More Metabolism Might!

More great tips on boosting your metabolism from Fitness magazine. Read the full article here or check out the tips below:

1. Exercise more often.

Working out is the number-one way to keep your furnace cranking. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn all day. That’s because muscle uses energy even when you’re resting.

2. Kick up your cardio.

Aerobic intervals will help you maximize your burn, doubling the number of calories you torch during a workout, studies show.

3. Put some muscle behind it.

A head-to-toe strength routine will turbocharge your calorie-blasting quotient.

4. Don’t skip meals.

We know you’re superbusy, but make sure you grab lunch. “Simply chewing, digesting and absorbing food kicks your metabolism into gear,” says Jim White, RD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

5. Fill up on smart foods.

Start by serving yourself protein at every sitting, says Darwin Deen, MD, medical professor in the department of community health and social medicine at City College of New York and a coauthor of Nutrition for Life. Not only does your body need it to help build lean muscle mass, but protein also takes more calories to digest.

While you’re at it, eat more foods that slowly release the sugar you need for sustained energy, like high-fiber fruits and veggies and whole-grain breads and pastas.

6. Eat breakfast.

It will switch your metabolism from idle to high speed. Take advantage of the natural torching process by having a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs, low-fat turkey bacon, and a piece of whole-grain toast.

7. Get off your butt.

Sitting too much — at the computer at work, at home in front of the TV — slows your metabolism, even if you’re exercising regularly. An easy fix is to stretch, stroll, and fidget throughout the day.

8. Go to bed earlier.

Deprive yourself of sleep and your body starts to respond as if it were under siege. “When you get two hours less shut-eye than you normally do, your system becomes stressed and produces about 50 percent more cortisol,” Talbott says. “That in turn triggers your appetite.”

9. Schedule a nighttime workout.

Do a 20- to 30-minute moderate-intensity cardio routine before you hit the hay to keep your metabolism humming all night, Porcari says. The average woman’s metabolic rate naturally decreases by about 15 percent while she sleeps, but an end-of-day sweat session will make the drop closer to 5 percent, he explains. So take the dog for an evening walk or go for a bike ride with your family after dinner. And don’t worry that the activity will keep you awake: As long as you exercise at least two and a half hours before lights out, you should be able to drift off with no problem, Breus says.

10. Check your meds.

Some of the most dramatic metabolic dips occur when women start taking birth control pills and widely prescribed antidepressants known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. “These drugs commonly slow the metabolism because they affect the functioning of the thyroid gland, which regulates how our bodies use energy,” says Kent Holtorf, MD, a thyroidologist and the founder of the National Academy of Hypothyroidism. If you’ve recently started taking any new medication and the scale is inching upward, ask your doc if there’s an alternative treatment that is less likely to cause weight gain.

Filed Under Diet Q&A, Diet Tips, Eat Strong, fitness, What's New 

Comments

Got something to say?





Copyright © 2008-2012 Glennys Diet Tips