Ten Ways to Enhance Your Metabolism

One of the keys to losing weight is to take steps to rev up your metabolism. There are a number of ways to achieve this and burn calories faster and more efficiently. Allow us to provide some tips!

Build Muscle to Increase Metabolism
One of the best ways to increase your metabolism is to increase your muscle mass. Basal Metabolic Rate refers to how many calories that your body ambiently burns while you are at rest. Muscle burns more calories per hour than any other form of tissue, and the more muscle mass that you have, the higher that your basic metabolism will be.

Fat is a storage mechanism and does not burn as many calories. Each pound of body fat you have will burn two calories on its own each day. Muscle, on the other hand, will burn six calories daily. On top of this, when you work out your muscles, they burn even more calories, and after a good anaerobic workout, all activated muscles will burn calories more quickly.

High-Intensity Cardio for Increased Metabolism
Aerobic activity is also a fantastic way to increase your metabolism. High-Intensity Interval Training is a form of exercise in which you engage in standard cardiovascular activity, but periodically push yourself to the limit, going as hard as you can for a brief period of time, before allowing yourself to recover and do it all over again. Good cardio interspersed with sprinting will enhance your metabolism for hours after your exercises are complete.

Drink Lots of Water to Increase Your Metabolism
In order to maximize your metabolism, you need to be properly hydrated. If you don't have enough water in your system, your body won't be able to sustain optimal metabolism. Studies have shown that men and women that drink 8 servings of water per day had higher basal metabolism than those that only consumed.

Of course, you could drink unsweetened tea or any other calorie-free beverage as well. It also helps to choose snacks with high water content, such as vegetables and fruits, rather than chips or other carb-laden snacks.

Energy Drinks for Metabolism
Some individuals can benefit from drinking energy drinks to enhance their metabolism, because these products contain ingredients, such as taurine and caffeine which have been clinically proven to increase metabolism.

Of course, you should be conscientious with regard to which drinks you consume, because some have a lot of calories, and some have so much caffeine that they can lead to issues such as sleeplessness, anxiety, and hypertension in certain individuals. Finally, pediatric physicians do not believe that teens and children should ever drink energy drinks.

Snack Conscientiously to Increase Metabolism
One of the best ways to lose weight is to spread meals out. If you eat more, smaller meals throughout the day, it helps you from overeating during your primary meals. Also, metabolism largely depends on your digestive system having something to work on.

Most nutritionists recommend eating a light snack every three or four hours so that your metabolism remains regular. In doing so, you burn more calories.

Add Spice to Your Foods to Increase Metabolism!
Spicy foods like peppers contain an ingredient known as capsaicin which has some unique properties in regard to your metabolism. Your tongue registers capsaicin as heat, which adds the pleasant burn that you feel when you eat spicy foods (or the overwhelming burn from certain peppers and sauces).

Simply adding a spoonful of green or red pepper to your meals can have a significant impact on your metabolism, as well as your cardiovascular health.

Balance Your Diet with Protein to Increase Metabolism
The digestive system uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbs and fat. Always include a good source of lean protein in your primary meals, and be conscientious with fats and carbs, especially simple carbs.

Simple carbs are bad for you in excess because your body has the ability to almost directly convert them into glucose. In limited amounts, this is good, because it provides you with an energy boost, but when you have too much, it quickly becomes stored as fat.

Some great choices for protein to include in your diet are reduced-fat dairy products, eggs, beans, nuts, tofu, lean chicken, fish, turkey, and lean beef.

Drink Coffee in the Morning or Early Afternoon to Increase Metabolism
Multiple studies have shown that reasonable consumption of coffee has a fantastic impact on metabolism. This is the result of caffeine, as well as other natural ingredients in coffee. Studies have shown that a cup of coffee in the morning can enhance both concentration and energy, and many even use coffee as a pre-exercise workout booster.

Of course, drinking coffee in the hours before bed can interfere with your sleep cycle, which can cause you to experience issues with your sleep which can reduce metabolism.

Green Tea for Metabolism
Both black and green tea provide metabolism benefits, but the benefits of green tea appear to be stronger than black tea. Green tea contains a light dose of caffeine as well as a high dose of flavonoids and catechins, which both increase metabolism for a brief period of time after consumption, two or three hours.

Studies have shown that drinking two to four cups of oolong or green tea can increase the calorie-burning power of exercise by more than 15%.

Diet Responsibly to Increase Metabolism
Many people diet the wrong way, and this actually reduces their body's ability to burn calories.

Crash dieting is when you eat considerably fewer calories than your body needs in order to lose weight. For men, the number is 1,800 calories, for women, the number is 1,200 calories (though this largely depends on other factors such as age and weight).

You can lose weight through crash dieting, but your body will actually preserve your body fat and burn muscle because crash dieting convinces the body to go into a state of self-preservation.

This also means that when you quit your diet, your basal metabolic rate will be lower, and you'll be more likely to put the weight back on quickly.

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