Ten Ways To Boost Your Metabolism

Article by Emily Josephine

“How can I boost my metabolism?”

One of my friends asked me this question over lunch the other day. It’s a question I’ve heard echoed repeatedly by various people, online and off, over the past few years.

I have a couple problems with the question. First, what research shows works for many people, may not work for you. Second, most people who ask this question are hoping to get a “magic bullet” kind of answer: just do this one really easy thing, and your extra pounds will fall off like ice cream melting from a cone on a hot summer’s day.

But if you will read this article with the understanding that first, the answer is different for everyone and requires experimentation; and that second, boosting your metabolism will require sacrifice and work, then I am happy to share with you ten ways to boost metabolism.

1. Eat several small meals per day.

Dave Ramsey says that if you want to know how to be thin, ask a thin person. So take a hint from me: I eat three square meals a day consisting of three to four hundred calories each, along with a mid-morning snack and mid-afternoon snack consisting of three hundred calories each. (How many calories you consume depends on your size and activity level.)

DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF FOOD. Eating every three to four hours actually keeps your metabolism going. As long as your body has something to process, it will keep the calories burning. But when you make yourself go hungry for even five hours, this can cause your body to instinctively go into survival mode and slow down its metabolism.

2. Exercise first thing in the morning.

Before you have even one bite of breakfast, do your daily exercise (yes, I said daily, not three times a week). Without any food in your system, your body has to burn the fat that is on your body, rather than the calories you just ate. Plus, your body gets revved up and keeps up a higher metabolism all day than if you had waited until later to exercise.

3. Do some kind of strength training three days per week.

Research shows that lifting weights or performing other kinds of strength training is better at boosting your metabolism, and keeps your metabolism going at a higher rate for a longer period of time than aerobic exercise.

4. Refrain from alcoholic and caffienated beverages.

Yes, coffee and black tea too. Sorry. I didn’t do the study. The only exception is green tea. Because of its chemical make-up, the caffeine in green tea does not slow down metabolism . Water should always be your drink of choice, followed by herbal teas and fresh green juices.

5. Take a maqui berry supplement.

People who drink the Be Young superfood juice Masaji have reported to constantly lose wieght. This would be because of the maqui berry it contains. This one superfood has been shown in studies to boost metaoblism and increase weight loss.

Plus Masaji will give you that burst of energy you’ve been using coffee for.

6. Get rid of processed foods.

I told you that learning how to boost your metabolism would take sacrifice. Processed foods often contain chemicals and “bad” fats that slow down metabolism. Learn how to eat a whole foods diet.

7. Eat at least twenty grams of saturated or monounsaturated fat every day.

Organic butter, virgin coconut oil, raw nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil…all of these fats actually stimulate the fat-burning hormone in your brain. Other kinds of fats, or low-fat diets, slow down the fat-burning process.

8. Move throughout the day.

Just because you did thirty minutes of exercise in the morning before breakfast doesn’t mean you can stay sedentary the rest of the day and expect great weight loss results. Get up and walk around, or at least stretch every thirty to sixty minutes throughout the day. Park a distance away from the store’s entry. Take the stairs. Etc.

9. Don’t eat before bed.

Be done eating your several small meals/snacks two hours before bedtime. If that’s impossible because of your schedule, make it at least one hour before bed. If your system has to spend the nighttime hours digesting food, the metabolism becomes sluggish.

10. Have some kind of protein with every meal or snack.

The protein in nuts and seeds counts, if you’re not the kind who wants to eat hard-boiled eggs, cheese and beef jerky all day long. But if you include some protein and cut back on the starch, your body’s metabolism gets a nice boost.

At least three or four of these ideas should work for you to answer your burning question, “How do I boost my metabolism?” Try them out today, and be sure to comment below to let me how these ideas worked for you.