Knowing how to boost a metabolism is the ultimate goal of dieters and weight watchers around the world. Your metabolic rate decides just how fast your body burns through calories. That said, while many factors – such as genetics – are essentially set in stone, there are some others that are perfectly within your control.
Knowing How to Boost Your Metabolism Helps
Understanding how to boost your metabolism won’t mean that you can still eat as much as you want and skip every single one of your workouts but still lose unwanted body fat. That said, it can give your metabolic rate a meaningful kick so that all the great efforts you are making to reach your goal will mean just that much more in terms of your progress.
Some people are lucky enough to inherit a metabolism that chugs along at top speed. If both your parents have a speedy metabolic rate, you might, too. Other factors also come into play. For instance, men typically have faster metabolic rates than women – while active or when resting. Taller people usually have faster metabolic rates than shorter ones. Those factors, you can’t control. But what about the ones you can?
5 Proven Methods of How to Boost a Metabolism
Here are 5 of the science-backed methods for how to boost a metabolism according to WebMD.
1 – Improve Your Workouts
This means different things for different people. In terms of how to boost a metabolism, you need both cardio and strength training. Cardio is what really gets your body burning the most calories and stored fat and creates the “after-burn” effect for a few hours afterward as well. That said, strength training is vital because it builds lean muscle.
This isn’t the bulky muscle you see on bodybuilders, but the type that your body needs all over to be strong, balanced, and to support your joints and organs. Muscles themselves are huge calorie burners, so this will help you to burn more even while you’re inactive. That said, when you’re strong, you’ll also get a lot more out of your cardio workouts, for a double whammy of metabolic rate boosting.
2 – Drink Enough Water
This can’t be said enough. If you’re not drinking enough water, your body isn’t performing at its best. Even if you’re mildly dehydrated, your metabolic rate slows down. You don’t need to drown yourself in water all day long, but make sure you’re drinking enough of it to keep your body hydrated. On hot days, or when you’ve been physically active, don’t forget to increase your intake to make up for the added loss.
If you’re not happy with drinking tons of water all day, remember that you can hydrate through food, too. Soups with clear broths, fruits and vegetables all give you lots of added H2O.
3 – Get Spicy!
If you like spicy foods, you’ll be thrilled to hear that they are a part of how to boost your metabolism naturally. The capsaicin in red or green chili peppers can speed up your metabolic rate. You know that heat that you feel that can even make you sweat from spicy foods? That process is called thermogenesis. Your body is burning more fuel to produce that heat. Burning more fuel means burning more calories!
4 – Drink Black Coffee
Whether you love your coffee first thing in the morning to start your day, or in the early afternoon to avoid that sleepy feeling after lunch, this can be a great way to boost your metabolism. The caffeine in coffee that wakes you up can also act as a short-term metabolism booster. If you have it before a workout, it can help you feel less tired and raise your endurance for a better overall performance. Just make sure to drink it black. Sugar, other sweeteners and milk or cream will add the calories your workouts are supposed to burn off!
5 – Don’t Crash Diet
Crash dieting – the type involving fewer than 1,200 daily calories for women or 1,800 daily calories for men – may seem like a great idea to get a couple of extra pounds to scram over a weekend. However, it can quickly backfire. When you try to drop pounds at the expense of nutrition, your body may slow your metabolism as it switches into “starvation mode” and it may even burn muscle instead of fat, further slowing things down. The outcome could be that you’ll regain any lost weight extremely quickly…and those returning pounds may bring friends!
Closing Thoughts About How to Boost Metabolism
As you can see, when it comes to how to boost metabolism, most of the best steps have to do with treating yourself well and avoiding extremes. By using these methods, you can easily charge up your body, so you’ll know you’re getting the most out of every carefully selected snack and every workout you complete.
The journey to reach your maximum fitness potential can be a fantastic goal. The challenging part is in knowing the right steps to take to get there and to recognize it when you reach it.
Studies and other research have led medical experts to believe that water affects metabolism through thermogenesis – that is, the body’s heat production.
Diet, exercise, and other factors can boost or reduce the efficiency of your digestion and/or metabolism. The way in which most people will first detect changes in these processes is in their overall health.