If you’re trying to lose weight, understanding your metabolism can be crucial to your overall success. Basically, your metabolism determines the rate at which our bodies burn calories as energy. A faster metabolism means fewer calories get converted into fat. A slower metabolism means it’s going to be more difficult getting rid of those extra pounds once they’ve accumulated. Obviously, knowing how to speed up metabolism is going to give you an advantage to weight loss, so here are a few tips.
Most of us diet in order to drop weight. We falsely belief cutting our calories as low as possible is going to ensure that the pounds melt off quickly, but that’s not the case. When you cut your calorie intake by too much, your body misinterprets your act as starvation and goes into survival mode in order to protect you. Part of that action involves slowing down your metabolism so you need fewer calories during the day.
If you want to know how to speed up metabolism while dieting, it’s important to cut calories, just not by too much. Always stay above at least 1,200 calories a day. Going below that can cut your metabolic rate by as much as 45 percent.
Build Muscle
You may have heard that one of the risks associated with diets that require you to cut calories drastically is the loss of muscle mass. If you’re looking to speed up your metabolism, this isn’t the way to go. Building muscle increases metabolism, both as you work out to build new muscle and with the calories required to maintain that muscle. In fact, muscle burns nine times the amount of calories as fat, just to maintain itself. One way, therefore, to keep your metabolism going strong is by lifting weights. If you add muscle building activities to your normal workout routine you can dramatically speed up your metabolism as those muscles build. All it takes to really make a difference are two short sessions (around 15 minutes) of weight training per day.
Get Enough Sleep
One of the reasons we sleep is because our bodies need time to recuperate from the day’s activities. During sleep, our bodies work as little as possible to achieve this goal. However, if you’re not getting enough sleep, your body never gets the chance to refresh itself in preparation for a new day and you end up being too exhausted to function efficiently. As a result, your metabolism slows down because it requires your body to be well-rested if it’s going to work at its most efficient rate.
Eating Breakfast
When you sleep, your metabolism slows down almost to nothing. Once you wake up, it doesn’t really get moving again until you’ve eaten something. If you want to learn how to speed up metabolism, make sure you eat breakfast every day and make sure your breakfast contains a good amount of fiber. Not only is fiber good for your digestive system and for weight loss, but it will help stave off hunger pains before your next meal.
There are also natural supplements to help give your metabolism the speed you desire. Check out products like Vanilla RTD, CUUR Weight Loss System and Kyo Chrome if you want to get lean muscle mass and a boost in your metabolism.
 Metabolism Boosters 25 Nov 2008 |
|
|
