Today, let’s take it back a notch by talking about body metabolism (jumpstart metabolism with ease) and how it affects your weight loss journey.
First, you need to understand what body metabolism is and how this process can help your weight loss plans.
Here’s a brief definition; Metabolism is, simply put, the process through which your body creates energy from your food and drinks.
It’s a complex process where calories from your meals are combined with oxygen to give your body the needed energy for functioning.
Now, you understand why weight loss can be achieved in time with the right body metabolism. If you don’t, here’s the thing;
A low metabolic rate occurs when the body must have switched to a fat-storing mode. Revving up your metabolic rate means heating the body with exercises or some classes of food which helps in burning calories and excess fats, leading to weight loss.
Jumpstart Metabolism for Weight Loss With Simple Approaches
So, how do we jumpstart metabolism for weight loss?
There are several ways of giving your body metabolism a jump start or boost if you like.
These would be some common daily activities that you never knew meant anything to your weight loss journey. Here are some sure ways of revving up your body metabolism:
Not Starving
It is normal to think that starving will help you lose weight. While this may be true (theoretically), you may just be putting your wellbeing at risk.
Abstaining from food such as carbs may upset your body’s metabolism in many ways and cause it to slow down.
The more you stay away from carbs, the more you’re bound to gain weight since your body’s metabolism must have been slowed down, and obesity might just be around the corner.
All we are saying is, do not deprive yourself of the carbs as they help to boost your body’s metabolism.
Fidget More Often
I know what you’re thinking “how can such effortless activity like fidgeting boost my body metabolism?” Well, according to the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition, people who fidget more often tend to burn up more calories daily than those who don’t.
It means that when you randomly bounce your knees, shake your feet or drum your fingers, you are lighting a tiny fire that will eventually heat your system, giving your metabolism a jump start so you can lose more weight.
Interval Training
We know working out increases the pace of your body’s metabolism and but you may still want to rev it up a bit with interval training so that you can burn even more fat.
This is achieved by alteration of your workout intensity through each session. A routine workout every day can get boring but doing a HIIT [1] will require more tissue, muscle, and energy involvement.
Frequent Squeeze Of A Soft Small Ball During The Day
This too doesn’t sound like much, but it is a great way to jumpstart your body’s metabolism.
Carrying a small softball around in your bag and frequently squeezing it doesn’t just help you deal with stress, it also revs up your metabolism as affirmed by an article in Biological Psychiatry.
Constantly pressing this ball will also make muscles appear in your hands, which is a sign that there has been some serious calorie-burning in that area.
Drink Cold Water Every Morning
German researchers experimented with a group of people (14) being given 500ml water. What they found out was that the metabolic rate of this group shot up by one third in the next 10 minutes and remained that way for the next 40 minutes.
They also estimated that if one consumes 1.5 liters of water daily, one can burn around 17,400 calories in one year.
The heat up from drinking cold water is just the body’s effort to make the liquid warm and hence destroying calories in the process.
Eat More Spicy Foods like Peppers
Foods like peppers turn up the body heat albeit temporarily. To boost your metabolism, you should add some of these peppers to your foods like beef stew, scrambled eggs, jalapeno, and other meals.
There are different types of hot peppers, and if you go to a good grocery store, you will find a variety. It is advised to buy a different variety each week, so you know which actually heats the body more and hence torch more calories.
Eat More Small Meals
Some people are of the notion that not eating between means is the best for keeping them from consuming more calories. That may not be true if you want to boost your metabolism.
You could do away with the 3-square larger meals and eat smaller meals 5 times daily, and that implies every few hours say 2 – 3 hours daily.
The technique is that your body heats up a bit in trying to digest meals, and when you eat just 3 times a day, it allows the chance to cool down and store calories.
According to an expert trainer, Hope Pedraza, eating smaller meals does increase the body’s metabolic rate, as well as regulate blood sugar.
More Caffeine
According to research, caffeine boosts the body’s metabolic rate [2] and hence a good catalyst for calorie burning. This can be achieved by sipping several cups of coffee daily.
However, you shouldn’t order a calorie-laden Frappuccino, and if the expresso makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to take it. Check the ingredient of a particular coffee and see if it is what you need before consumption.
Do Intense Walking
Walking briskly is one underestimated activity when it comes to burning calories. Whether it is short bouts or you choose to do the Nordic walk, it is one of the fastest ways to jumpstart your metabolism and lose extra calories.
Nordic walking involves taking longer hand swings and foot strides using a pole.
Eat More Protein
When you eat more protein, your body expends so much energy even while you’re not active. So you don’t really have to be quite busy to expend calories. The recommended protein should be at least 20% of your overall calorie need daily.
Use Pills
Certain diet pills aka metabolism booster help in kicking up your body’s metabolism allowing you to shed weight faster.
Always Have An Adequate Night Sleep
Don’t ever underestimate the potency of an adequate night’s rest towards boosting metabolism. When you don’t sleep well, your cortisol level can increase, which directly affects your appetite and metabolism negatively.
In another study, it was revealed that leptin, a satiety hormone, is increased due to lack of proper sleep and forces your brain into eating more calories.
Also, a publication in Sleep Medicine Reviews indicates that chronic loss of sleep can reduce body metabolic rate.
Bottom Line
Weight loss is evident after removing excess calories stored by the body due to several factors like overeating, lack of exercise, and more.
There are many ways of achieving weight loss, and while some are simple and effective, some are expensive and don’t do much.
However, the above little hacks are simple, effective, and inexpensive ways of giving your body metabolism a jumpstart so you can achieve weight loss faster and sustain it for longer.
References
https://www.rd.com/health/fitness/high-intensity-interval-training/ [1]