Kick Start your Metabolism

Kick Start your Metabolism

 

What is Metabolism? Metabolism is the process of breaking down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to yield the energy your body needs to maintain itself. The rate of your metabolism depends on the interaction between the number of calories you consume, the number of calories you burn while eating and exercising, and the calories you burn based on your individual genetic makeup.

 

Beauty Boost Suggests to increase your metabolism -- and keep it humming -- practice the following habits:

 

• Build some brawn. Putting on just 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle mass will rev up your resting metabolism -- the number of calories your body burns to maintain life -- by roughly 100 calories, each and every day.

 

 

• Burn, baby, burn. Maximize the calories you burn after exercise by integrating high intensity intervals into your workout. Alternate 3 minutes of moderate intensity running or biking with 30 seconds of all-out effort. You’ll burn another 100 to 200 calories this way, even while sitting on the couch or lying in bed.

 

 

• Hit the sack. Skimping on sleep can alter your metabolism.  Lack of sleep can decrease the number of calories your body burns just resting -- performing the basic necessities of life, like pumping blood, breathing and repairing damaged tissues. According to stats, the rate of calories your body burns at rest represents about 60% to 75% of your total daily calorie burning, which makes slowing it through lack of sleep a serious roadblock to weight loss.

 

 

• Eat often. We recommend eating every 2 to 3 hours. 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. Studies show that people who eat every 2 to 3 hours have less body fat and faster metabolisms than those who eat only 2 or 3 meals per day.

 

 

• … But eat right. Frequent eating doesn’t mean snacking. Rather than munching mindlessly, make each mini-meal complete -- with a serving of vegetables and a healthy source of protein like eggs, chicken, or nuts. Upping your intake of high-fiber foods like vegetables is one of the best ways to increase your metabolism. 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.

 

• The straight-up truth. As for other much-hyped metabolism boosters like green tea, caffeine, and hot peppers, 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 a small amount, but it’s not enough to make a difference in weight. Capsaicin, the chemical in hot peppers that gives them their heat, boosts metabolism, too, but again, it’s not a significant enough change to have a weight loss benefit. Caffeine may or may not aid in weight loss -- as a central nervous system stimulant, it absolutely does increase metabolism, she says, but studies on its weight effects have had mixed results.

 

 

• Go fish. EPA and DHA, 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. 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.

 

 

• Keep your cool. According to certain research, our reliance on modern appliances like cozy heaters and chilly air conditioners may play a part in the size of our waists. 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. You don’t need to trash your modern conveniences, of course, but it won’t hurt to turn them down a little -- especially if it means you’ll burn calories without lifting a finger.

 

 

• Let’s get physical. Never sit when you can stand, or stand still when you can walk. Thanks to desk jobs, family commitments, and a great lineup of must-see TV shows, most of us move less at ages 30, 40, and beyond than we did during our teens and twenties. Regular periods of movement -- whether it’s a trip to the office water cooler or a stroll around the block after lunch -- nudges a sluggish metabolism into gear, lifting your spirits and obliterating excess fat.