ViriliTrex When you eat food that is difficult to digest your body has to use stored energy to process it, the more difficult the food is to digest the more energy is burned in the digestion process. This is known as the Thermic Effect of Food or TEF. The thermic effect of food has been scientifically proven to help your body burn fat and fat burning foods have earned their name from their high thermogenic value. Therefore, foods that burn fat the best are lean proteins such as lean chicken breast, turkey breast, lean beef, all fish, shellfish, and eggs. Lean protein has the highest thermogenic value of all food and it will make your body burn 30% of the calories it contains just to digest it.