Good morning ladies & gents!
Today I want to share with you my TOP 20 metabolism-boosting tips that I have picked up over the years! I am sure that we have all have those days where we slip up on our healthy eating plan a bit and could use a good boost to get us back on track. Eating healthy and taking care of our bodies does not mean missing out on our favorite foods or never being able to taste certain things ever again- it just means that those things are no longer a habit or routine, they are now occasional treats! ;-)
Treating ourselves becomes much easier to bounce back from once we get over the hurdle of losing the amount of weight that we want to lose, or we get into the shape that we have made a goal to strive after. As a healthy part of any maintenance nutrition/fitness plan, every once and a while it is okay to enjoy a small serving of your favorite foods that maybe aren't so healthy. If you are still in the weight loss phase of your nutrition/fitness plan, keep your indulgences to healthy dessert options, such as the healthy no-bake fudge recipe that I have given you, future recipes that I will post for you, low-sugar/low-fat yogurt, or fresh/grilled fruit.
Below are 20 tips that actually work if you really want to kick your fat-burning into full gear.
Enjoy! :-)
1) Drink green tea!
I have featured a post about why you should be doing this, but I will just give you another reminder here. Green tea speeds up our metabolism and facilitates burning fat. That lower stomach fat that seems to easily accumulate and yet is so hard to lose hates green tea- because the two simply cannot co-exist in peace, and because it works. ;-)
2) Keep meals small, consuming 300-400 calories per meal!
Keeping our meals small not only speeds up the metabolism because there is less overall food to burn, but it encourages less overall fat storage (because most of our food is being burned for energy)! This also forces us to consume more small meals throughout our day, which keeps our metabolism up and running!
3) Eat at least 5-6 small meals a day!
This keeps our metabolism up and running all day long. If you never allow your furnace enough time to burn out in-between meals, it will just keep going! The result? A fast metabolism for most of your day (except around bedtime), and less fat storage overall.
4) Train major muscle groups at least 3 or 4 times per week!
This has to be THE most effective tip of all. If you are just doing cardio and no weight lifting as a part of your fitness routine, you can say goodbye to your beach sexy body. No fitness routine will ever burn enough fat and calories to get your body into tip top shape without weights. Go out and get yourself some 3-5lb. weights (for women) if you are just starting out, and pick up/research a circuit training or weight training dvd, program, or class and start lifting! For men, start with 10lbs. if you have never lifted before, and also pick up/research a circuit training or weight training dvd, program, or class!
5) Eat spicy foods, cinnamon, & turmeric!
According to researchers at Purdue University, a chemical in chili peppers called capsaicin is responsible for spicy food's temperature-raising properties. According to Penn State University, heavily-spiced foods can speed up our metabolism up by as much as twenty percent, for up to 30 minutes after we eat them! The link between spicy foods and their ability to speed up our metabolism has to do with a key component of the metabolic process- regulating body temperature. When we consume food loaded with capsaicin-rich hot peppers, we begin to pant and sweat profusely. As our tongue burns and tingles, we may feel physical sensations of heat in our face, ears, and even our body. This effect is intimately tied to our metabolic rate. If you're not a fan of super spicy food, get a similar metabolic effect by adding spices such as cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger to the dishes that you prepare!
6) Have sex (for those who are 18 and older, thank you.)!
Whether you would like to believe it or not, sex increases our BMR (basal metabolic rate) by as much as 15%! The release of male and female sex hormones is what's responsible. Make time for regular sex, and expect to lose more weight overall.
7) Eat clean!
By eating clean, I mean eating foods that are naturally found in nature. The most un-processed and natural version of what is consumable by humans is the easiest for our bodies to burn, and will significantly boost our metabolism. This includes fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy, nuts and seeds, and complex carbohydates such as whole grains. Plate up!
8) Drink 2-3 liters of water a day!
