Jumpstart Your Metabolism

If you have a friend that seems to eat everything, but never gains weight, while you just look at a donut and your waistline grows, you probably feel like you’ve been given the short stick in life. You don’t have to starve yourself anymore, just to lose a few pounds. You can jumpstart your metabolism and make weight loss easier. Imagine how great it will be to have the look you want and not be constantly hungry.

Exercising keeps weight off in several ways.

You know you’ll burn more calories the more active you are, but did you know that working out regularly can also help you burn more even when you sleep. That’s right. Exercise reduces body fat and builds muscle tissue. Muscle tissue burns more energy than fat tissue does, so the more you have, the more calories you’ll burn. Strength building workouts build muscles, while also burning calories while you do it.

Burn more calories with afterburn.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—increases post-exercise oxygen consumption. That increased oxygen consumption is called EPOC or afterburn. Your body needs more oxygen after a tough workout for repair, cool down and to get back to the resting state. It causes the body to work harder, which increases the calories burned by as much as 15 percent. Compound exercises like jump lunges, squats or burpees are example of those that use multi-joints. Including those in a HIIT workout where you’re pushing yourself to the limit increases the calories you burn for 24 to 48 hours.

Eating healthy keeps your metabolism high.

You might not think that eating can be a way to push your metabolism to top speed, but it is. Not only should you eat enough calories to keep your metabolism at full speed, you should eat meals at regular times. If you skip breakfast and lunch and go for a larger dinner, it can cause your body to slow the metabolism and conserve energy by burning fewer calories, to ensure there are enough calories for major functions and organs. Eating meals and snacks about every three to four hours during the day keeps those calories burning at top efficiency.

• Keep a bottle of cold water on hand all the time. Cold water lowers your body temperature and it requires more calories to warm it, increasing your metabolism. Staying hydrated also keeps your furnace burning at top efficiency.
• Cut out the stress. Whether you learn to control it with meditation or deep breathing or simply burn off the cortisol from stress, you’ll be doing your metabolism a favor. Stress not only makes you gain weight, that weight goes on your body at your belly.
• Choose food and drink that are known calorie burners. Try some green tea or coffee to boost calorie burning. Use coconut oil when cooking, which is high in medium chain fats that can boost metabolism by as much as 12%.
• Spice up your meals with hot peppers. The heat in peppers comes from capsaicin. That can increase your calorie burning. It’s not by a huge amount, but every little bit helps.