Can eating potatoes make you fat? Both potatoes and rice are complex carbohydrates and if eaten in moderation will not make you fat. They can, however, cause weight gain if they are cooked with butter, margarine, cream or any other fatty substance, instead of just boiled in water.
Yes, potatoes can help reduce belly fat due to the presence of fibre, vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial nutrients. However, it is essential to prepare them healthily and incorporate them into a healthy balanced diet.
Do Potatoes Hinder Weight Loss? If you generally follow a healthy diet and stay away from excessive consumption of junk foods, consuming potatoes may not lead to weight gain. In fact, potatoes- both white and sweet potatoes- may help you in weight loss because they have a rich nutritional profile.
In fact, potato is actually packed with nutrients that make it an ideal weight loss food. Dietician Garima Goyal told HT Digital that potatoes are high in fibre as well as resistant starch and can keep one full for longer periods. She says that it could prevent overeating.
"Eating refined carbs like bread, rice, pasta and cookies [in excess] will increase our belly fat. If we want to lose it, we should focus on eating nutrient- and fiber-rich carbs such as vegetables and low-glycemic fruits," says Djordjevic.
If reducing overall body fat, including belly fat, is your ultimate goal, aerobic exercises that increase your heart rate, such as walking, running or swimming, and aerobic exercise combined with strength training are the gold standards when it comes to exercise that supports weight loss.
Potato comes with higher amounts of fibers and lower calories than white rice, which would prove beneficial if you were doing a weight-loss diet. It also contain more dietary fiber, which could help controlling your appetite.
According to Julie Upton, MS, RD, and member of our Medical Expert Board, the healthiest way to eat your potatoes is to leave the skin on and bake them. "The healthiest way to eat a potato is baking it with the skin on," says Upton. "Baked potatoes add no additional calories like frying or roasting with oil."
There's no set time you should stop eating to lose belly fat, but, as a guideline, you should avoid eating two to three hours before bed to stop it from disrupting your sleep and body clocks, which can cause belly fat gain. Studies show early dinners can help people lose weight.
While there isn't one magic food that will melt away belly fat, studies have reported certain foods have special belly-fat-burning benefits, such as avocado, artichokes, whole grains, kefir, green tea, eggs, peanuts and chickpeas.
You May Improve Your Gut Health
Whole potatoes contain resistant starch, which gets fermented by bacteria in your colon. That means that spuds are considered a prebiotic, so they feed the "good" bacteria in your gut, according to 2019 research in the American Journal of Potato Research.
Potatoes are a good source of fiber, which can help you lose weight by keeping you full longer. Fiber can help prevent heart disease by keeping cholesterol and blood sugar levels in check. Potatoes are also full of antioxidants that work to prevent diseases and vitamins that help your body function properly.
The high number means they will spike blood sugar quickly. However when we look at GL which takes regular serving sizes into consideration, potatoes are lower (so a better choice) than rice or pasta.
Of rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread, potatoes are the healthiest of these starchy and complex carbohydrate foods. This is because potatoes are dense in nutrients, containing essential minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients.
Rapid Release of Carbohydrates for Energy
Potatoes are excellent sources of carbohydrates, which is essential for bodybuilders. They contain mainly complex, starchy carbs, as well as small quantities of simple sugars like cellulose, fructose and glucose.
Interestingly, potatoes are not only rich in complex carbohydrates but are also more nutrient-dense (a wide variety of minerals, vitamins, and micronutrients) as compared to white rice and white pasta. In addition, potatoes provide large amounts of fiber and are more satiating than other carbohydrate sources.
Rice is often chosen over potatoes as rice is less filling. So many large bodybuilders look to get their lean carbs in without filling up. If you're dieting or have a big appetite compared to your energy expenditure, potatoes can have the advantage of filling you up.
Yukon Gold potatoes are also a great source of vitamin C (70 percent of DV), a good source of vitamin B6 (31 percent of DV), and potassium (26 percent of DV), which is important for heart health. They're also low in sodium and contain a useful dose of manganese (12 percent of DV) and folate (9 percent DV).
To lose stomach overhang you have to burn fat cells in both the fat you can see directly under the skin and also the more dangerous fat that you can't see that surrounds your organs. Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store.
Keep your room temperature cool while you sleep.
According to the National Institutes of Health, sleeping in a cool room can boost your metabolism and activate brown fat, which burns calories to generate heat. So turn down the thermostat and let your body do the work while you rest.