Useful advice: Can tomatoes help with weight loss?

Tomatoes can fit well into a weight-loss diet because they contain a lot of water and few calories, nutritionist Yulia Grigoryeva told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

They can make a portion more filling without significantly increasing its calorie content. But Grigoryeva stressed that tomatoes do not burn fat. Weight loss depends on maintaining a calorie deficit.

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Tomatoes themselves do not burn fat; weight loss works only with a calorie deficit.

She advised against building a mono-diet around tomatoes or replacing complete meals with them. A balanced diet remains important, with tomatoes combined with protein such as fish, poultry, eggs or cottage cheese, as well as greens, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates.

One example is a Greek salad served with fish or chicken breast and bread made from whole grains. Grigoryeva also said freshly picked tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, while heat treatment improves the absorption of lycopene, which benefits the cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems.

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I would not recommend making tomatoes the basis of a mono-diet or replacing complete meals with them.