10 Secrets About Your Metabolism To Help Weight Loss
Apart from eating a proper diet, boosting your metabolic rate is the key to healthy weight loss.
Increasing the rate of your metabolism will burn fat faster so that you lose weight and improve your general health. And it does it in a way that’s healthy, consistent and permanent.
If you’re ready to speed up your body’s fat burning ability, we’ve got 10 ways to boost that metabolism and drop those excess pounds fast!
1. Interval Cardiovascular Exercises
While walking 30 minutes or more a day is certainly better than nothing, it doesn’t hold a candle to alternating intensity.
For example, instead of a steady walking pace, you would walk 2 minutes then run 1 minute. Repeat that cycle for 20-30 minutes and you’ll have greatly boosted your metabolic rate – much more than walking. What’s even better, it will stay burning longer, even when you’re at rest.
2. Make Sure You Eat Healthy Fats
A lot of people think that they need to cut out all fat from their diet to lose weight, but that’s not true. You need fats to be healthy – just make sure that they’re healthy fats. By consuming fats like omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats, you’re eating foods that help to increase your metabolism.
You’ll find healthy fats in foods like avocados, nuts and seeds, fatty fish like salmon and in oils like olive and canola.
3. Eat Food Rich In Protein
Protein is important in a number of ways when losing weight.
First of all, it helps boost your metabolism because it’s extra work for your body to process it. Second, it helps with maintaining your muscle mass – and muscles burn more calories than fat does. Finally, eating foods that are rich in protein helps to satiate your hunger, allowing you to go longer between meals without feeling hungry.
Get healthy protein from turkey and chicken, lean pork, egg whites, and low fat dairy products.
4. Dark Green Leafy Vegetables
Veggies like spinach, kale, and broccoli give your metabolism an impressive boost because they step-up your digestion.
Dark green leafy veggies are also high in iron – very important for women! They strengthen your red blood cells, which supply nutrients to your whole body.
5. Hot And Spicy Foods
There have been more than a few studies in the last few years showing that spicy foods can help increase your body’s ability to burn fat.
The chemical capsaicin, found in spicy peppers like jalapenos and chili peppers, increases the body’s temperature in a process known as thermogenesis, which some say helps burn fat faster.
6. Apples
Apples are one of nature’s greatest gifts to us. Apples are full of vitamins and high in fiber – so not only do they boost your metabolism, they help decrease hunger pangs, decrease between meal cravings and improve your digestion.
7. Green Tea
Researchers just keep learning more and more good things about green tea. An active ingredient in green tea called catechins helps speed up your metabolism – one reason it’s often called “dieter’s tea”.
Green tea also is also full of antioxidants, which cleanse the body and help prevent some kinds of cancer.
8. Plain Water
Just by increasing your intake of water, you can boost your metabolic rate by as much as 30%! The standard rule is to drink eight 8 oz glasses each day, although your needs may vary depending on activity level and a few other factors.
Can’t stand water? Drink sparkling water with a twist of lemon or lime juice.
9. Avoid Late Night Eating
Avoid eating anything within a few hours of going to bed. When you sleep, your metabolism slows down because your body doesn’t need any energy. Instead, it turns any unneeded food into fat for storage!
Studies show that people who eat late at night have a harder time losing weight than those who don’t – even when they ate the same number of calories overall.
10. Reduce Stress
Stress plays a big role in weight loss. When your body is in any kind of stress, it tries to hold on to extra fat because it assumes hard times are on the way – minimize stress through relaxation techniques and exercise to keep that fat melting away.