Spicy Foods for Weight Loss – Does It Really Work?

Every now and then, a new weight loss fad would take the world by storm. Among the recently popular ones are the keto diet, intermittent fasting, South Beach diet, and carb cutting. Some of these work, some not so much. Amidst society’s never-ending quest to lose weight, there have been multiple claims that eating spicy foods is a highly effective way to shed those extra pounds.

This does sound like a very attractive proposition. Just imagine, you can actually eat and lose weight at the same time! What could be better than that? But before you stock up on your Tabasco sauce and jalapeno peppers, let’s first take a closer look at the merits of these claims.

Do Spicy Foods Really Make You Lose Weight?

It’s easy to deduce the reasoning behind this promise. When you eat spicy foods, you break out in sweat. The spicier the food, the more intensely you will sweat. So maybe, just maybe, this causes the same effect as when you sweat during exercise which is, of course, weight loss. In a way, that is true. However, the amount of weight loss that you can get from eating a bowl of Sichuan hotpot will be too insignificant to actually matter.

Studies have shown that capsaicin, the compound found in peppers that make them so incredibly hot, does actually speed up metabolism. But again, this change is rather miniscule to lead to noticeable weight loss.

Proponents of eating spicy foods as a weight loss method might also say that capsaicin will increase your body temperature and accelerate the calorie burning process. This may be true but there are not enough research studies to prove it.

All things considered, there is not much evidence to show that eating spicy foods will help you lose weight. In fact, if you end up really loving spicy foods like we do, and make an effort to visit all the spicy food festivals in your area, it might even cause you to gain weight! Seriously speaking, peppers are not high in calories at all so if you have the tolerance for the hotness, enjoy them, by all means. You might not lose weight but you will certainly have an excellent culinary experience every single time.