Fiber is a component of your food which doesn’t get completely digested. It is usually found in the plant cell walls with carbohydrates attached to it. This is why most plants like whole grains, beans, legumes, leafy greens, fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber. Fiber is a necessary component in a weight loss diet and helps with weight loss.
The different types of fibers
Fibers can be classified into 2 types- soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber is beneficial for improving your heart’s health and reducing overall cholesterol levels. Insoluble fiber improves gastrointestinal health and helps flush out everything from your system.
What does fiber do to your body?
Fiber helps accelerate your metabolism and keeps your stomach full for longer. When food gets digested, the body extracts calories from it. However, fiber is indigestible simply because they don’t have calories.
Your body still tries to break down the fiber through a process known as thermogenesis. This process is usually referred to as any reaction where the body’s internal temperature increases, and it even improves your metabolic rate.
Fiber helps in removing toxins from the body.
Fiber has properties which attach themselves to toxins in the body, like fat cells and calories, thus helping you flush them out. In the stomach, fiber can act like a sponge that absorbs toxins, estrogen, and other waste products and flushes them out. They even combine with excess calories and fat.
When you eat food containing fiber as well as fat and calories, a percentage of these calories and fat merge with fiber so that they can be expelled from the body. Studies have proved that consuming dietary fiber can significantly reduce the risk of weight gain. This means that fiber is essential for weight loss as it gets you full faster and keeps you full for longer.
When the body feels full, it prevents you from overeating, thus helping you stay calorie deficient. This helps in reducing your overall calorie consumption in a day.
Gut health benefits from fiber
Fiber not only helps maintain weight but also plays an important role in reducing the risks of autoimmune diseases and inflammation in the body. If your body is fiber deficit, the lining in the microbiome walls in the gut gets thinner.
On getting closer to the walls, the bacteria in the gut may gain entry to the bloodstream producing cytokine. Studies show that cytokine can cause inflammation, leading to various autoimmune diseases like alopecia, colitis, psoriasis, Parkinson’s, Crohn’s, Obesity, MS, and a few types of cancer.
As such, fiber plays a major role in maintaining a healthy gut. A high-fiber diet can help you increase the microbiome population in your gut. This may be why so many probiotics and prebiotics are so popular these days. The microbiome contains microflora, which is a collective bacteria which assists in breaking down food in the stomach.
Microflora are like small collective bacteria which chomp on the fiber that is ingested in the body so that they can repopulate. This makes the lining of the gut walls thicker.
Ways to incorporate more fiber into your weight loss-
Consume 5 grams of fiber per meal or more
It is advised to add 4-5 grams of fiber to your daily meals and snacks, too, so that you reach your required intake. Your diet should consist of whole-grain foods, fruits and vegetables. You should even eat the skins of seeds, lentils, nuts and beans, as they also contain high amounts of fiber.
Substitute calories with fiber.
A high-fiber diet doesn’t require having a limited intake. You just have to substitute high-calorie foods with fiber-rich foods. For instance, you can switch from watermelon to raspberries, lettuce to kale, white bread to whole grains bread, etc.
Drink plenty of water.
It is essential to have a sufficient fluid intake if you are increasing your daily fiber intake. Fiber can harden in your body if you don’t have a sufficient water intake. 1 liter of water is recommended for every 10 grams of fiber. On consuming 30 grams of fiber, you would require 3 liters of water, which can be distributed into 12 cups.
Slowly increase your fiber intake.
There are high chances of experiencing gas initially, but it will go away. You should start by consuming 5-10 grams daily and then increasing the quantity by 5-10 grams daily. You will have to work your way up slowly so that you can provide the required quantity of fiber to your body.
