On this fitness journey we are all on, raising your metabolism should be one of your top priorities. The goal of this lifestyle is to be able to live and gain all the benefits of a fast, high metabolism, so you can live and enjoy life while burning calories and keeping your body working efficiently! That way, whether you’re exercising or spending time with family, you’ll still be burning calories and either losing weight or maintaining your weight. Follow these simple and effective tips below to raise your metabolism. It will make your effort to lose weight much easier.
-Gain Muscle
Here’s one of the most difficult, as well as one of the most important methods of raising your metabolism. Lifting weights is simply the best way to gain lean muscle mass in order to give yourself that metabolism boost! First, the extra muscle will burn calories simply by existing, so the more muscle you put on, the more fat you will burn. Muscle = Metabolism… Also, the weight lifting that you do to gain muscle mass will boost your metabolism since it’s intense resistance exercise. Don’t be one who is afraid of weights and getting “bulky”, rather embrace the weights as a means to increase metabolism and reach your fat loss goals!
-Get moving with intense Exercise or Circuit Training
Intense exercise will boost your metabolism big time and it will do it much better than low intensity exercises. Jogging, walking, and other low intensity exercises will raise your metabolism for the time that you’re exercising, which is great but our goal is to get your metabolism up while you are exercising and long after.
Intense exercise, such as sprinting, circuit training or weight lifting, raises your metabolism for some time after the exercise. For really intense workouts, your metabolism might be increased from 24 to 48 hours after your workout! That’s great for boosting your metabolism!
So, don’t do hours of slow, low intensity cardio such as the rowing machine, treadmills, and elliptical. Be sure to incorporate some kind of intense exercise, like sprinting or strength training to your workouts.
-What About Eating Frequently
Eating frequently raises your metabolism so don’t miss your meals. Your metabolism does rise if you eat frequently, because your body is doing constant work and burning those fuels, through digestion. Be sure to be consistent with your 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. Consistency is key here. It takes a while to get your metabolism up so once you get it up, day in and day out consistency is KEY to keeping it up. Another words 5-6 meals a day for 60% of the time is not going to cut it. Consistency is where you will reap the benefits of a fast metabolism.
-Fill up on smart foods
Start by serving yourself protein at every sitting. Not only does your body need it to help build lean muscle mass, but protein also takes more calories to digest. When you prepare your meals, think Protein as your core, the remaining macronutrients are supplements. Fiber is another KEY component. The amount of work it takes your body to digest fiber increases your metabolism causing it to rev up that much more! Think about the work it takes to chew a piece of broccoli vs. spoonful of rice? That is the same amount of work that it takes inside your digestive system. More work = increase energy = increased metabolism!
-Break your Fast by Eating breakfast
It will switch your metabolism from sleep mode and preservation to high speed mode. Take advantage of this time and get your metabolism going first thing!
-Sleep
Deprive yourself of sleep and your body starts to stress and produce about 50% more cortisol and throws the body’s hunger hormones, leptin and ghrelin out of whack, making you more likely to overeat. Aim for luck number 7. 7 hours has been shown to be the adequate amount of sleep to keep hormone levels in check and allow your body the full amount of time needed to work efficiently, mentally and physically.
Spicy foods, green tea, and a touch of caffeine are a few other metabolism boosters but the core to increasing your metabolism is focusing on the core 6 tips listed above. Focus on each and every one and you are sure to gain all the benefits of a high metabolism today, tomorrow and always!