inflammation drops, your insulin, the storage hormone, starts working properly again. And your body stops defaulting to this belly fat storage mode. And think about it too. You can have inflammation and just think that this is the norm. Salmon also gives you 25 grams of protein a serving. That protein will keep you full for hours. That same protein will help you build muscle. And it will also keep your metabolism ticking. So this is what I want you to do. A minimum. Minimum. Two to three servings of salmon a week. You can also go for sardines or mackerel. Two to three servings. So it means two to three times per week that should be in your diet. If you want it every day, go for it. We want wild caught salmon. You can bake it. You can grill it. You can do a pan fried with a bit of olive oil. And for me, I love to air fry it. My wife loves air frying hers. But let's move into food number three. Which we're gonna switch gears completely. Green tea. Every time I say green tea. If you guys know where that song comes from. Blow on me just like some green tea, baby. If you know that song, if you part of my crew, let me know where that song come from. I'm curious. I want to know. Anyway, I digress. It's a plant compound. The active compound in green tea is something called EGCG. It stands for epigallocatechin gallate. I know, mouthful. And it also contains caffeine on its own. Now, EGCG on its own doesn't do much. But when you combine those two things together, caffeine and EGCG. It releases and it burns store fat. Let me share the research with you on this. There's a 12-week double blind trial of 240 men and women. And it found that the group drinking high catechin green tea lost more of both types of belly fat than the other group did. And that's both the visible kind and the deep kind. I'm gonna be straight with you here. Because I'm not trying to oversell you on the whole green tea thing. We are about research here. That trial contained concentrated catechin dose, right? Remember, EGCG is a catechin. So that is stronger than a couple of mugs of green tea. So the real world effect is from brewed tea. But being modest. And I'll tell you what we can start doing that can give us that strong effect. Now, the green tea is not melting your belly fat on its own. But stacked on top of everything else, it'll make things noticeably easier. This is what I want you to do. And I'm going to give you an even more powerful version. I want you to have two to three cups of brewed green tea. Not bottled. Brewed. Bottled is usually near zero EGCG. And it's loaded with sugar. And if you have a cup of this before you train, that is your best fat burning window. So a quick check before we move on. Before we move, right? We're three in. And if you're already watching, which one of these are you gonna start on with? Let me know in the comments. But food number four. I personally consider it as a superfood. Eggs. They're here for two reasons. And neither one is what you're expecting. The first one has to do with hunger. When overweight people ate two eggs for breakfast instead of a bagel with the exact same calories, they felt less hungry throughout the entire day. And on top of that, they ate less overall without trying. And the reason for that is the protein. Two eggs give you roughly 12 to 14 grams. And that protein sends a far stronger full signal than you will usually get from the carbs in a bagel. So eat less later without feeling like you're white knuckling it. Over time, you'll have less belly fat. And that's simple. The second reason that nobody talks about when it comes to eggs. Inside of an egg, it has a nutrient called choline. Now, most people have never heard of choline. And most people are low on this thing called choline. And eggs are one of the very few foods with a meaningful amount of choline. So what's choline? What do you need it for? Your liver needs choline to move fat out of itself properly. So when your choline is low, your liver starts to struggle to handle fat. And then it says, you know what, let's store more of it. Including shipping more of that fat to the belly. So two to three whole eggs a day covers a big chunk of what your liver needs. So I want you to have two to three whole eggs in your breakfast today before anything else. All right. You can have your oatmeal with proteins at the side with two boiled eggs. Protein first keeps your insulin quieter all morning. And that's liver one again, which keeps the storage signal switched off for the rest of the day. Now, food number five is the one that most people actively are avoiding when they're trying to lose belly fat. And that's a mistake. And that food, avocados. It's high in fat and high in calories. So I get why people are skipping. Now, most people cut it out when they're trying to lean up. That's the wrong call, especially for women. So here's why. The fat in avocado is actually a specific type that we need. That fat is called monosaturated fat. And it does something extremely meaningful in the body. It helps your cells respond better to insulin. And when your cells respond well, the food you eat gets sent to your muscles for fuel. When they stop responding, more of that food gets parked in your belly instead. So improving that response literally will lower your belly fat and will help you after every meal. Now, there's research also supporting this. Women who ate a daily avo as part of the meal had real measured