Love your Metabolism

Ah, the beautiful phrase “high metabolism”. Having a high metabolism essentially means that you can eat more food and not have to worry about the consequences. Those with lower metabolisms struggle burning the food they ate off and have to eat less in order to lose weight. While everyone is trying to get on diets to lose weight, maybe it’s time you try and speed up your metabolism instead. “Wait you can do that?” You sure can and here are some ways how!

Drink more water! Drinking more water has so many benefits it’s almost unbelievable. Drinking water can boost your body’s ability to burn fat and when you drink water before your meals, your body gets full faster, so you naturally eat less. There are millions of blogs to read about the benefits of water itself. Here is a calculator to figure out how much water you are supposed to drink a day.

Work out. Studies have shown that people with more muscle, have a higher metabolism and burn more calories. Every pound of muscle burns about six calories a day, when fat burns only about two calories a day. Every pound of fat takes 3500 calories to burn and you’ll be three times faster to burning fat if you work hard.

Eat healthier. I don’t just mean eating food that you hate. Eat all of the food groups and try to get your recommended servings of each. The natural vitamins and minerals in healthier foods help spark your metabolism into action. And if you can, eat spicy foods. Spicy foods also have natural metabolism boosters if you can handle the heat. The spicy foods have something called capsaicin in them, which is where they get their heat. This element also gives a temporary rise in metabolism of up to 8% and can help suppress your desire to eat.

Caffeine. Drinking a cup of coffee or tea a day with caffeine in it actually helps your metabolism speed up as well for short term. How many calories we burn at rest is called Resting Metabolic Rate and the higher our metabolism is the higher our RMR is. Caffeine increases our metabolism speed in some studies by as much as 29%!!! Caffeine can also increase your endurance while you exercise and in some cases give you a better workout.

Mix up your cardio. If you always go for long runs or bike rides, mix it up and do some hill sprints or anything that really gets your heart going. It changes up your routine and gives your body something different to deal with which in return speeds up your metabolism. Try the insanity classes at the Williams Center for example, or any other of our great group fitness classes. They will get you heart going for sure!

CHEAT. Give yourself a cheat day and indulge yourself with your favorite juicy hamburger every once in awhile. It helps your body almost restart your diet and tricks your metabolism in a way. After all, you deserve it. Just make sure to not go overboard.

Have any suggestions? Or did you try out these tips? We’d love to hear your results if you did.

Yesterday you said tomorrow.

-Eric Hess

Sources: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/lose-weight/the-8-best-things-you-can-do-for-your-metabolism

http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-boost-your-metabolism