There are a goodly number of ways to healthily increase your metabolic rate and an unfortunate number of ways to do it unhealthily. Let’s start with the unhealthy ways that you might have tried. Energy drinks that are loaded with
There are a goodly number of ways to healthily increase your metabolic rate and an unfortunate number of ways to do it unhealthily. Let’s start with the unhealthy ways that you might have tried.
Energy drinks that are loaded with caffeine, guarana, and other central nervous system affecters definitely are a bad idea. Those drinks or shots make you jittery, mentally unfocussed and can damage your heart — as well, as they are addicting.
Caffeine is one of the most abused drugs that is legal, right up there with alcohol and nicotine. Another unhealthy way of trying to up your metabolism is to exercise excessively. What happens is your tear down muscle mass and your immune system. So you can end up sick and hurt.
A good way of seeing if you are over-trained is to check your pulse rate first thing in the morning when you are still in bed. If your pulse rate is elevated when you first wake up and are still in bed you are likely over-trained. This assumes that it is not elevated because of other health reasons.
So now how to increase your metabolism healthily? Make sure that you drink enough pure water. The correct amount is take your body weight in pounds, divide it by two and that is how many ounces of water you should have daily.
Drinks that don’t count for water are anything with alcohol, lots of caffeine or sugar. Diet drinks and soda are not useful to hydrate or to boost your metabolism. Diet drinks have been shown in research to cause paradoxical weight gain because your brain is expecting sugar when you taste something sweet. When you don’t deliver the sugar, you crave it and usually get it from somewhere else.
Soda usually has not only a load of sugar but also high fructose corn syrup, which has been shown to make your body insulin resistant. Alcohol has a load of calories, it lowers your resistance toward consuming more calories and it lowers your metabolism right into the next day.
Teas that increase your metabolism are: Kombucha tea, as well as oolong tea and green tea. Kombucha tea is made from the Kombucha Black Mushrooms and it is not only a great metabolite but also cleansing and detoxifying. Green tea and oolong tea have polyphenols that also rev up your metabolism.
Some spices that have been effective in increasing metabolic rate are: ginger which helps your digestion process, and chili peppers, such as jalapenos, cayenne, and habaneros, which all contain capsaicin that increases calorie burn.
Some vitamins and minerals are especially important in keeping your metabolism up. Calcium is essential because if your calcium level goes too low, your body will trigger hormones that will cause your body to hold on to fat. Calcium is also important in proper muscle contraction and relaxation.
B Vitamins are important because they are stress reducing and usually come packaged in foods with lots of fiber which pulls fat out of your body. Cortisol is the stress hormone that tells your body to hold onto fat, so as well as ensuring that you have adequate B vitamins and calcium, try relaxation exercises such as yoga or meditation to reduce your cortisol load.
Keep eating! If you try to starve yourself skinny you actually lower your metabolism. If you eat small nutritious frequent meals you will boost your metabolism and be healthier.
Sleep! There is a wealth of research linking lack of sleep to weight gain and a low metabolism. Research also shows that too much sleep also is a bad thing. Try to keep your sleep cycles as even as possible.
Exercise with both aerobic and anaerobic methods. The cardio exercises such as swimming, walking running and biking will increase your fat burning capacity on the spot. The anaerobic, resistance exercises such as weight lifting, using resistance tubing, doing pull-ups or pushups will increase your muscle mass, which raises your metabolism generally. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat and so you will increase your metabolism by simply being more muscular.
You can increase your metabolism healthily and sensibly so that staying lean is simply a matter of lifestyle.
• Jane Riley, M.S., B.A., C.P.T., C.N.A., can be reached at janerileyfitness@gmail.com, 808-212-1451 or www.janerileyfitness.com.
