There’s no better way to encourage healthy weight loss than starting your day off right with a nourishing, metabolism-boosting breakfast. Along with exercising every day and drinking enough water, a well-balanced diet can significantly help with your weight loss journey—and overnight oats are a great meal to try as they offer the necessary complex carbs, fiber, and protein your body needs. Overnight oats, unlike oatmeal, aren’t cooked. Instead, they are rolled oats (which are pre-cooked) that are put in a jar with the liquid of your choice overnight. Usually, people soak the rolled oats in water or milk (learn which plant-based milk is the best for weight loss!).
To learn more about the best metabolism-boosting fruit you can add to your overnight oats, we spoke with Lainey Younkin, a registered dietitian. She said that berries, specifically raspberries, are among the best fruits to add to your overnight oats to boost your metabolism because of their fiber content. Younkin explains that just one cup of raspberries has a whopping 8 grams of fiber for only 65 calories. Plus, ketone is a chemical that is found in red raspberries and it’s believed that raspberry ketone can increase metabolism and reduce appetite. Find out more below!
Raspberries Are The Best Metabolism-Boosting Fruit To Add To Your Overnight Oats
While raspberries may not be as popular as other berries—like blueberries or strawberries—they're just as beneficial for your overall health. Raspberries are a small but mighty fruit that really can do wonders for your body. Experts like Younkin say that berries like raspberries are the best metabolism-boosting fruit for weight loss. And they make a delicious addition to a bowl of overnight oats! What's not to love?
The fiber in raspberries can help boost your metabolism in a number of different ways. "First, fiber keeps things moving along through your digestive tract. Fiber is not digested and absorbed like protein, fat, and other carbohydrates. If you eat more protein, fat, or carbohydrates than your body needs, the rest will get stored as fat, but this isn't the case with fiber," Younkin, who works as a weight loss dietitian at Lainey Younkin Nutrition explains. "Fiber moves through the digestive tract mostly intact to your large intestine, where good bacteria feed on it and produce short-chain fatty acids." Short-chain fatty acids can help boost your metabolism, suppress your appetite, and even reduce inflammation.
"Raspberries are chock-full of a fiber called soluble fiber, which dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance," she continues. "Soluble fiber suppresses appetite, aids weight loss, and rids the body of LDL ('bad') cholesterol. Oats are also high in soluble fiber." When raspberries are combined with high-protein, soluble fiber foods like overnight oats, they can keep you satiated for hours—which in the end improves your metabolism and blood sugar levels.
Raspberry Overnight Oats Recipe
Now that you know how beneficial raspberries are as an overnight oats topping, Younkin also provided us with a metabolism-boosting recipe you can have for breakfast. Simply add all the ingredients listed below, except the fruit, to a bowl or container and stir. Then, cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, you can then add raspberries and stir. "The oats, raspberries, and chia seeds are filled with fiber while adding Greek yogurt helps boost the protein in this delicious, metabolism-boosting breakfast," she says. Greek yogurt also helps improve digestion and the probiotics diversify the gut microbiome. Check out four other overnight oats recipes for healthy weight loss!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup milk of choice
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp maple syrup or honey
1/2 - 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
optional: 1 tbsp peanut butter
The Bottom Line
Overnight oats are one of the best breakfasts to assist with healthy weight loss. The benefits of this easy, delicious meal are practically endless: they're tasty, filling, and nutritious. Plus, it's an extremely versatile meal because you can mix in any spices, syrups, or fruits. Experts like Younkin say that berries, like raspberries, are the best fruit you can add to your overnight oats because they're packed with soluble fiber that can boost your metabolism. So next time you're not sure what to have for breakfast, make yourself a delicious and nutritious bowl of overnight oats—and don't forget to top it with some metabolism-boosting raspberries!
READ MORE: A Dietitian Tells Us The Best Way To Prepare Your Overnight Oats For Optimal Gut Health
