Let’s be realistic here – what you really want to know is not whether spicy food is good for your metabolism. You want to know if eating fiery dishes will help you to lose weight.
This question is a lot more complex than it might seem upon first consideration, and the answer is equally complex. So, before we go any further, let’s take it on faith that eating spicy foods will not, in and of itself as a dietary strategy, help you to lose huge amounts of weight. But it might work as a supplemental strategy in an overall program of diet and exercise.
Doesn’t Heat Burn Calories?
The conventional wisdom suggests that a substance, capsaicin, which is found in hot peppers, may generate enough heat to help you burn off a few calories. By a few, that means probably no more than 100 in any given day.
Hardly worth the bother, is it? But wait a minute – there is also evidence that spicy food can be good for your metabolism; just not in the way you might expect.
Your Appetite and Spicy Food
How do you feel after you sit down to a meal of salad and chicken breast? Probably very unsatisfied. Now, what if, instead of giving you your greens in a salad and your protein in a chicken breast, we offered you a stir-fry of chicken and greens in Sriracha sauce? Much better, right?
This is because foods that are highly flavored make you feel more satisfied. You will be less tempted to snack, seeking the flavors that you didn’t get in your meal, and therefore you will consume fewer calories.
Back to Calorie Burning
As previously stated, spicy foods will probably help you to burn calories – a bit. So in this way, the answer to the question “Is spicy food good for your metabolism?” is “Yes.”
The thing to remember, though, is that simply adding spicy foods to the diet will not help all that much. Given that the conventional wisdom is that a pound of excess weight equals about 3,500 calories that you need to burn off, it will take you nearly a year to drop a single pound.
Conclusion
Although the answer to the question “Is spicy food good for your metabolism?” is most likely “Not much,” you can still incorporate spices into your diet as part of your weight loss strategy. A bit of cayenne added to a bowl of otherwise boring chicken soup can make it a lot more interesting. It can also jazz up a pasta sauce and deliver a bit more zing to your morning egg. Plain old rice can get a bit of a flavor shot if you dice in a few jalapenos. You get the idea. Don’t assume that consuming spicy foods will help you to lose weight – the effect is likely to be negligible. But if you get the oral satisfaction you crave from what you’re eating, you will eat less, and you will almost certainly lose weight.
Sources:-
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421532-can-spicy-food-help-you-lose-weight/