Seven
Quick Tips To Speed Up Your Metabolism and Burn
Fat Faster
The speed of your metabolism is the real key to
burning fat quickly and efficiently. Here are
seven easy tips for boosting your metabolic rate.
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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 (eating 5 big meals instead of 3 big meals isn't
good for losing fat!). 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.
