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If your health and fitness goals are mainly centered on losing excess pounds, then you need to understand the crucial role that metabolism plays in your body. Metabolism is basically a set of physical and chemical changes that occur inside your body to provide adequate energy for life processes as well as the synthesis of new materials. Metabolism is defined as the rate at which your body burns calories.
Because the rate at which your body burns calories and converts fuel into energy also largely affects how easy or difficult you gain or lose weight, your metabolism rate, therefore, matters a lot. And while much of your metabolic rate is mainly determined by factors like your age, genetics, body size, and gender, some lifestyle changes can either speed up or slow your metabolism. One of these changes is your diet.
What you eat affects the rate of your metabolism. For example, eating junk food containing excessive fats and sugar can slow your metabolism down compared to whole foods. Consequently, eating junk food ultimately leads to obesity, and having excessive weight slows down your metabolism.Also, if your diet does not contain enough iodine for optimal thyroid function, the speed of your metabolism may reduce.
Forget yo-yo dieting. A fast metabolism diet is what you need to get your metabolism running. This diet will not only help you lose weight fast, but it will also add numerous significant benefits to your health.
Get started with a high metabolism diet with these useful tips.
High Metabolism Diet Tips
1. Eat breakfast(healthy breakfast)
It’s funny how some fad diets recommend skipping breakfast to lose weight. This does not work. In fact, it only makes things worse. Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day
and must, therefore, be taken without fail. Numerous studies have found that eating breakfast is crucial for healthy weight maintenance, fast metabolism, and overall good health.
To keep your metabolism running at full capacity, you need to eat regular, frequent meals every single day. In fact, the Dartmouth Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center suggested that eating breakfast every day has the ability to increase your metabolism by up to 10%.
Skipping breakfast indeed has a negative impact. One study that was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that participants who reported skipping breakfast had four and a half times the risk of obesity compared to those who took the time to eat.
So what should you have for breakfast to boost your metabolism? Well, a combination of complex carbs like wholemeal bread and oatmeal, lean protein like eggs or tofu, healthy fats, and some fruits is just the perfect, healthy breakfast meal.
2. Drink some coffee or tea
Although coffee is widely known to boost energy levels and reduce fatigue, it also significantly increases energy expenditure, helping you burn more calories. As a result, it increases your metabolism and could greatly benefit your weight loss efforts.
To investigate the effects of caffeine and coffee on the metabolic rate and substrate utilization in both normal and overweight individuals, this study found caffeine/coffee really does stimulate the
metabolic rate of both groups.
Drinking tea can also help increase your metabolism. One Japanese study found that one cup of tea can raise your metabolism by about 12 percent. It’s believed that the catechins in tea play a crucial role in boosting your metabolism.
Therefore, start your day with a cup of coffee or tea and get that metabolism boost for fast weight loss and good overall health.
3. Eat whole grains. Ditch refined grains
A recent preliminary research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that adding whole grains instead of processed grains in your diet can increase calorie loss by significantly reducing the number of calories retained during digestion, and speeding up your metabolism.
In the study, some participants were given whole grains for 8 weeks while others were given refined grains for the same period. Those who ate a diet containing whole grains, which matched the daily recommended dietary allowance for fiber, had significantly lost an extra 100 calories per day due to the combination of resting metabolic rate and increased fecal losses.
Whole grains don’t just increase calorie loss and speed up your metabolism- they also help you feel full longer, which is great if you’re trying to lose weight. Your fast metabolism diet should contain whole grains like brown rice, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, bulgur, millet, whole wheat bread, pasta, or crackers, including others.
4. Increase your fiber intake
Recent research indicates that eating a fiber-rich diet may boost your metabolism because fiber is indigestible. Although your body does not digest fiber, it still tries to and in the process, it spends much more energy than it would with other foods. This means that eating foods that are rich in fiber will lead to increase calorie loss and a boost in your metabolism.
5. Load up on lean protein
To maintain lean muscle, your body needs high-quality protein. The good thing about eating protein is that your body burns a higher number of calories digesting protein as it uses to burn carbs and fats. This means your metabolism is also significantly increased.
Reduce your carb intake and up your lean protein intake to boost your metabolism at mealtime. Actually, research indicates that eating lean protein can increase your postmeal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent. Protein-rich sources include lean beef, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, beans, tofu, and others.
6. Eat iron-rich foods
A deficiency in the mineral iron can slow down your metabolism. The major function of iron in your body is to transport oxygen to your muscles, which is needed to burn fat and produce energy. When your iron levels run low, your muscles don’t get enough of this mineral and therefore your energy levels and metabolism reduces.
If you’re currently iron-deficient, you need to restock by eating iron-rich foods like lean meat, liver (beef, chicken, or goat liver), beans, spinach, and fortified cereals. You can also take some iron supplements.
7. Up your Vitamin D intake
Vitamin D is one important vitamin that plays a crucial role in preserving your metabolism. This vitamin optimizes your body’s ability to absorb important weight loss nutrients like calcium. It helps to maintain muscle mass, encourage your body to burn fat, and turn up the heat of metabolism
Your fast metabolism diet should, therefore, include Vitamin D-rich foods like milk, tuna, shrimp, tofu, eggs, and fortified cereal.
8. Consume more organic foods
Some researchers in Canada discovered that dieters with high levels of organochlorines (which are the chemicals found in many pesticides)stored in their fat cells has an increased risk of disruptions to thyroid functions and mitochondrial activity.
These toxins are not just harmful to your health, but they also interfere with the energy-burning process and cause a dip in your metabolism. Therefore, make a point of eating only organic produce to boost your metabolism.
9. Eat some chili
The excessive heat produced by chili may not be pleasant but this little red vegetable can boost your metabolism in a way that you can’t imagine. A single teaspoon of chopped chilies will boost your body’s production of heat and increase the activity of your sympathetic nervous system. So be sure to add some chilies to your pasta, stir-fries, and as toppings for pizza.
10. Drink at least 8 cups of water daily
Do you know why experts recommend drinking 8 glasses of water each day for weight loss? Well, some German researchers found that drinking 6-8 glasses of water, especially cold water can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories, which are enough to shed at least 5 pounds in one year.
Drinking cold water isn’t just good for your metabolism, it also helps improve kidney function, keep your skin looking young, prevent dehydration, and many other benefits. You can add some lemon to your water for some flavor.