results in their visual fat, especially around their organs. It dropped, right? Again, I'm not talking about the pinchable kind, the deep one. I'm going to be honest here with you. A bigger follow-up study had over a thousand people and they didn't find the same effect across the board. So the evidence on avocados and getting to visual fat is much stronger for women. So the key here in both cases is that we want to swap the avocados in for something that you're eating that's more refined, not piling on top of everything that you're already eating. We want to have avos as a substitute, not an addition. Let me show you and share this with you in practice. I want you to start eating half an avo a day in place of something refined. Example, swap the toast for eggs and avocado. Swap the crackers that you're probably eating and snacking on for avocado slices. Put a half an avo on your lunch salad instead of the dressing. Now, food six is plain unsweetened Greek yogurt. Now, most people have no idea how directly their gut, the bacteria inside your gut is wired to your belly fat. So here's the simple version. Your gut is home to trillions, not billions, trillions of bacteria. And that community has a direct say in how your hunger hormones, leptin and ghrelin, and where your body stores fat. So when your gut bacteria are healthy and there's a variety, the way I like describing your gut bacteria, you want to picture it an Amazonian forest. You want it thick, diverse, and vast, right? So when your gut bacteria are healthy and varied, your hunger signals are accurate. When you feel full, when you've actually had enough, your cravings come down and your body's less likely to default to this fat storage mode. When you have less of a community, when your Amazon forest is broken down and your gut is out of balance, the opposite happens. You're hungry all the time. You're always having cravings and the belly fat digs in. Now, what Greek yogurt does is that it brings in live bacteria, probiotics. Essentially, you're bringing a group of gardeners, a group of people here ready to make your forest wild and vast, right? And you would have heard of those beneficial gut bacteria as probiotics. That supports the community. That supports the trillions of bacterias. And it can also bring casein, right? Greek yogurt contains that slow digesting protein that will keep you fuller for longer even after your meal is done. So less hunger later between meals, less reaching for the stuff that's going to just spike your insulin and send fat directly to the belly and food directly to the belly. So what I want you to do is have a serving of plain unsweetened Greek yogurt, not flavored. You can add blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries to it to give it flavor. You're welcome to add honey to make it more enjoyable. When you buy the Greek yogurt, go into the refrigerated section and find the one that says live cultures, active cultures, because not all of them have them. That good bacteria we're looking for. And if you already started eating some of these and you've seen some change, you've noticed your waist is coming down, your energy is better. I'm so curious. Let me know in the comments which one of these foods that you start incorporating and it had a major effect on you. Now we're over halfway. The next food does two jobs at once. Food seven are the leafy greens, spinach, kale, rocket, watercress. They earn their spot on this list and it goes way past the calories. Yes, they're almost nothing calorie wise and they do fill up your stomach even before you've eaten much, but there's a lot more interesting information in those foods and an interesting nutrient magnesium. Leafy greens are one of the best sources of magnesium out there and magnesium matters to your belly fat specifically because your body needs it for hundreds of processes. It's like you need a screwdriver to be able to work on your car, right? You need the same tool for everyone. That's what magnesium is. It's that general tool that every process in your body needs, including how well your cells respond to insulin. When your magnesium intake is good, things are working smooth like butter. When it's inadequate, your cells stop responding really well to insulin and more of what you eat is getting stored instead of being burnt. So top it back up and your cells will respond accordingly. More of that fuel you're feeding your body will go to your muscle instead of your belly fat. Leave her one more time. Now, most people in the West simply aren't getting enough of magnesium in their food. Adding greens to every meal is the easiest. So this is what I would do. I would have a large handful of leafy greens with every meal and not as a side, as the base. Roll. You can also have it lightly cooked with a little bit of olive oil and garlic. Let's move on to food aid, which is a natural sweet. Berries. Berries do two jobs at the same time. Cravings comes down and inflammation comes down. One of the biggest drivers of belly fat of reaching for sweet stuff is the process foods is when the cravings hit. The process food spikes your insulin super hard and super fast. And every one of those spikes is this loud signal to your body to store belly fat. And berries are sweet enough to actually satisfy your cravings without that same spike. So you get this payoff without the belly fat bill. The second thing that berries work on is inflammation. Now, inside