Improve Your Metabolism

We already discussed how (and why) you should reprogram your metabolism. Today I want to give you eight tips that I use to improve my metabolism and make it more efficient.
Just a remainder: a better metabolism burns more calories and prevents fat storage...that’s good enough for me!




1. Do resistance training : When you’re actually working against something, and you start to build muscle this alone will enable your body to burn calories, even when you’re resting up to a hundred more over a period of time. Muscle tissue tends to be active were as fat isn’t: this will speed up your metabolism.

2. Drink green tea: green tea has long been known to have very good antioxidant properties which is good for overall health. However studies have been done on people, and the participants in the studies were found to lose weight, rather than those who didn’t drink green tea. You need to drink about 5 cups a day in order to lose roughly about 90 calories per day, A small investment to lose that amount of calories.

3. Avoid crash dieting: when people are initially trying to lose weight, you tend to think that by cutting your calories down to the bare minimum you will lose weight faster. But that isn’t so.
What you need to do is eat five to six small meals a day, rather than having three large meals. This will stop your body going into starvation mode and holding onto fat stores. Work out your basic metabolic rate (BMR) so you know how much you need to eat in order to keep your body functioning.

4. Exercise twice a day: rather than exercising intensively for two hours once a day, exercise for an hour in the morning and then do your second session later on in the day. Studies have shown that, you burn more fat this way than you would do, if you exercise in just one session. You will get more of a after burn effect, your body will still be burning calories in between.
For instance I try to do cardio training (either swimming or running) in the morning and hit the gym after work.



5. Have a snack: sometimes this can be frowned upon in diet and weight loss circles, but the thing is your blood sugar levels will remain constant throughout the day. This will conquer any cravings and also keep your metabolism nicely ticking over. You’ll find also that you will need less food throughout the day. Of course you should go for healthy snacks such as fruits, lean bars and the like.



6. Avoid the intake of trans fats: We all know that these fats are bad for us, but the problem is due to their odd shape, they tend to bind to fat cells, which slow your metabolism down by clogging your liver up. Which is one of the major fat burning organs within your body.

7. Eat organic fruit and vegetables: studies have shown that food that has been grown without the use of pesticides, will keep your metabolism running better rather than ones that have been treated with pesticides.
Food that has been treated with pesticides puts toxins into your body which interfere with your thyroid gland. One more reason to go organic.

8. Eat fish: What are the reasons for eating more fish, that are rich in omega three oils ? Studies have been done on rats whom were given, large quantities of fish were found to lose weight. And the rats that didn’t showed no change.
Good sources of omega three oil fish are salmon and tuna, or you could take a cod liver oil supplement instead. Or if you don’t like eating fish try these other alternatives instead flaxseed oil, walnuts or eggs that are high in omega three oils.

The Iron You