This equates to around 8-12 cups of water a day (*~4 c. of water are in 1 L). Drinking water encourages optimal body function, flushes out wastes, and delivers the nutrients responsible for a fast and healthy metabolism. Get yourself a liter water bottle to take with you during the day when you're first starting out, and make it a habit to drink at least 1 cup of water every 1.5-2 hours!
9) Drink your java black or with low-fat milk, and sans sugar!
Drinking coffee with cream and sugar is like chasing your workouts with chocolate and cake. Why destroy all of the natural benefits of metabolism-boosting caffeine by sabotaging it with sugar and fat laden ingredients! Drink 1-2 cups of coffee early on during the day without these ingredients and reap the metabolism benefits TODAY!
10) Never go past the point of hunger!
A lot of people make this mistake, which brings me back to the old belief that we should be eating only 3 meals a day. Going past the point of hunger slows the metabolism down and forces our body into fat-storing starvation mode. Throw this notion out, cut your meals into smaller portions, and eat every 2-3 hours. You should never feel starving! In fact, it is better to eat a small amount of "junk food" if that's the only food that is available rather than not eat at all!
11) Eat high glycemic foods in moderation!
Examples include carrots, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and fresh-squeezed juice. High glycemic foods, or foods that greatly affect our blood sugar levels, have a similar negative effect on metabolism as do eating white sugar or flour. Consider these foods as part of your "starch" intake, along with whole grain breads, rice, and cereal. Consume them in moderation and eat your metabolism on fire!
Consuming healthy fats on a regular basis such as flaxseed oil, canola oil, olive oil, fish oil, cod liver oil, and/or the fats from nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, & pumpkin seeds help keep our arteries and heart lubed, smooth, taut, & pumping efficiently! You cannot expect to have a healthy heart if you are constantly jamming your arteries with long and tangled chains of saturated fats and cholesterol. Eating healthy fats helps to promote HDL "good" cholesterol in our bodies and to carry away the LDL "bad" cholesterol from developing as plaque on our artery walls. Eating unsaturated fatty acids also speeds up metabolism by providing our bodies with easy to break-down chains of fatty acids that are quick burning for use as energy!
13) Fill up on fiber!
Eating food rich in fiber such as complex carbohydrate vegetables, fruit, and whole grains helps to fill us up without calories that can turn into fat. This means more satisfaction, less for your metabolism to burn, and a healthy digestive tract!
14) Eat protein with every small meal!
You cannot expect to reap the metabolic benefits of weight lifting if you are not feeding the muscles that need nutrients for repair. Every time you lift weights, your muscle fibers tear and rebuild to reveal stronger and tighter muscle groups. If you are not eating enough protein, you can say good-bye to this benefit! Great sources include nuts, seeds, fish, beans, chicken breast, pork tenderloin, bison, turkey, or lean beef.
15) Take a CoQ10 & low-mercury fish oil supplement if you eat a bit too much, too close to bedtime!
I discovered this trick just by common sense after a few years of research. Coenzyme Q10 is an enzyme naturally found within our bodies that plays an important role in metabolism. It also has antioxidant effects, helping our bodies fight off free-radicals and metabolize pollutants such as alcohol and prescription drugs. The reason why it is important to consume it with fish oil is because Coenzyme Q10 is fat-soluble. So if you ate a junky or fatty meal, you can rest assured knowing that your heart and arteries are protected from some of the bad cholesterol and fat consumed, and that your metabolism-boosting Co-Q10 is being absorbed. Doing this has helped me maintain abs on my nutrition plan, even when I eat within 2 hours before bedtime, and enjoy pizza or ice cream here and there. Try it out!
*If you have any health condition or are taking any medications, contact your health care provider before making any lifestyle or supplement changes! We don't want any bad interactions or death here!!!
16) Take a CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) supplement with meals if you are having a problem losing stubborn lower belly fat!
