3 Steps For Boosting Your Metabolism

Your metabolism (pronounced: muh-tah-buh-lih-zum) is a group of chemical reactions within your body which converts food into fuel. Your metabolism is a complicated process, and people usually think of it in simple terms: weight. When your metabolism is faster, calories which your body intakes are converted into fuel that it can use - quicker. These reactions have a bearing on your weight because the higher your metabolic rate is, the more fuel it requires. If you intake less while your metabolic rate is high, your body uses it’s stored fuel - fat.

Here is my basic, three-step plan that I’ve used to boost my metabolism:

Hitting Up The Gym

A combined weight training with cardio workout is the main factor for boosting your metabolism and inducing weight loss. No surprises here. What might be surprising, however, is that longer with less is better than shorter with more. By increasing your cardio workout time with less intensity, the more fat you’ll burn and the faster your metabolism will be. Combine a steady 40 minute cardio workout with 20 minutes of weight training, and you’ve got yourself a excellent metabolism boosting workout. You can always switch the times up, but the golden rule of any workout is to keep it around 60 minutes, unless your training for an action role.

Early To Bed, Earlier To Rise

Natasha Turner, ND wrote the following:

Most adults require seven to nine hours of sleep for optimal rest. Some texts say nine hours is the perfect amount for slowing the aging process, for recuperation from stress and for complete rejuvenation. Adequate and effective sleep is crucial to health. This is because hormones, like melatonin and growth hormone, which have beneficial effects on our body tissues, healing mechanisms and metabolism are released during sleep.

Not sleeping enough or not sleeping in complete darkness will decrease our production of melatonin, while insomnia, sleep apnea or just not making sleep a priority will result in decreased levels of growth hormone. Decreased amounts of growth hormone have also been found in individuals with poor quality sleep or insufficient amounts of deep sleep.

Along with low levels of melatonin and growth hormone, stress hormone levels—particularly cortisol—increase. Cortisol results in increased appetite despite ample food intake, typical of people with sleep deprivation.

The increased fat storage also found with sleep deprivation seems to be a result of an impaired ability to properly metabolize carbohydrates which leads to high blood sugar levels. High blood sugar levels then lead to increased levels of insulin, our body’s signal to store unused energy as fat. The end result is weight gain or an inability to lose weight easily.

I have a hard time getting to bed at a decent hour. I think around 10-11pm is a decent hour to be getting to bed. I usually go to bed around 1-2am, however, I notice a huge difference in my energy levels when I go to bed early then get up earlier, around 7am-8am, or even earlier if I can muster it. The trick here is to get a good amount of sleep before 12 midnight than after it.

Controlling Your Meals

It’s been proven that eating less more often is a sure way to boost your metabolic rate. Try breaking a typical meal down in half, and eating half now, and the remaining half 2 hours later. Try changing what you eat also. If you know you’ve got a no-so healthy diet, try eating better foods for a few meals and letting your body adjust to the new eating habits before you give it up. I’ve noticed that as I’ve changed my meals around, I’ve had massive food cravings that pass in a few days. There’s a golden rule to remember, when you crave carbs you’re either eating TOO MANY, or TOO FEW. Try to balance out your carbohydrate intake to vegetables, and eat less high density potatoes (french fries, mashed potatoes) If you can’t kick the habit, just regulate yourself to eat LESS of them.

By following these three important metabolic boosting practices, you’ll be burning excess weight and feeling phenomenal in no time.

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