Boost Your
Metabolism!
So you have a slow metabolism? A slow metabolic rate is often the reason people cite for being overweight. And it's not just your imagination.
It's true that some people do burn calories at a slower rate than others, and it can be an important factor in your weight loss plan.
We could go into a big scientific explanation about it, but simply stated, metabolism is the process whereby your body converts food into energy.
Think of it as the "furnace" that burns the calories we take in with our daily food consumption.
The slower this process happens, the slower you burn calories
Increase it and you burn more calories and lose fat faster. Factors that affect the body's ability to burn calories are heredity, age, sex and of course level of physical activity.
Some of these factors can't be changed, but there are effective ways to maximize how fast you burn calories.
Here's The Good News! Recently scientists have discovered ways to increase your metabolic rate, which in turn helps you lose more weight.
Ways You Can Increase Metabolism
1.Exercise on a regular basis. Including some type of
physical activity
every day will have a huge impact on how fast you are burning calories and fat. The best activity to begin burning calories faster is a
good aerobic workout
which can be any activity that gets your heart rate up for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
2. Build Muscle This is a good way to burn fat long term.
Strength training
builds muscle, and muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn all the time, even after your workout. As a bonus, more muscle means you can eat more and gain less! Every pound of lean muscle burns 35 calories a day, while each pound of fat burns just 2 calories per day. If you're a woman, don't worry about bulking up from weight training. Your female hormones will prevent any such thing from happening, and you will actually look a lot more shapely and toned! 3. Eat 5-6 small meals every day instead of 3 big ones. When there are too many hours between meals, your body thinks it's starving and burns calories slower to compensate. If you then eat a huge meal your body stores the extra calories as fat. Try to get into the
habit of eating
a little bit every couple of hours. Over time, this can really boost your rate of calorie burning. 4. Eat foods that speed metabolic rate. There's lots of buzz about red pepper or green tea having this effect, and some studies have shown they can increase the number of calories burned by 20%. That's good news! Many athletes add red pepper to high-carb meals to boost both their resting and active metabolic rates. Green tea contains a powerful antioxidant that some believe can bring about the same kind of calorie-burning effect as hot pepper. Protein generally requires about 25% more energy to digest, so it follows that a high-protein snack might be more effective than a high-carb food.
Try to eat as much as you can of the
healthiest foods
on earth which are considered SuperFoods due to their low fat and high nutritional content. Bottom line: The best bet for keeping metabolism high: Build muscle, snack on low-calorie, high-protein foods, and keep moving!
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