How to boost your metabolism

How many of us notice that some people can eat tonnes of food and stay slim, whilst some find it extremely hard to even drop a couple of pounds? Although genetics can play a small role in how efficiently our body can burn calories, our lifestyles are what really makes the difference (every pound of muscle burns 35 calories a day, whereas every pound of fat burns just 2 calories a day).

There are simple changes you can make to your diet, exercise regime and sleeping patterns that can kick-start your metabolism, giving you the results you’ve been striving for. Here’s how to boost your metabolism, naturally:

The right kind of training

Doing the right kind of cardio can help your metabolism rise not only for the duration of the workout, but a long time afterwards as well. An oxygen deficit is created when we train intensely and our muscles scream for more O2. To compensate, we go through “Excess post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption”. In simpler terms, our bodies are burning calories even after we have stopped the workout.

A type of exercise which does this is high intensity interval training, or HIIT for short. It consist of short, sharp bursts of exercise followed by less strenuous exercise or rest. The idea behind it is you can train hard for a short amount of time and still get great results compared to jogging on the treadmill or another low/medium intensity exercise with consistent pace. For example, if you repeatedly sprinted for 30 seconds and then walked for 30 seconds over a period of ten minutes, you will get your heart racing and burn those all-important calories quicker, stimulating EPOC.

Sleeping enough

Not sleeping can seriously impair your metabolism. Studies have found that sleeping for under five hours a night can make women 32 percent more likely to gain weight and make digesting carbohydrates more difficult.

There is simple science behind this. Skimping out on adequate rest means that your body is too exhausted to perform its usual functions like burning calories, so your metabolism slows down. On the back of this, the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for making your eat more, is produced when you are not well rested.

It’s easy to ensure that you get the right amount of rest with a bit of time management and planning; working out earlier in the day and having a wind down before bed, ensuring that you are in bed by a certain time. Try not to play flappy birds or IM too much before going to sleep, the bright screen (and the frustration of that damn bird falling short) will keep you up. It is why they have bright lights in offices, it tricks the brain into staying alert. Have trouble falling asleep? Try chamomile or valerian root tea to fall asleep quicker, and get a better quality rest.

Lifting weights

One of the most significant ways how to boost your metabolism is to lift weights. Weightlifting can yield great results because an increase in muscle increases calorie expenditure, so you need to consume more calories every day. Even on rest day, your metabolism will be running quicker than someone who does not lift weights. In conjunction with HIIT, this is a great way to maximise gains and lose weight more efficiently.

Regular strength training should be part of everyone’s exercise regime. Research has shown that intense workout can burn up to almost 200 extra calories.

Eating right

Many people assume that by severely restricting our caloric intake, we will lose weight. Whilst managing out diet is key, cutting too many calories at once can be counter-productive. Our bodies are designed to keep us at our general weight, so if we suddenly drop half the calories from our diet, our resting metabolic rate slows down. The resting metabolic rate is the amount of calories that our body burns to maintain basic bodily functions like breathing and heartbeat. This slows down when our body assumes that we’re starving.

Therefore, it’s important to calculate how many calories you should be consuming in order to still lose weight safely. Downloading an app like MyFitnessPal can help you to calculate how many calories you need to burn and it can aid in tallying your meals. I find it more useful than websites which give you generic guidelines because you can actually tally all of your workouts too.

Eating regularly

Also, it’s really important that we eat regularly. Skipping breakfast is a sure fire way to make our metabolism sluggish. If we don’t eat after we roll out of bed, our bodies go into starvation mode, so we burn less calories in order to conserve energy. When we sleep, our bodies go into rest mode and our metabolism doesn’t kick start again until you eat, so skipping the first meal of the day prolongs the slow metabolism.

High-fiber breakfasts filled with good carbs are the best bet, as they can keep us feeling fuller for longer, speed up metabolism and give us energy for the day. This includes foods like muesli with almond milk, with blueberries and diced banana in the mix. Add a drop of organic honey if you like living on the edge.

Eating five to six small meals throughout the day is a more efficient strategy to lose weight, rather than eating three bigger meals. Eating most of the time keeps your metabolism working and and stops you feeling so hungry that you over-eat. No more than four hours should pass between meals to help you maintain a prime anabolic state and can help to encourage consistent protein synthesis.

Drinking water

This is quite an obvious point, as drinking water is always good for you. But drinking water can actually burn a significant amount of calories each day; A study in Germany discovered that drinking 17 ounces of water increases the body’s ability to burn calories by 30 percent.

Best fat burning foods

As well as organising your diet plan to make sure you eat regularly, there are certain foods you can eat that have a “thermogenic” effect, and others that trigger fat releasing hormones and eliminate toxins that slow down your metabolism. It’s best to build your entire diet around clean, whole foods and make it part of your daily routine. Here’s a list of some fat-busting nosh.

Lean meats

Protein is one of the most talked about nutrients in the fitness community because of it’s importance in muscle maintenance and weight loss. A skinless chicken breast is a staple food for people who want their protein fix with very low carb and fat content, which has become symbolic of a bodybuilders diet. It can do much more beyond functioning as an optimum post-workout meal or supply us with our protein needs at any time in the day, as it also has a high thermogenic effect. The long chains of amino acids break down when you digest the meat, so you actually burn around 30% of its total calories just through eating it. So, if a chicken breast was 300 calories, you would need 90 calories to break it down.

