8 Ways To Kick-start Your Metabolism
Eating consistently throughout the day, drinking ice cold water and fidgeting are among the best ways to speed up metabolic rates, according to experts.
The health and fitness team from Vivotion.com have revealed eight top tips and trick to help the calories conscious kick-start their metabolisms.
Advice includes countering some Brits’ belief that skipping meals helps weight loss; doing this is very unhealthy, worryingly reduces energy levels and will actually slow down your metabolism.
Pic: iStockphoto
Instead the specialist researchers recommend regular small meals spread evenly over the day, rather than a large breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Other alternative routes to a faster metabolism include consuming more cold water, spicy foods and protein, as well as fidgeting often and getting required rest every night.
A spokesman from Vivotion.com said: “Calorie conscious Brits don’t have to accept a slow metabolism as bad luck.
“Rather than a barrier to weight loss, your metabolic rate can actually aid your health and fitness goals if it is sped up using some of our handy hints.
“It can be as simple as an extra glass of cold water and throwing a chilli or two into your dinner – just remember to never skip sleep or meals.”
1 Drink cold water
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Studies have shown that drinking just 500ml of water can increase your resting metabolism by 10-30% an hour! The effect may be even greater if you drink really cold water, as your body will use energy to heat it up to body temperature.
2 Don’t starve yourself
Drastically cutting down on your food intake and skipping meals is not only incredibly unhealthy – it’s actually counterintuitive. Try to get by on morsels and your metabolism will slow down so much that you’ll not only stop losing weight, but you’ll be lucky if you even have the energy to peel yourself off the sofa.
3 Eat five small meals a day instead of three large meals
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Similar to the previous point, you might think you should eat less often if you want to lose weight, but that’s just not the case. By eating every few hours, you keep your metabolism fired up and ensure it doesn’t slow down between meals in order to hang on to calories. A ‘meal’ can be as small as a cup of soup or a bowl of fruit.
4 Fidget
People who drum their fingers or bounce their knees could actually burn around 500 calories a day! That equates to around one pound a week.
5 Increase the protein in your diet
By increasing your protein intake to the upper end of the recommended range (roughly 20 per cent of overall calories), the amount of energy you expend at rest will remain the same even while you’re losing weight. Normally, as you lose weight, your body adjusts, and you’ll burn fewer calories at rest.
6 Eat spicy foods
Peppers contain capsaicin, a substance that can boost your metabolism. Alone, the effects of adding spices to your food may be unnoticeable, but when combined with other metabolism-boosting strategies, it could lead to a slight advantage.
7 Don’t underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep
Pic: iStockphoto
A bad night’s sleep can elevate your cortisol levels, a stress hormone that makes you hungrier and slows down your metabolism. It will also decrease your leptin levels, the satiety hormone, which can tell your brain to eat more calories than you actually need.
8 Replace cooking fats with coconut oil
Coconut oil is relatively high in medium-chain fats, which can increase your metabolism more than the long-chain fats found in foods like butter. Due to the unique fatty acid profile of coconut oil, replacing some of your other cooking fats with it may have modest benefits for weight loss.
Moira Chisholm
I'm the Health Editor on My Weekly and am always interested to hear what's new in this fascinating field. I also deal with the gardening, shopping pages, general features, our website content and the Ask Helen problem page. I have a special interest in Christmas content because I'm on the team for Your Best Ever Christmas Magazine, too!