of every berry contains a compound called polyphenols. It's what gives them this deep red, rich colors that you see. And I want you to think of polyphenols as rust protection. They shield your cells from the damage of chronic inflammation. And we talked about inflammation before when we're talking about salmon. Chronic inflammation is one of the main things that lock your belly fat in place. So the berries are quietly pulling on two levers at once. So this is what I would do. I would have a mix of a handful of berries. And in my group call today, this week with my clients, they asked me, Hey, Dr. Mike, can we have frozen berries? Absolutely. They work as well as the fresh versions. Throw them into your yogurt, throw them into your oats, or you can eat them straight when you're having cravings. So this is the one I've been telling you about. Food number nine is the most convincing and the best direct evidence out of this one. It is apple cider vinegar. It has the most compelling direct evidence for belly fat specifically. And this one may be even powerful than the soluble fiber. And the study I'm going to share with you is super powerful. It's a 12-week trial. They took 157 obese individuals and they split them into three groups. Group one took a tablespoon of vinegar a day. Group two took two tablespoons. And one, the last group took a placebo drink that tasted identical, but there was no vinegar there. So nobody knew which one they had. And at the end, they didn't just weigh people. They also put their body in a machine, a CT scan, actual imaging to measure the deep fat around the organs. And both vinegar groups had less belly fat than the placebo group. They also had less body weight. I'm not finished. They also had smaller waists. I ain't done. They also had less fat in the blood. Real, imaged, measured. Why? How does apple cider vinegar work? Its powerful compound in apple cider vinegar is something called acetic acid. Acetic acid slows how fast the carbs are broken down. And essentially, if it's broken down slower, it slows down how fast those carbs hit your blood. Slower carbs hitting your blood means a slower insulin spike. And a smaller spike means less belly fat storage after a meal. The lever one that we're talking about. And this one on the list has the best evidence. But when the study ended and people stopped taking the vinegar, the belly fat came back within about four weeks. So I recommend it to be a daily habit. Don't look at this process as a quick fix. So what I would do, it's to take raw unfiltered of mother apple cider vinegar, that cloudy kind where the sediment is at the bottom, and mix it with a full glass of water, right? A tall glass. Do not drink it raw, please. And do it 10 to 15 minutes before your biggest meals. So if breakfast and lunch is your biggest meal, 10 to 15 minutes before, have apple cider vinegar. Always diluted, never straight, please. It will burn your throat. It will burn your teeth. And very likely, you're unlikely to want to continue. Because it's like getting into a cold shower, right? Now, food 10 is the one that surprised me. Chili peppers. It's the most surprising one. Chili peppers contain a compound called capsaicin. It's essentially what makes the food hot. And this is something that a lot of people don't know. Capsaicin nudges something in your fat cells called UPC-1. And UPC-1 is a switch that tells fat cells to burn through the stored energy as heat, instead of holding on to it. So picture fat cells having this burn-off setting instead of lock-it-away setting. Capsaicin leans on that switch. Now, the switch is the clearest in the lab. But what actually is being measured in people, which is super interesting, regular capsaicin, the people who eat them regularly, have a smaller waist circumference over time. And they also are less hungry at their next meal. So it does two useful things at once, nudging your fat cells towards burning and quietly making you eat less as a habit. So I would add a little bit of dried chili to my meal and enough to what you're comfortable with. Cayenne is also the, you know, the typical cayenne pepper is the typical everyday option. You can add a half a teaspoon to your eggs, to your soups or to your meal, a stir fry, for example, and build it up slowly. If you're not used to the heat, don't go full out, right? You don't need to hurt yourself on this one. And by the way, if you guys want me to make this into a video where I combine all these foods and share recipes with you, let me know, say, hey, Dr. Mike, create the recipe videos with these 10 foods. Let me know in the comments. So these are the 10 foods. Really zoom out of this entire process. And you're really pulling on all three levers here. You're keeping your insulin calm. You're cooling inflammation. And you're also switching the burn on. And none of this is a miracle by itself, but when you eat it together and when you're eating these consistently, they build the exact conditions where your belly fat is getting off so much easier. This is the foundation. We did this with our client, Sandra. We did this with Dominic, every client. Food first, but food's only half of it with the right amounts at the right times for your specific body. That's what turns eating better into an actual transformation. I'll see you in the next one. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Especially when you don't feel like it. Cheers.