Increase your metabolism - naturally

Tips to raise your metabolism – naturally

• Eat smaller meals more frequently – every 2 hours

Eating small healthy meals more often and regularly, is one great and simple method. Understanding what a portion really looks like is key to your success. Metabolism is always raised with the intake of food. Frequent small meals keep the metabolism going for a longer duration. Smaller, more frequent meals, keep your blood sugars stable and provides a steady source of energy to fuel metabolism.

• Eating protein-rich foods

Low-fat dairy products, rice, lean meat, fish and skinless chicken have been found to increase metabolism and therefore the burning of calories, by around 25%.

• Include dark green vegetables

The addition of spinach and foods high in fibre to your meals is one of the best ways to increase your metabolism, says Kristine Clark, PhD, RD, FACSM, assistant professor and director of sports nutrition at Pennsylvania State University. Fiber is a non-digestible carbohydrate, but the body tries hard to break it down anyway, using up energy and boosting metabolism in the process. Plus, vegetables are low in calories, yet high in nutrients and therefore great for your weight loss efforts.

 

• The temperature of your body environment affects your metabolism

If it is very cold or very hot, the rate of metabolism is found to go up by about 20%. You can manipulate that temperature. You can either chill out or have a sauna to raise your metabolism. According to Allison David, PhD, professor of biostatistics and director of the clinical nutrition center at the University of Alabama, in Birmingham, our reliance on modern heating and cooling appliances may play a part in the size of our waist lines. Keeping ourselves too comfortable reduces the energy we expend to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Plus, both animals and people consume more food when temperatures are neutral, and eat less when they feel too hot or cold.

• Keep yourself active and moving throughout the day

When you increase your physical activity, your muscle increases and as a consequence, your metabolic rate. Aerobic exercises coupled with resistance training, especially when carried out in the morning, will raise your metabolism all day. Putting on just 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle mass will rev up your resting metabolism by roughly 100 calories, each and every day. However, if you have a job that requires that you sit at the desk for long hours, find ways to incorporate some physical activity and movement. For example, climb some stairs, take the longest route to the coffee machine or stroll around the block. Even for short durations, if you move around as often as possible these small periods of movement can nudge a sluggish metabolism into gear.

 

• Drink at least 2 litres of water every day

You've heard it before, but drink as many as 8 8oz glasses of water every day. The energy burning process of metabolism needs water to work effectively. Also there has been a great deal reported about the metabolic boosting powers of green tea and caffeine. However, according to Allison David, PhD, it seems you’re better off focusing your weight loss efforts elsewhere. A compound in green tea called ECGC has been shown to elevate metabolism by only a small amount and not enough to make a difference in weight. Caffeine may or may not aid weight loss as it acts as a central nervous system stimulant, it absolutely does increase metabolism, Dr. David says, but studies on its weight effects have had mixed results.

• Skimping on sleep can alter your metabolism

Sanjay Patel, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio explains that a lack of sleep can decrease the number of calories your body burns. While resting your body is performing the basic necessities of life, like pumping blood, breathing and repairing damaged tissues. The rate of calories your body burns at rest represents about 60% to 75% of your total daily calorie burning. The more strict a sleeping regime the more efficient your body will become at calorie burning while at rest.

• Increase your heart rate

Adding spices, especially chili or green pepper, to your food has been found to increase your heart rate. It is believed that spices speed-up the metabolism by up to an amazing 50%. But you have to develop considerable tolerance for the spicy condiments if you do not already have it.

 

• Make sure you eat breakfast (even if you do have to share it)
  

If you don't eat breakfast, you slow down your metabolism and send the body into "hoard mode." Let’s say you ate dinner at 8pm, then slept until 7am. That’s a long time between meals. So breakfast is very important because when you starve the body, it will store all that it believes it will need for your survival, especially if it is not sure when the next meal is coming. So keep your meal times as regular as possible, and eat a small something every 2 hours.

• Eat the majority of your food earlier in the day

Dinner should be your lightest meal, and some experts recommend you don't anything after 8pm or any later than 3 to 4 hours before bedtime. This helps your body process and burn more calories per hour.

• Don't starve

We are repeating ourselves, but this is very important. Dropping your calorie intake below 1,000 calories a day will signal to your body that you are in starvation mode, and will slow down your metabolism. Each time you eat, you stimulate your metabolism for a short period of time, which means that the more often you eat, the more you’ll increase your metabolism. Eating every 2 to 3 hours feeds muscle and starves fat. By eating frequently, you reassure your body that you aren’t going to starve; that food will always be available. Skipping breakfast, eating only a sandwich for lunch, and pigging out at dinner, on the other hand, frightens your body into storing fat, just in case your next meal never comes. Georgia State University research shows that people who eat every 2 to 3 hours have less body fat. They also have faster metabolisms than those who eat only 2 or 3 meals per day.

 

 

 

• Increase your fish oils

The omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil may have the power to dramatically boost your metabolism by about 400 calories per day, researchers from the University of Western Ontario report. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total

• Get enough B vitamins

If you are suffering from flagging energy you may need to make sure that you are getting enough vitamin B. Vitamin B-12 in particular is essential for energy. Consider taking a B-complex, plus a separate sublingual B-12.

The Story of Big Bob

 

Please bare with us as we continue to compile information for you . . . . I'm typing as fast as I can. We will be bringing you our recommended menu plans to help you adjust to a new way of looking at food. In the meantime  cooking for yourself is one of the best ways that your relationship with food will improve not only for yourself, but for your family too. Also take a look at the first steps to a better diet with our Plate Half Full approach.

If you are the one running the kitchen in your house, TAKE CHARGE! Believe me when I say that if your family is hungry enough, they will eat anything! Just like cats. So get cookin' and have some fun. Some of the best recipes are born of frustration and mistakes. I can prove it too . . . if you have a copy of Cooking at the Cafe, you'll find a recipe in there for My Mother's Truffles that says it all!