I don't have to do this anymore, because I have become an expert at my own physiology, but if you are just starting out with a healthy eating plan and do not know your bodies limits as far as portions go, take a CLA supplement with your lunch and dinner. Make sure that you are also taking a healthy fish oil supplement in conjunction with this both in the morning and mid-day with a snack to replenish your fatty acid supply! ;-) CLA is a substance naturally found within the red meat of animals that promotes fat loss and the growth of lean muscle tissue. Researchers are not sure exactly how CLA works, but it has been found to be highly effective in promoting weight loss and seems capable of changing body composition. To reap its benefits, you would have to eat pounds and pounds of meat, which would reverse the body's liver health and no longer be beneficial at that point. From my own research, I have found that CLA blocks the absorption of the fat that we consume to reduce total body fat and encourage lean body mass. In addition to healthy eating & a healthy lifestyle, it acts as a great metabolic boost to get those last stubborn fat cells to shrink in the areas they just looove to hang around in! ;-)
*If you have any health condition or are taking any medications, contact your health care provider before making any lifestyle or supplement changes.
17) Take an Alpa Lipoic Acid supplement mid-afternoon if your 11am snack maybe wasn't the healthiest choice!
Alpha Lipoic acid works in the exact same way as does Coenzyme 10. So why did I not just advise that you take Co-Q10 two times a day? Because the body will slow down or even stop its natural production of Coenzyme Q10 if we overload its receptors in the body. Taking a Coenzyme Q10 supplement is not essential for good health, it just offers a good metabolic boost when we're in need of it, helps supplement what those 30 years old+ do not sufficiently make anymore, and helps to maintain a healthy heart. Alpha Lipoic Acid can offer us this same metabolic boost mid-day if we know we might end up taking our Co-Q10 at night (example: Thanksgiving Day!). Try it out. :-)
*Again, if you have any health condition or are taking any medications, contact your health care provider before making any lifestyle or supplement changes.
18) Get good sleep!
I feel like this shows up in every list of tips. Haha It really does affect a lot of things! When our bodies do not get enough sleep, a lot of the stress hormone cortisol floats around in our blood stream. Cortisol is a hormone that functions as a survival messenger in our bodies. It sends a message to the brain to constrict our arteries and increase blood pressure in times of need (causing the heart to pump harder to get blood to our extremities), tells the liver to release some of its glycogen stores and stored fat into the blood stream for added support, and contributes to the storage of lower belly fat to aid in survival when food is scarce. Getting sufficient sleep means our stress hormone levels will be low and our metabolism will be up! :-)
19) Reduce your daily stress!
This also seems to show up in almost every list of tips! Haha Reducing daily stress has a long list of health benefits. By engaging in stress reducing activities, avoiding stressors, or altering the stressors in our lives, we keep our metabolism in balance and can help to prolong our lives by years! If you find yourself frazzled mid-day by all of the things you have to do, take a 10 minute breather and mental vacation. Tell yourself that you can only do what you can do and give 100% of your effort. If that is not enough, there is no sense stressing yourself out about it, because no more can be done.
20) Laugh!
This tip is also a re-occuring theme! Laughing is one of the simplest ways to boost metabolism! A research study led by professor Maciej Buchowksi at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee set out to determine how much heat output was created while laughing. This heat output was then translated as an increase in metabolism. After the study was completed, it was found that metabolic rates could be increased by as much as 10 to 40 calories! Researchers also found that laughing for 10-15 minutes a day can burn as many calories as are in a medium chocolate bar! The scientists measured participants' energy as they laughed at 10-minute comedy clips against their resting energy rates. They ultimately found that up to 50 calories a day can be burned by laughing, which amounts to 4.4 pounds a year! Now lighten up! :-)
- Book: The Eat Clean Diet, by Tosca Reno
- Website: http://www.livestrong.com/article/412229-do-spicy-foods-speed-up-the-metabolism/#ixzz1qJoUXQIq
- My brain.
I hope that everyone finds these tips useful!!!
Have a great day! :-)
Xo -Jess
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