Do you ever ask yourself why your best friend can eat whatever they want without gaining a pound, while you can't so much as look at a snack without gaining weight?
Its genetics. Some people burn fat faster than others. But age, weight, diet, and exercise habits also play a role. As people age, their metabolisms slow down, mainly because they are losing five or six pounds of muscle each decade starting in the mid-20s.
Boosting the metabolism is the ultimate goal of weight watchers everywhere, but how fast your body burns calories depends on several factors.
Some people are lucky and inherit a speedy metabolism.
Men tend to burn more calories than women, even while resting. And for most people, metabolism slows steadily after age 40. Although you can't control your age, gender, or genetics, there are other ways to get a boost. Read on for 10 ways to rev up.
1. Eat breakfast.
Believe it or not, Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Your metabolism slows while you sleep, and it doesn't rev back up until you eat again, 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.
Some good choices: a bran-rich breakfast cereal with low-fat milk; whole-grain toast topped with low-fat ricotta and sliced banana or berries; an egg-white veggie omelette with whole-grain toast that has plenty of high-fiber carbs. High-fiber carbohydrates take longer for your body to digest and absorb than fats; thus they don't cause rapid changes in your blood sugar, so your hunger is kept at bay longer.
2. Take Cold Showers
When showering, give yourself blasts of cold water. Studies suggest that the alternating temperature stimulates circulation and speeds up metabolism.
3. Drink More Water
The body needs water to process calories. If you are even mildly dehydrated, your metabolism may slow down. In one study, adults who drank eight or more glasses of water a day burned more calories than those who drank four. To stay hydrated, drink a glass of water or other unsweetened beverage before every meal and snack. In addition, try munching on fresh fruits and vegetables, which are full of fluid, rather than pretzels or chips.
4. Have Your Drinks on the Rocks
Ice-cold beverages prompt the body to burn more calories during digestion. Research suggests five or six glasses of water on the rocks can use up an extra 10 calories a day. That might not sound like much, but it adds up to a pound of weight loss per year -- without dieting. You can get the same benefit by drinking iced tea or coffee, as long as you forego the cream and sugar.
5. Drink Green Tea
Drinking green tea or oolong tea offers the combined benefits of caffeine and catechins, substances shown to rev up the metabolism for a couple hours. Research suggests drinking two to four cups of either tea may push the body to burn an extra 50 calories each day. That adds up to 5 pounds of weight loss in a year.
6. Drink Black Coffee
If you’re a coffee drinker, you probably enjoy the increased energy and concentration that follows your morning ritual. Well, some of these benefits are linked to a short-term increase in your metabolic rate. In one study, the caffeine in two cups of coffee prompted a 145-pound woman to burn 50 extra calories over the next four hours. Just be sure to drink it black. If you add cream, sugar, or flavored syrups, you’ll take in far more calories than you burn.
7. Eat More Often
Eating more really can help you lose weight -- eating more often, that is. When you eat large meals with many hours in between, you train your metabolism to slow down. Having a small meal or snack every 3 to 4 hours keeps your metabolism cranking, so you burn more calories over the course of a day. Several studies have also shown that people who snack regularly eat less at meal time.
8. Eat More Protein
The body burns up to twice as many calories digesting protein as it uses for fat or carbohydrates. Although you want to eat a balanced diet, replacing some carbs with lean, protein-rich foods can jump-start the metabolism at mealtime. Healthy sources of protein include lean beef and pork, fish, white meat chicken, tofu, nuts, beans, eggs, and low-fat dairy products.
9. Eat Metabolism Boosting Foods
There are lots of metabolism boosting foods that will even help you loose weight. For example, according to a Penn State University study, soup is a super appetite suppressant because it’s made up of a hunger-satisfying combination of liquids and solids. In the study, women chose one of three 270-calorie snacks before lunch. Women who had chicken and rice soup as a snack consumed an average of 100 fewer calories than those in the study who opted for a chicken and rice casserole or the casserole and a glass of water.
Grapefruit is another great metabolism boosting food. Researchers at Scripps Clinic found that participants who ate half a grapefruit with each meal in a 12-week period lost an average of 3.6 pounds. The study indicates that the unique chemical properties in this vitamin C-packed citrus fruit reduce insulin levels, which promotes weight loss and boost metabolism.
Milk,
low-fat yogurt, broccoli, apples and pears are some more metabolism boosting foods, but there are more. Make sure you stay tuned to Health-be (better yet, subscribe to Health-be) for my upcoming article,
Metabolism Boosting Foods.
10. Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is flying off health-food-store shelves, with women swearing that megadoses help boost their metabolism; but experts say no research bolsters anecdotal claims. "The B vitamins are essential, but they won't speed up your metabolism," says professor of nutrition Jeff Hampl.
11. Eat Hot & Spicy
Spicy foods contain chemical compounds that kick the metabolism into high gear. Eating a tablespoon of chopped red or green chili pepper can temporarily boost your metabolic rate by 23 percent. Some studies suggest the effect only lasts about half an hour, but if you eat spicy foods often, the benefits may add up. For a quick boost, spice up pasta dishes, chili, and stews with red-pepper flakes.
12. Reduce Stress
Control what you can, but don't worry about what you can't. Keep stress levels in check by managing your time, focusing on the present and not over-committing.
13. Get Enough Sleep
Make sure yoi get 7-8 hours of Z's a night. For your engine to fire properely during the day, it needs to regenerate at night.
This is really the last of the simple ways to boost your Metabolism for lazy dummies, because hereafter it gets to be a little more work.
14. Kick Up Your Workout
This is where the simple ways to boost your metabolism stop being quite so simple, but even more, stop being for for lazy dummies. This is where it starts getting tough. Where you need to start putting in some effort. But that's why I listed it close to bottom of the list.
However, if you're doing all of the above, you've already come a long way. Maybe you've even revved up your metabolism to the point by now, that you have enough energy to want to work out!
Aerobic exercise may not build big muscles, but it can rev up your metabolism in the hours after a workout. The key is to push yourself. High-intensity exercise delivers a bigger, longer increase in resting metabolic rate than low- or moderate workouts. To get the benefits, try a more intense class at the gym or include short bursts of jogging during your regular walk.
15. Build Muscle
Our bodies constantly burn calories, even when we’re doing nothing. This resting metabolic rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Every pound of muscle uses about 6 calories a day just to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only 2 calories daily. That small difference can add up over time. In addition, after a bout of resistance training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.
Caution
Crash diets involve eating fewer than 1,000 calories a day. This is dangerous for anyone hoping to quicken their metabolism. Although these diets may help you drop pounds, often the high percentage of the loss comes from muscle. The lower your muscle mass, the slower your metabolism. The final result is that you burn fewer calories and gain weight faster than before the crash diet.
Conclusion
The impact of different foods and drinks on the metabolism is small compared to what you need for sustained weight loss. Your best bet for creating a mean calorie-burning machine is to build muscle and stay active. The more you move during the day, the more calories you burn. And remember: working out in the morning has the benefit of revving up your metabolism for hours.
Though it will not affect your daytime activity, research has shown that your metabolism does slow down significantly once you fall asleep, so anything you eat before going to bed will contribute to weight gain.
Written By: Tom Retterbush
