Fire Up Your Meals

Okay folks, cheat day is over! Valentine's Day has passed (thank god!), so it's time to get your eating and exercise back on track!

Eating requires lots of energy if you choose the right foods. These four types of Active Calories stimulate your body to burn more calories. (Bonus: They also curb your appetite.)

Chewy foods (lean meats, nuts, whole fruits and vegetables). These calories make your body work right off the fork. To maximize the chew factor, choose food in its most whole state—a tuna steak instead of canned tuna, apples instead of applesauce.

Hearty foods (fruits, vegetables, brown rice, whole grains and cereals). In addition to being chewy, these Active Calories are packed with fiber, take up more room in your belly (compared with other foods of the same number of calories), and leave less room for second helpings.

Energizing foods (coffee, black and green tea, dark chocolate). You can get metabolism-boosting caffeine in coffee and black tea; just be careful not to load them up with milk, cream, or sugar. Green tea doesn't have much caffeine but does contain catechins, an antioxidant that raises resting metabolism by 4% (about 80 calories a day). Dark chocolate contains both catechins and caffeine, but stick to 1 ounce per day to limit fat and calories.

Warming foods (peppers, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, cloves, mustard, vinegar). Dieters taking capsaicin, the chemical that gives peppers their burn, doubled their energy expenditure for several hours after eating, according to a new study from UCLA. Even mild peppers contain compounds that help erase up to 100 calories a day by binding to nerve receptors and sending fat-burning signals to your brain. Not much of a pepper person? Cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, and garlic help too.