By far the most important thing you can do to help you reach your weight loss goals is to get your diet right. Surprisingly, eating the right things is not just about avoiding high fat foods. Many foods will actually help to accelerate your fat loss. So most of my best weight loss tips are about including certain foods into your diet and these are the best weight loss foods to eat to increase your weight loss.

Nice Nuts – Nuts are traditionally avoided by dieters due to their high fat content. However, research suggests that it is not that straightforward. Despite their high fat content, nuts may in fact assist weight loss through other weight loss promoting properties. According to a review study published in the Journal of Nutrition (138:1741S-1745S, 2008), nuts are associated with a lower body fat. Also, when subjects add nuts to their diet, it did NOT cause weight gain Some research also found that it was easier for people to stick to a diet when nuts were in their meal plan. The researchers believe that nuts help fill you up (thanks to the fiber) and it’s possible that not all of the calories from nuts are absorbed into your body.

Eggcelent Eggs! – Researchers from Louisiana State University in the U.S. looked at the eating habits of a group of overweight and obese women. The women, who were following a low-fat diet, were asked to eat either two eggs a day for breakfast, or have a bagel. The two meals contained the same number of calories and weighed roughly the same amount. However, after eight weeks of breakfasting, the slimmers who had eaten eggs had lost the most weight. As well as shedding 65 per cent more pounds than the bagel eaters, they had lost almost twice as many inches from their waistline, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s annual conference heard yesterday. Previous work by the same researchers showed that those who ate eggs for breakfast felt fuller for longer than those who had a bagel and cheese. As a result, they ate less during the rest of the day. It is not completely clear why eggs are so good at making us feel full but it is thought their high protein content could play a large part. Researcher Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar, an obesity expert, said: “Despite equal energy content and weight, an egg breakfast had a greater satiating effect compared to a bagel breakfast, which translated into a lower energy intake at lunch.” “The resulting decrease in energy consumption lasted for at least 24 hours after the egg breakfast.

Magic Mushrooms! – In one study, it was shown that volunteers who had mushrooms rather than meat, in four otherwise identical meals a week shed almost 13lbs (6kg) over five weeks, with one losing 1.5 stone (9.5kg). In another recent trial, reported in ‘The Telegraph’, Margaret Hill, a 25-year-old mother-of-two from Dagenham in Essex, went from 13st 6lbs to 11st 1lb. “I was amazed by my weight loss – it’s the most I have ever managed to lose. I never thought I’d get my body back after I had my kids so I am over the moon. I look and feel fantastic,” . Mushrooms contribute filling protein and are a low energy- dense meat substitute, meaning that they fill you up without contributing lots of calories.

Yes to Yogurt! – Researchers at the University of Tennessee, United States of America, found that obese adults, who ate three servings of fat-free yoghurt a day as part of a reduced calorie diet, lost 22 per cent more weight and 61 per cent more body fat than those who simply cut calories. Yoghurt eaters also lost 81 per cent more fat in the stomach area than non-yoghurt eaters. “Not only did yoghurt help the study participants lose more weight — the average weight loss was 14 pounds (6.8 kilos) — they were about twice as effective at maintaining lean muscle mass,” said lead researcher Michael Zemel. Yoghurt goes very well with meat based dishes, curries, chillis and casseroles. By adding yogurt to these often higher fat meals, you are reducing the overall fat density of the meal, meaning that by the time you are full, you will have consumed fewer calories.

Swap Fruit Juice for Milk (or Milk-Shake) – In a recent study, australian scientists found overweight people who downed about 2 1/2 cups of skim milk in the morning consumed 8.5 percent fewer calories at an all-you-can-eat lunch spread than people who drank the same amount of fruit juice. Both beverages had an equal number of calories, but the milk contained 25 grams of protein while the fruit juice had virtually no protein and 63 grams of sugar. Those may be big servings, but the principle remains: Protein helps you feel fuller throughout the morning.

Magic Beans! – Scientists found that people who consumed beans were 23 percent less likely to have large waists than those who said they never ate them. Legumes are top weight loss foods as they are a source of filling protein, without the fat calories of many meat protein foods, such as mince, bacon and lamb. They are also rich in belly filling fibre, keeping you fuller for longer and keeping those between meal cravings at bay.

An Apple A Day! – Penn State researchers discovered that people who ate a large apple 15 minutes before lunch took in 187 fewer calories during lunch than those who didn’t snack beforehand. (The apples had around 128 calories.) They saved 59 calories per meal. This would be an even larger saving if the apple where eaten as a substitute for high calorie chocolate bars, cakes or crisps. Apples are a great sweetness fix for when you have a sweet craving and they fill you up more than a chocolate bar would as they require lots of chewing, which tricks the brain and contain lots of belly filling fibre.

These are my best weight loss tips for the best foods to include in your diet to speed up fat loss. If you follow only half of these tips, you won’t fail to notice a difference in the speed and amount of your weight loss and maybe for the first time, you may actually find that you are able to reach and maintain your weight loss goals with ease.

You can find a huge list of weight loss tips and tricks at weight loss tips and tricks. This website has attempted to bring together all the existing research relating to what works for and can help with weight loss.