Whole grains

Carbohydrates are an important component in our everyday diet. They fuel our bodies and whole grains like brown rice keep us fuller for longer without the resultant insulin spike which simple carbs may provide. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates so it takes longer for us to digest, therefore we are burning more calories than if if we chose to eat simple carbs.

Oats can help you start the day right because of high fibre content, which is useful for contributing towards normal bowel movements; high fiber foods help to remove excess blood sugars and cholesterol from our bodies.

Kale

Crunching on kale may be a way to detoxify your body whilst suppressing your appetite. The detoxing characteristics of this nutrient-dense superfood are powerful; four cups of it can help to detoxify your liver and provide you a load of fibre too. Detoxing is used to clear the body of harmful toxins but can also curb your addiction to sugary food, as it can help towards removing those addictive chemical hooks.

Green tea

This isn’t technically a food, but is one of the most renowned natural fat burners nonetheless. Green tea is often consumed in a detox diet plan because it is jam packed with antioxidants. There is some research that suggests green tea is a great way to burn fat. According to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, drinking four cups a day helped people lose up to six pounds in eight weeks. This is thanks to EGCG which is a compound within green tea, which revs up our metabolism as soon as we start drinking it. The fat busting flavan catechin is present, which can help to break down fat on a molecular level.

This natural fat burner is free from artificial chemicals (make sure to get it organic), and is an all-round cleanser which can benefit you in many ways. If you want to know how to boost your metabolism, many would vouch that green tea is a huge contributing factor towards reaching this goal.

Coffee

There may be some positives behind our love for a morning cup of joe. We all know that coffee is a stimulant and can help to wake us up before our commute to work; it works by stimulating our adrenal glands, which tells our bodies to burn fat. To get the best effects, make sure to drink coffee within moderation. Over-consumption can wear out our adrenal glands over a period of time, therefore, it is wise to stick to a minimal amount if you want to maintain healthy energy levels, naturally.

Chia seeds

These tiny seeds pack a serious punch in terms of nutrition. They are full of fiber, protein and omega-3 fats. They have been found to reduce visceral adipose tissue, a ‘belly fat’ tissue which affects the metabolism of the body and is a component to obesity.

Being fuller for longer means that you are less likely to over-eat, and the amino acid tryptophan is a natural appetite suppresser. They also contain the hormone glucagon, which is known for its fat burning effects. Check out more of the benefits which chia seeds provide.

Nuts

Nuts are mentioned time and time again as a major component in weight loss and healthy eating diets. They contain omega-3 fats and essential vitamins like Zinc, Magnesium and Prosphorus which can help to regulate metabolism and help you to stay fuller for longer. The most fibrous nuts are: almonds, pistachios, pecans and hazelnuts, whereas macadamia nuts have the most monounsaturated fats. Now that the “all fats are bad” myth has been disproved, we realise that monounsaturated fats can help you slim down. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the monounsaturated fat-rich diet yielded in a greater increase in the participants’ resting energy expenditure; up to 4.3 percent more calories burned without doing any exercise.

if you don’t enjoy nuts on their own, you can mix them into your meals like muesli, with blueberries and almond milk for an additional crunch. It’s best to mix up which nuts you eat to get the full spectrum of nutrients that they provide; brazil nuts may stop toxins from targeting your fat cells, whereas walnuts are a rich source of omega-3’s.

Be careful that you don’t eat too many in one go; the calories can quickly add up. Get a small handful and put the packet away!

Lentils

This little pulse comes in green, red or brown and is becoming increasingly popular for its high level of fibre. This will keep those cravings at bay and lentils are a great source of protein for vegetarians and vegans.

Lentils are also very rich in iron, which is something which you should incorporate into your diet because a fair few of us are actually iron deficient. Being deficient in a nutrient means that your body’s metabolism has to slow down to cope with the lack of what it needs. One cup of lentils will give you 35% of your RDA. Bringing it back to normal functioning is a great and easy way how to boost your metabolism.

Wild salmon

Salmon is notorious for its omega-3 and protein density, and is another food that can help us combat our abdominal fat. There are two more metabolism-boosting benefits to this healthy fish; it can help to improve our reaction to insulin and help our thyroid function due to the full spectrum of amino acids and omega-3 fatty acid content.

It makes a great addition to a healthy diet and we recommend trying it with green beans and sweet potato for a full well-rounded meal.

Avocados

Avocados are known to be high in fat and have often been avoided by dieters in the past. However, the monounsaturated fats in here are, as mentioned, great for those wanting to lose weight. This fruit helps us dispose of free radicals, protecting our energy-producing cells and are a great fuel for our workouts. Interestingly, they contain mannoheptulose, which can help to stop a spike in insulin and is a critical part of fat loss.

Which foods slow down metabolism?

Stay away from:

• Refined carbs (white bread, white pasta and white rice)
• Refined sugars
• trans fats
• non-organic foods (high in pesticides)

According to Prevention magazine, Canadian researchers found that chemicals in our fruit and veg can slow down the fat burning process and even cause weight gain. If you can’t purchase organic, wash it and wipe with lemon juice to remove any pesticides on the skin of your produce.

You now have all the information needed to overcome any obstacles on your journey to a healthier life, and a faster metabolism. (all information is for educational and entertainment use only).

Now that you know how to boost your metabolism naturally, you can sleep more, drink more water, do the right exercise and eat the right foods. Simple right? Let us know what you think in the comments below!