We’re always hearing how our ability to lose weight is influenced by our metabolism, yet there is a lack of information regarding how to affect and speed up your metabolism. Below are some healthy lifestyle and dietary changes you can make which will have an effect on your waistline.
Well, you knew it was coming, time to get on the cardio. Anything from a casual walk to a full blown swimming session, it all helps. My personal favourite however is HIIT (high intensity interval training). From all the different workout guides I’ve tried, nothing has achieved greatest results than HIIT training. There are a number of great videos on YouTube you should try, such as the one below.
There are so many ridiculous and ignorant fears surrounding weight training. Firstly, if you’re a female and worried about weight training as you don’t want to get big and muscular, then you have nothing to worry about. Females don’t have testes, meaning they don’t produce testosterone, necessary to pack on real size. What you will get from weight training is an amazingly stunning and toned body.
What many people don’t know about weight training is that while cardio will burn more calories initially, weight training will burn more over a 24 hour period, as it keeps your metabolism high for the rest of the day. You should aim for 2-3 sessions per week, depending on your aims.
Try to make sure every part of your body is covered, don’t be ‘one of those’ who neglect certain areas, such as shoulders or calves.
You can jump-start your metabolism by ensuring you eat something first thing in the morning. I like to opt for a shake, often including ingredients such as oats, strawberries, kale etc.
Don’t go for a cereal, sure there might be a few healthy ones but 90% seem to be pumped with rubbish you don’t want if trying to lose weight.
A random stat for you, 70% of people in Western societies supposedly fail to get enough fibre in their diet. Why? because we don’t eat enough vegetables and tend to pack our diet with rubbish containing minimal nutritional density.
You should aim to eat more than 30 grams of fibre per day, however here in the UK we average 18 grams, just over half. There are some other medical books that say women should aim for 25 grams and men should aim for 38 grams per day, therefore there doesn’t seem to be a set amount, however you should adjust based on your own personal weight, size, height etc.
So where should you be getting fibre from? Try to add kidney beans to your diet. Also, try adding almonds, chickpeas, lentils, oats, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
There are several hot drinks which are shown to speed up your metabolism, including everyone’s favourite, a good ol’ cup of coffee. However I recommend opting for green tea as there are a huge amount of other added benefits, such as the high quantity of antioxidants, which helps your body to fight against free radicals. Green tea is recognised now as a superfood, so it should be on everyone’s shopping list.
I see this as a bit of a weak point, but if you drink cold water, your body needs to heat it up and therefore increases your metabolism slightly. On the other hand, I wanted to include this as you should be drinking plenty of water throughout the day anyway.
The amount of pesticides that aren’t pumped into our foods is actually quite scary. These have a huge affect on our systems, which has a knock-on effect on our metabolism. You can feel a little safer and avoid organochlorides by sticking to organic (as long as your bank balance allows).
I mentioned how important it was to keep fibre levels high, well iron levels are equally as important. Your body needs iron for carrying oxygen to muscles, a necessary process to burn fat. If you’re a female reader then this will be of even more importance to you, as menstruation depletes your iron levels significantly, so you need to increase your iron intake after having a period. My best source is spinach (the legend that is Pop-Eye taught me that), while beans and lean meat are another great source.
OK, I’m a hypocrite here so I can’t judge, but alcohol is the worst offender. Alcohol offers no nutritional value, while packing your body with a huge amount of calories. Alcohol is then used as fuel for energy, meaning it won’t burn the food you have consumed, nor body fat. Fat burning levels almost stop the moment you’ve had a couple of drinks.
A struggle for many of us in our busy lifes, a lack of speed will lead to an unusual amount of leptin and ghrelin. Why does that matter? These are the hormones in your body that regulate when you’re hungry and how your body uses energy. There are a huge amount of studies that show people that got less than eight hours sleep per night struggled more to lose body fat, while people who had less than 7 hours experienced increased BMI.
So I hope you found these useful, send us an email if you ever have any questions. Happy dieting!