Foods to help you lose weight

• Green tea

• Go green, with your tea at least. Studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that green tea speeds up your metabolism so that you burn more calories. Five cups a day are needed for best results.
  

• Miso soup

• Made from two fat-burning foods, seaweed and soya beans, this brother packs a powerful weight-loss punch. Hokkaido University Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences in Japan found that eating a serving each day can increase your weight loss by 10 per cent.
  

• Chilli

• It doesn’t just heat up your mouth, the spicy hotness of a chilli pepper also kick-starts your body’s fat burners. Food scientist Heidi Allison, author of The Chili Pepper Diet (Health Communications; £4.38 from Amazon.co.uk), found that you can lose 10 times as much weight if you add a sprinkle of dried chillies to your meals.
  

• Grapefruit

• Maybe there is something in the grapefruit diet after all. Scripps Clinic researchers found that half a grapefruit before each meal helped dieters to lose between 3.3 and 10 pounds over the course of 12 weeks. The scientists are not sure why this works as the same amount of calories were being eaten, but they think that it may have some sort of fat-burning effect. At only 39 calories per half it’s definitely worth a shot.

• Protein

• A study in the Journal of Exercise Physiology found that you can burn up to 25 per cent of the calories in a meal of pure protein just by digesting it. While going Atkins is sure to give you death breath, cutting out the fries for an extra bun-free burger can help you reach your weight-loss goals all the quicker.
  

• Coffee

• Another excuse for your morning java hit – food scientists at Oryza Oil & Fat Chemical Company, Japan, have found that coffee can aid weight loss. For the best effects, go for unprocessed green coffee beans. Try www.greencoffeeltd.co.uk for a selection.