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Your
metabolism or metabolic rate can determine exactly
how quickly you gain or lose fat. Here are some
quick tips you can put to use immediately to help
crank up your metabolism and increase your fat
burning.
1. Eat Breakfast
It's
no myth that breakfast is the most important meal
of the day. If you skip breakfast thinking you
are saving calories or time, consider this...
Your
body has been in a fasting state for 8 hours or
more. When you wake up and don't give it any food,
its natural reaction is self-defense. It thinks
"famine" and automatically slows your
metabolism to a crawl to conserve calories. Not
only does everything you eat for the rest of the
day have a far greater chance of being stored
as fat, your chances of burning any fat off that
day are low.
And
here's the whammy... you're going to get really
hungry later and will probably want to eat something
that's not so good for you. With your now-slower
metabolism (because you skipped breakfast), you're
going to store a lot more of that "not-so-great"
meal than usual.
2. Eat Frequently
Besides
skipping breakfast, the next biggest metabolism-killer
is long waits between meals. Every time you eat
something, your metabolism ramps up to process
the food. The more frequently you eat, the more
frequently your metabolism will get a boost.
The
real key, however, is to be sure you're eating
smaller meals. Try to eat 5 or more times per
day, even if it's just healthy snacks between
meals.
3. Exercise With Intensity
Your
metabolic rate is directly related to the intensity
of the exercise you perform. Walking will burn
calories while you're doing it and give your metabolism
a small boost for a little while after but it
doesn't compare to high-intensity interval training.
That type of training can boost your metabolism
for a full 24 hours or more after.
Even
if you can't handle high-intensity training, you
can always find ways to make the easier exercises
such as walking more intense, e.g. walk faster,
walk up hills, wear a weighted back-pack, etc.
4. Train With Weights
Weight
training builds muscle and muscle is a huge factor
in determining your metabolic rate. Muscle tissue
is very metabolically active. Your body burns
a lot of calories just to maintain it.
Weight
training gives your metabolism a triple-shot.
Not only do you burn calories during the exercise,
you also increase your metabolic rate long after
the exercise (provided the training you are doing
is intense). Add to that the extra muscle you
build from the training and you can see how effective
weights can be for boosting your metabolism.
5. Eat More Protein
Of
the three major macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates
and fats), protein requires the most energy to
digest. Protein is also less likely to be stored
as fat because of this. Protein will also help
you to build up your muscle.
I don't
recommend that you overload on protein, however,
focusing on getting plenty of good-quality protein
from a variety of sources (e.g. lean meats, chicken,
fish, eggs, soy, etc.) can help keep your metabolic
rate high.
6. Take Your Vitamins
Your
metabolic rate basically boils down to chemical
reactions in your body. Vitamins and minerals
(and water) are important parts of these chemical
reactions. If you don't have enough of these components
available for your body to use when it needs them,
your body will have to limit itself to what you've
got.
Think
of your metabolism as a car assembly line. You
can't build a complete car until you have all
the parts available. If, for example, you only
have enough doors available to build 100 cars
but you have 200 doorless cars on the line, you're
missing out on a lot of potential production.
By
taking a multivitamin on a regular basis, you
will not only support your metabolism but your
health as well.
7. Reduce Your Fat Intake
Fatty
foods take longer for your body to digest and
they leave you feeling fuller longer. While not
being hungry is certainly fine when trying to
lose fat, eating meals that encourage you to wait
longer periods between eating can slow your metabolism.
This
goes back to the point about eating frequently.
If you eat fatty foods for breakfast, you may
not want to anything again until lunch, which
could be 5 or more hours away. Ideally, you should
eat approximately every 3 hours.
If you're looking to give your metabolism a boost,
give these tips a try. A faster metabolic rate
can help you tremendously with fat loss.
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