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5 fantastic ways to fire up your metabolism!
In today’s blog I thought I would give an overview on your metabolism and how it works and what you can do to really get it firing.
Your metabolism is simply the rate at which your body burns energy.
Mostly men have a higher metabolism then women due to the fact that generally speaking they have more muscle on their bodies hence they burn more calories at rest then women do, this can be another reason why men can tend to lose weight quicker than women.
If weight loss is your goal you want your metabolism firing as fast as possible. I see it all the time, when people want to try and lose weight they minimise their food intake dramatically when this is actually the WORST thing you can do to achieve your goal!
What you do need to do is clean up your food but make sure you eat every 2-3 hours throughout the day to keep your metabolism firing. If you have long gaps between meals you risk your body going into ‘conservation mode’ where it will try and store calories because you are not feeding it enough.
Here are 5 things to consider when it comes to increasing your metabolism and burning more fat/energy each day:
Weight Training
Weight training is a fantastic way of keeping your metabolism firing as the more lean muscle you have on your body the harder your body has to work to provide fuel to your muscles and maintain the muscle you have.
This means that the more lean muscle you have on your body the more fat you will burn at rest, doing absolutely nothing (got to love that!!)
Cardio Training
Cardio causes your metabolism to remain elevated for a period of time after you have finished especially if you have done a high intensity workout. In saying that you don’t have to be officially doing a training session to get your metabolism to increase, incidental exercise is a great way to increase your heart rate and get your metabolism firing i.e.if you are at work you could take the stairs instead of the lift…. every step counts!
Eating
Eating in general gets your metabolism firing, but eating whole grains especially foods like brown rice and oats is a great way to burn more energy as your body has to work harder to break them down and digest them. Eating small meals frequently throughout the day is also a great way to increase your metabolism. Imagine your body is a camp fire, if you put 2-3 huge logs on the fire at once, the fire would go out but if you placed lots of small twigs on the fire throughout the day it would keep it burning for longer, it’s exactly the same with our bodies.
Caffeine
Caffeine is another way to boost your metabolism it is especially good before you exercise (black coffee is best). A minor downside is that if your body gets used to caffeine over a period of time it may not have the same effect as it did in the beginning.
Age
As you age especially from the age of 40+ your metabolism naturally slows down slightly each year but you can avoid this from happening if you lead a healthy lifestyle and stay active. Our bodies are designed to move so stay active every day (even if its just a walk) to avoid your metabolism from reducing as this can lead to weight gain.
If your metabolism is slow it doesn’t have to stay that way, try some of the ways above to get your metabolism firing so you can burn more energy throughout your day and get your body working to its full potential!
I hope you have a fantastic week ahead….
Kim x