How To Crank Up Your Metabolism
Have you ever wondered why your husband can eat chips, cookies and chocolate without gaining a pound and all it takes is a lustful glance at the chocolate and you’ve gained unwanted weight. Funny?…. NOT! This is a frustrating phenomenon and is repeated over and over again all around the planet. Why does this happen to so many of us? The answer lies in your metabolism; the little engine within your body that burns calories for you all day long, even while you’re sleeping. And, the more muscle mass a woman has, the more fat she can burn. The problem is that starting in the mid 20′s, a woman starts losing up to ten pounds of muscle per decade, which in turn slows down her metabolism. A slower metabolism burns less fat each day. So, that extra Hagen Das or Dove chocolate starts to add up as the metabolism slows down.
The obvious answer is, speed up that sluggish metabolism. And doctors agree, there is no reason why a woman in her 30′s and 40′s can’t have her metabolism running at the same rate it did in her early 20′s. We want to share a few tips with you to help you stoke the fire of your metabolism and keep it burning bright.
Eat breakfast
Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day as far as metabolism (and weight loss) is concerned. Skip breakfast and get fat. Breakfast eaters lose more weight than breakfast skippers do, according to studies. Eating breakfast makes you slimmer, by jump-starting your metabolism, which is slow after relative inactivity at night. So if you bypass breakfast, your body won’t burn as many calories until lunchtime as it could. That’s why it’s smart to start the day with a solid 300- to 400-calorie meal; it jump-starts your metabolism. Eat a breakfast that has plenty of high-fiber carbs and low-fat protein. Complex carbohydrates take longer for your body to digest and absorb than fats and refined carbohydrates do, like sugared cereals, donuts or muffins. High quality proteins and complex carbs (like whole grains, fruit and vegetables) don’t cause rapid changes in your blood sugar, so you will stay satisfied for a longer period of time. Some good choices would be a bran-rich breakfast cereal with low-fat milk; whole-grain toast topped with low-fat ricotta and fruit or a veggie omelette with whole-grain toast.
Drink Milk
Find good sources of low-fat dairy everyday for good health and weight loss. Women who consume milk, yogurt, and cheese three to four times a day lost 70 percent more body fat than women who didn’t eat dairy in a study published in the January 2003 American Society for Nutritional Sciences Journal of Nutrition. Calcium speeds up your metabolism, telling your body to burn excess fat faster. Calcium fortified beverages or cereals will not do the trick. Best results come from dairy products. Calcium-rich foods like broccoli, collard greens or spinach or calcium-fortified products like orange juice or vitamin C supplements do not rev up the metabolism the way that low-fat dairy products will. Women reap the largest fat-burning benefit when they consume three servings of dairy and 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day.
Eat Protein
Research shows that getting plenty of protein can boost your metabolism, causing you to burn an extra 150 to 200 calories a day. Protein is made up mainly of amino acids, which are more difficult for your body to break down than fat and carbohydrates are, so you use more calories burning protein.
That doesn’t mean you have to live on a high-protein menu day in and day out. But you should make sure that 20% to 35% of your total daily calories comes from low-fat protein sources. For example if you are on an 1,500-calorie diet, 300 to 525 of those calories should come from lean sources of protein, such as fish, chicken, low-fat cheese, yogurt, legumes and nuts. Try to have a serving of protein as a snack such as low-fat string cheese, a handful of nuts or a glass of low-fat milk in between meals.
Thermogenic Fat Burners
Some people use thermogenic fat burners to help increase their metabolism. These thermogenic fat burnes help increase your metabolism through similar processes that eating certain foods do. A Thermogenic fat burner may not be for everyone. Some people cannot handle the increased heart rate or do not react well to stimulants.
Check back later for some more tips on increasing metabolism.