What is metabolism and how does it affect fat loss?
Metabolism is the process whereby your body converts food into energy. It is the mechanism that burns calories from carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Most dieters find it hard to lose fat permanently. They make dieting mistakes or use methods that do not work. Worst still, they are sabotaging their metabolism as a result. No wonder they don't lose weight but instead gain more fat.
Whenever a diet is ineffective, dieters will go on the next diet in the hope of reaching their weight loss goals. But if you make some changes to your daily lifestyle, you can shed fat, preserve lean muscle mass and maximise your metabolic efficiency.
10 Effective Ways to Turbo-Charge Your Metabolism
Here are 10 effective ways to turbo-charge your metabolism regardless of your genetics, age or natural resting metabolic rate:
1. Increase water intake
Drink at least 8-10 glasses (1 glass = 8 ounces) of water a day. Water plays a crucial to the proper functioning of the body and enables chemical reaction to occur to assist fat loss. Water removes waste and toxins from body cells, thus providing you with more energy. Drinking enough water prevents dehydration, which can lead to muscle fatigue and low energy.It is not recommended to drink water with your meals to avoid diluting enzyme and digestive juices.
2. Alkaline body
When your body becomes acidic, you are prone to retaining body fat, being tired, sluggish and contracting diseases. Stress, lack of exercise and consuming acidic foods such as dairy products, alcohol, white flour products, white sugar products and meat cause acidity in the body. You want to live an alkaline lifestyle that increases energy and health of your metabolism so your body can burn more fat. Eat plenty of raw vegetables and avoid acidic foods.
3. Eat lean sources of protein
Eating lean sources of protein (albeit not an alkaline food) triggers the fat burning process. Your goal is to combine the best effects of an alkaline diet with lean sources of protein, and not to be 100% alkaline, so you achieve a healthy metabolism and burn body fat. Eat lean sources of protein and raw vegetables with every meal.
4. Eat more frequent meals
Your metabolism is at the lowest when you are sleeping at night. In the morning, you need to
jumpstart your metabolism either by exercising or eating a meal (which includes lean protein) within 30 minutes of waking up. Eat lean sources of protein and raw vegetables every 2-3 hours to keep your metabolism up. By eating more frequent meals, your body no longer thinks it is starving. So it stops storing fat and triggers fat reserves to be used.
5. Reduce stress
The effects of stress are two-fold. First, stress changes your body into an acidic state. It zaps your energy and slows down your metabolism. Second, your body increases its production of muscle-deteriorating hormone, cortisol. As the body fails to break down fat effectively, it goes into a self-preservation mode, thus retaining fat.
6. Breathe properly
Breathing has a profound effect on the way your body stores or burns fat. When you breathe properly, your blood stream is supplied with ample oxygen. Instead of retaining body fat, your body burns more of it. Breathing speeds up metabolism and affects your emotions positively.
The correct way is to breath in a 1-4-2 pattern. You are not counting in seconds, but in the ratio of 1:4:2. Breathe in to the count of 4, hold to the count of 16 and release to the count of 8. If you struggle to hold your breath for too long, try to breathe in to the count of 3, hold to the count of 12 and release to the count of 6.
7. Adequate sleep
Ensure you get adequate, quality sleep. 5-6 hours of deep sleep is better than 8-10 hours of disrupted sleep.
- Avoid caffeine after 1 pm as it stimulates your nerve receptors.
- No heavy meal or drink 2 hours before bedtime.
- Turn off your TV 1 hour before bedtime.
When your body is digesting food in your stomach, your brain does not shut down thus disrupting your sleep. This can easily be fix by not eating before bed.
8. Calorie cycling
You must burn more calories than you consume in order to lose body fat. People who follow low calorie diets or reduce their calorie intakes too quickly tend to lose muscle tissue. When muscle mass is broken down for energy, metabolism slows down. You end up gaining body fat.
The concept of calorie cycling is to change the amount of calories you eat so to trick your body into believing that you are not dieting and it will keep your metabolism up. You will consume high calories on some days and low calories on other days. As there are many ways to calorie cycling, you should adjust your calorie intake to suit your needs and progress.
9. Exercise adequately and productively
The intensity of your cardiovascular workout can be determined by your heart zone training. Your maximum heart rate (HR) is 100% of your heart rate (the fastest your heart will beat). This is calculated by subtracting your age from 220. If you are 30 years old, then your maximum HR is 190. Your training heart zone should be within 60% to 80% of your maximum HR, to benefit from highest fat loss and improved cardiovascular fitness. Training below 60% of your maximum HR results in slower fat loss whereas training above 80% of your maximum HR results in muscle loss.
10. Strength training
An increase in muscle mass as a result of strength training is the key to raising your metabolism. Muscles have high energy requirements. Even when you are doing nothing, your muscles use energy (calories).As you get older, you gain fat and lose muscle. Your metabolism slows down. Strength training helps to counteract muscle loss.
By using these diet tips you'll soon be on your way to achieving a life without excess body fat. In order to help you:
- Suppress your appetite and curb cravings
- Burn stored body fat faster
- Regulate blood/sugar (helps burn more fat)
- Block carb and fat absorption
- Increase energy
- Increase your metabolic rate
You may also want to try safe diet pills that accomplish the above results.
