Your metabolism controls the number of calories your body burns per day, so the faster your metabolism runs, the more calories you burn. For those trying to lose weight and get in shape, boosting your metabolic rate is the smart way to go. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done.
Good news: we’ve got a few sneaky metabolism-boosting tricks to help you burn more calories every day. Read on to find out our secrets for a faster metabolism:
1. High Intensity
When you do low-intensity exercise, you burn fat rather than glucose. This is great for weight loss, but it takes longer.
If you want to burn more calories, it’s time to turn up the intensity. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) means doing intervals of high-intensity exercise followed by intervals of low-intensity exercise.
Try:
- Sprinting for one minute, walking/jogging for four minutes.
- Cycling like a madman/woman for 60 seconds, pedaling slowly for two minutes.
With HIIT, you put in less time with more effort, and 15 to 20 minutes per day is more than enough.
2. Weight Training
This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your metabolism. Lifting weights can be tough, but it gets your body burning more energy in order to provide your muscles with the fuel they need. Get off the treadmill/bicycle/elliptical machine and start lifting weights to get your body running faster.
3. Eating Properly
Did you know that cutting too many calories from your diet doesn’t always lead to weight loss, but often weight gain? When you don’t eat enough, your metabolism slows down rather than speeding up. It’s a defense mechanism that allows your body to conserve energy in time of starvation.
Want to ensure your metabolism is running full steam? Eat the right amount of calories and push yourself harder in your workout. Weights + HIIT + healthy diet = FAST metabolism!
4. Be More Active
This doesn’t mean that you have to spend more hours at the gym every day, but it does mean finding more ways to get your heart beating. Don’t drive to the corner store, but walk there and back. Park at the far end of the parking lot, and walk up and down the office stairs. The more active you are, the more energy your body will make available–and the more calories burned.
5. Sleep the Full Eight
Sleep deprivation can cause the levels of the hormone ghrelin to become elevated, which leads your brain to tell your body that you’re hungry. In addition, you’ll find that sleep loss causes your body to slow down. Make sure you get a full seven to eight hours of sleep every night.
6. Make it Spicy
Spices like red pepper, cayenne pepper, black pepper, ginger and turmeric all give your metabolism a little boost. These spices turn up the heat inside your body–a reaction called thermogenesis–and help you to burn more calories. Green tea can also do the trick.
7. Drink More Water
Did you know that drinking more water is a way to boost your metabolism? A study found that drinking a single 16-ounce glass of water caused the human body to burn almost 24 calories. Drink eight to 10 cups of water a day, and that’s an extra 200 calories burned by doing nothing more than hydrating.
Sounds almost too good to be true, right? These sneaky tricks listed above are so simple that anyone can do them, so why don’t you start incorporating them into your life today? Before you know it, your metabolism will be running at full speed ahead.
