The most common weight loss mantra is “Eat Less and Exercise More.” But what if you really are doing this and not getting any results? You might be making a common mistake, by not paying enough attention to your metabolism. Your metabolism is the series of chemical processes that converts food into energy and is responsible for how many calories your body burns. Your metabolism is influenced by diet, lifestyle, age, and gender. The faster the process happens in your body, the more calories you burn. If your body senses that calories are in short supply, your metabolism will slow down to conserve them- this is why semi-starvation diets are ineffective. You might even end up putting on weight while depriving yourself of nutrients and becoming tired and cross!
Here are the best 10 ways to maximize your metabolism and burn off as many calories as possible.
- Don’t cut down to very low calories. A calorie shortage will be sensed by your body and your metabolic rate will slow down. You will lose muscle and water rather than fat.
- Try eating 6 small meals per day rathe than 3 large ones. Include as much lean protein, fruit and nuts as possible. If you are short of time during the week, try and prepare a batch of food at the weekend that you can keep in the refrigerator.
- Don’t skip breakfast. Breakfast kicks off your metabolism after the night’s break. A mixture of lean protein and fruit is ideal.
- Some fats are healthy! Essential fats are found in nuts, olive oil and fish oil. An excellent snack is a small bag of almonds or cashew nuts- so ditch those carb loaded chips and take the healthy option.
- Cut down on sugar. Probably the most common piece of nutrition advice but true. Controlling insulin and blood sugar level prevents you from gaining fat and makes it easier to lose.
- if you know your lean body mass- your body weight minus fat, then eat 1.1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you don’t know, 1g per pound of body weight is a safe estimate.
- Avoid alcohol. Alcoholic drinks add hundreds of calories to your system and prevents fat from burning effectively. For men, it is especially disadvantageous as it reduces levels of fat burning testosterone.
- For a healthy drink option, choose green tea and water. They won’t increase metabolism, but they will keep it ticking over smoothly.
- Keep your bed times and rising times as consistent as you can to keep your metabolism settled. If you can’t avoid shift work, stick as closely as possible to the other advice here.
- For a metabolism boosting work out, use a mixture of strength training with medium level weights and interval training. Complete 8 perfect repetitions per set. This method will take less time than a regular cardio workout, and by challenging your body, you will continue to burn off calories even after you stop exercising. This is because your muscles will take up energy repairing themselves and returning back to a resting state.
Follow these tips to gain muscle tone and shed fat, and set your metabolism on a positive course. Remember- healthy eating isn’t a miserable process of depriving yourself of food so you are exhausted and irritable. In fact, this is a sure way to damage your health and slow down your metabolism. Any weight difference is much more likely to be water and muscle tissue than fat loss, defeating your aim. Your body will try its best to hang on to those precious calories, so fat loss will be minimal. Instead, adopt an informed and steady approach to nutrition and exercise.