Nov 15, 2010 Linda DuToit
8 Glasses of Water Daily Boosts Metabolism - Photo by the Author
"Metabolism" is the name given to all the chemical reactions that occur within living cells. Put simply, metabolism is the way our bodies burn up the calories from the food we eat. If our metabolism is processing food slowly, our metabolism is slow and we will most likely gain weight. In order to lose weight, we need to speed up our body’s use of energy. In other words, we want to boost our metabolism to burn more calories.
Many factors affect a person’s metabolic rate including age, weight, hormonal changes, lean muscle mass, diet, genetics, stress and amount of daily physical activity. But if you truly want to boost your metabolism, and get your body burning calories at a higher rate, there are several natural ways to rev up your body’s engines:
Physical Activity
All types of physical activity are good (walking, gardening, house cleaning, jogging, swimming, raking leaves, cleaning out closets -- almost anything but sitting). Your degree of physical activity has the greatest influence on weight loss and weight gain. During physical activity, muscles need extra energy to move, and the heart and lungs need extra energy to supply nutrients and oxygen. Our bodies were meant to enjoy physical activity every day of the week, not just two or three days a week. Try to start the day with a 30 to 60 minute intentional time of moderate physical activity (a brisk walk, a jog, exercise bike, etc.). This will get your metabolism into a higher gear. Then mix in physical activity throughout the day. If your work or normal day usually involves a lot of sitting, try to mix things up: one hour of sitting, ?-hour of activity, one hour of sitting, 15 minutes on the exercise bike, 1 hour, ?-hour, etc. This should continually boost your metabolism throughout the day. Physical activity also helps build muscle, and muscle speeds up the metabolism.
Build Muscle
Muscle is also called, "lean body mass." Even when resting, muscle cells burn more calories in our bodies than fat cells do. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn -- even when you rest. Exercising builds muscle, and additional muscle is built by resistance training or weight training. One is never too old for weight training; an adult can build muscle at any time in life. Resistance or weight training should be done two or three days a week. Muscle groups need a day of rest in-between workouts to give the muscles a chance to rebuild more muscle. And more muscles burn more calories.
Do Not Skip Meals
It’s easy to think that the less we eat, the less we have to work off. Or, the less we eat, the more our bodies will use the fat we already have as energy and we will lose weight faster. But our bodies work exactly opposite. Our bodies are designed for survival. Skipping meals or starving yourself causes your body to go into starvation mode -- it purposely slows down metabolism to conserve energy. That defeats the purpose! We don’t want our body to save calories, we want it to burn calories. So although it sounds contradictory, we have to eat in order to burn calories. A body that is getting enough calories willingly burns calories because it knows the food will keep coming and it won’t have to store up calories in case of famine. Work with your body’s natural rhythm, eat a healthy amount of calories, and prevent the body from storing food. If you find that you are tired, exhausted, can’t concentrate, or just lacking in energy when you are trying to lose weight, reevaluate the amount of food you are taking in and make sure you are getting enough fuel for your body to function properly. Four to six small meals a day should keep your metabolism running steadily.
Eat Breakfast
Breakfast is the indeed the most important meal of the day because it wakes up your metabolism and gets the body functions working and burning calories. Skipping breakfast means it may be 18 or more hours between meals. This sends the message to your body that you are "starving" and your body will purposely slow down your metabolism to conserve energy.
Drink Lots of Water
If you are getting plenty of physical activity, and eating well-balanced meals, your body is burning fat which means there are waste products that must be removed from your body. Water helps carry these unwanted materials from your body, and water lubricates all the workings of your body, keeps the kidneys functioning well as they remove the waste from your body, and helps your body metabolize stored fat. Also, your body approaches water the same way it does food -- if you don’t drink enough water, your body anticipates a shortage, and your body will tend to retain water. If you drink plenty of water, your body knows dehydration isn’t a threat and it won’t hold excess water.
Get Plenty of Rest
Research shows that people who do not get enough sleep gain weight. When we sleep, our bodies regenerate our muscles and repair or heal any areas of damage. It is only during the final hours of a good night’s sleep that lean muscle is regenerated.
Avoid Sugar
Processed, refined sugar is bad for your body in numerous ways. But when it comes to your metabolism, sugar puts your body into "fat-storage mode." Complex carbohydrates are a much better choice, as they help maintain even blood sugar levels.
Reduce Stress
Stress can cause us to gain weight because of the hormones produced when we are stressed out. Stress hormones slow the metabolism. Laughing, on the other hand, not only reduces stress but can increase metabolism by up to 20%.
Green Tea
If you like green tea, drink up! Although there hasn’t been a great deal of research, one test performed in Switzerland showed that green tea (two to four cups a day) may give the metabolism a little boost -- perhaps up to 4%. Green tea is also rich in antioxidants.
Once you understand these basic principles, you can naturally boost your metabolism. Pay attention to what you eat, your amount of physical activity, your stress levels, water intake and how much you sleep. Purposely focus on these areas of your life and make appropriate changes. Over time these changes will become your new regular habits, and your metabolism will naturally move into high gear.
Sources:
Katharine Colton, Smart Guide to Getting Thin & Healthy (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1998).
Jim Karas, The Business Plan for the Body (New York: Random House, 2001).
Luise Light, M.S., Ed.D., What to Eat: The TenThings You Really Need to Know to EAt Well and Be Healthy! (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006).
Liane M. Summerfield, Nutrition, Exercise, and Behavior: An Integrated approach to Weight Management (Toronto: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2001).
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment