12 Tips to Pump Up Your Metabolism

Do you feel like you inherited your dad’s lazy metabolism? Does it seem like you just smell potato chips and you gain weight? Did you know you can kick your metabolism into high gear? You can! For example, just doing strength training with light weights twice a week and you can reverse 50 percent of the those slow metabolism blues that seem to come with aging. So let’s kick that metabolism into high gear! Take a look at our top 12 tips for turning your body into a fat burning oven! 1. Go Organic If you skip buying organic because of the costs, this may change your mind. Organic vegetables, fruits, and grains keep your metabolism going at top speed because there are no pesticide residues that mess with your thyroid. Think of your thyroid as your body’s thermostat. Pesticides mess with the settings and lower it’s ability to burn calories. So go organic and keep the burn going! 2. Ditch the Trans Fats You probably already know that they are bad for you but did you know that they also inhibit your body from burning fat? Trans fats binds to fat and liver cells and slow up your metabolism. Trans fats also lead to inflammation and resistance to insulin which bogs down your metabolism and can lead to weight gain. 3. Protein Protein Protein! Your body must use a lot of energy to break down and digest protein. So by eating more protein at meals, your metabolism must jump into gear in order to process that meal. You can actually get a great start to your day by eating protein for breakfast, such as lean meat, eggs, or greek yogurt. 4. Ice Water No, we’re not suggesting you take ice water baths, we mean drink ice water. Researchers in Germany found that subjects who drank up to six cups of cold water per day raised their resting metabolism by as much as 50 calories per day. That may not sound like much but look at it this way: if you did nothing else, changed nothing else in your diet, but drank ice water, you would lose 5 lbs a year. Your metabolism has to work much harder to warm up your body again after you drink that cold water. So ask for your water on the rocks. 5. Lift Some Weights Muscle burns more calories than fat, most people know that. And the calories keep being burned for quite some time after your last set of weight lifting reps. Subjects who did a 15 minutes weight lifting routine burned an extra 100 calories per day for as long as 3 days after, according to a study done at Southern Illinois University. Read about 5 super easy exercises that make fat disappear. So pump up and feel the burn! 6. Hot and Spicy Do you like those hot and spicy foods? Or do you like adding those hot chili peppers to your meals? Good! Spicy food encourages your body to increase it’s production of fat burning hormones. If you don’t care for hot chili peppers or Tabasco sauce, try some spicy mustards to some of your meals. Adding hot and spicy foods can up your metabolism by as much as 25 percent! Thai food, anyone? Find out one spice that kills two types of cancer. 7. Start Things Off Right Eating a good, protein filled breakfast not only gives you energy for your upcoming day, but it kicks your metabolism into high gear right off! People who don’t eat breakfast are up to 4times more likely to be overweight. Skip the doughnuts and coffee cake, however, and eat a protein rich, healthy breakfast. Read more about 9 foods you can add to almost any dish. 8. Sleep Tight When you don’t get enough sleep your body has a very difficult time processing foods. That means it can’t burn the calories you consume and therefore, it stores them as fat. Get enough sleep every night to keep your metabolism working at it’s most efficient. Is it difficult to relax at night? Make sure you workout at least 3 to 4 hours before bedtime or try taking a hot bath an hour before bedtime. 9. Smart Snacking Although snacking is usually the first thing you cut out when you want to lose weight, it shouldn’t be. You just need to snack smarter. In fact, studies show that eating 6 small meals, about 3 to 4 hours apart, rather than 3 larger meals with no snacks, keeps your metabolism up and running 24/7! Also, grazing , as it’s called, keeps many people from overeating due to hunger. 10. Interval Training No matter what your workout routine, you should try to add some interval training to help your metabolism jump into a higher gear. Researchers at Colorado State University studied cyclists who pedaled at their top effort for just 5 thirty second sprints burned 200 more calories than those who didn’t. That’s actually only 2 and a half minutes in their entire routine! Kicking up your intensity makes your muscles work harder as well as your metabolism. 11. Coffee Up Drinking coffee or green tea increases your metabolism by as much as 8 percent. This means you can burn up to 174 calories just by drinking coffee in the morning. Just one cup of green tea can raise your metabolism by as much as 12 percent. The antioxidant properties, as well as the caffeine, in tea and coffee are what give your metabolism a much needed increase in power. 12. Give Yourself a Post Workout Treat Studies show that, after a workout, those who drank a 250 calorie protein shake lost more than 4 lbs. worth of fat while making more than 1.5 lbs of muscle in just six months than those who didn’t enjoy a shake. If you don’t like shakes, it can be anything high protein. Try peanut butter spread on a banana. Just be sure to eat or drink this treat within 30 minutes after working out. Sources: Health.com

12 Tips to Pump Up Your Metabolism

7. Start Things Off Right

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