Metabolism is the rate at which body burns calories to perform all of its activities, including breathing, digestion, and circulation. A person’s metabolism can be affected by such factors as age, gender, genetics, stress, and the amount of exercise the person gets. If you want to burn fat more efficiently, you need to boost your metabolism.
Exercise
Both cardio and weight training should be included in an exercise routine. The greatest impact on your metabolism is the amount of lean muscle you have relative to the rest of your body weight. Unlike fat, which primarily stores calories, muscle causes your body to use calories. By exercising regularly, a person sheds fat and builds up lean muscle mass.
Healthy nutrition
- Eat more small meals frequently. This spreads out your calorie intake and will keep your metabolism revved up. Aim for 5-6 small meals with protein, veggies and good fats. – Always have a breakfast to get your metabolism moving! If you don’t have time or want to sit down to a large meal, try a smoothie.
- Eat foods that take more calories to digest than they do to store (also called negative calorie foods). These foods include: asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, green beans, zucchini, watermelon, oranges, papaya, and raspberries. – Ingesting complete protein, whole wheat and spicy foods increase metabolism.
- Green tea is “the closest thing to a metabolism potion” (Lakatos, 2004). It contains a plant compound called ECGC, which promotes fat burning. According to one study, consuming two to four cups of green tea per day may torch an extra 50 calories.
- Drink water. Researchers at the University of Utah found that volunteers who drank eight to 12 eight-ounce glasses of water per day had higher metabolic rates than those who quaffed only four glasses. Try to drink it cold: your body may burn a few calories heating the cold water to your core temperature.
Healthy sleep
You need this time for your body to rest and repair itself. Sleep deprivation is a leading factor in weight gain. It may make you put on pounds by disrupting hormones that control your eating habits and that may trigger fat cells in the abdomen to increase in size and encourage food storage. Try to go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning.
Source: Lakatos, S. (2004). Fire up your metabolism: 9 proven principles for burning fat and losing weight forever.
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