Sunday 24 April 2011

Boost Your Metabolic Rate

Since overall weight loss will come down to calories burned versus calories coming in, the more you can burn, the better success you see. It’s a relatively simple equation and when you can get that equation tilting in your favour, results will definitely be showing.
Now, this also means that the faster your metabolism is burning throughout the day, the more calories you’re using up for energy. There are a number of different ways that you can actually boost the metabolic rate hence when you do so, you’ll see faster results.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the best weight loss tips for boosting your metabolism so you can get more from your weight loss efforts.
Lift Heavier Weights
Quite possibly the single best way for  to enhance your metabolic rate is to start lifting heavier weights. Not only are heavy weights going to help you build more lean muscle tissue which itself will increase your metabolic rate over the long term, but when you lift heavy weights in the gym your body is going to burn off a number of calories in the hours after you’re finished just recovering from that workout session.
Think of it this way for weight loss tips . You could do a workout in the gym that burned 300 calories and then return to your baseline calorie burn of about 50-60 calories per hour.
Or, you could do a workout in the gym that burned 350 calories since it was performed at a higher intensity using the heavy weights and then continue to maintain an elevated metabolic rate so you burned 100 calories per hour for the following five before returning to baseline.
Which scenario would see better weight loss? Obviously the second and that’s what lifting heavier weights will give you.
Eat More Protein
Second, another very simple tip to increase your metabolic rate is to simply eat more protein. For every 100 calories of protein that you eat, your body will actually burn off 30 of those calories simply digesting it.
When you take in a 100 calories of carbohydrates or dietary fat in comparison, the body will lonely burn off 5 and 2 calories respectively.
So, the more protein you eat in your diet, the more calories you burn off each day thus the fewer calories you ‘net’ overall. This translates to you seeing a faster overall weight loss.
Just do keep in mind this doesn’t mean you should eat a diet that contains only protein as obviously that isn’t healthy at all, but rather that you should be making sure that you prioritize protein in each of the meals or snacks that you consume.
Add A High Carb Day
Another thing that you can do that will really boost up your metabolic rate and could potentially be the best weight loss tip you’ll get is to make sure that you have one higher carb day during the week.
Low carb dieting is very popular for weight loss right now and it does tend to work quite well. However, that said, one major problem with low carb diets is the fact that they do tend to slow the metabolism down.
At first you may not notice this all that bad but give it two or three weeks and you’ll really be struggling.
The best way to offset this however is to have one day each week where you do eat more carbohydrates. This will send a signal to the body that it is getting energy and it won’t feel the need to slow that metabolism down as much.
This means you’ll maintain a faster metabolism all throughout the week experiencing a greater rate of weight loss  . Plus, who doesn’t enjoy one high carbohydrate day in their diet each week?
Get More Sleep
Finally, the last weight loss tips to make sure you see success is to make sure you’re sleeping enough. When you aren’t getting enough sleep throughout the week your body can actually slow down how many calories it’s burning on a daily basis and what’s worse, it will release a hormone called cortisol.
This hormone can then cause lean muscle tissue loss and that will also permanently slow down your metabolism.
Aim for at least seven hours, if not eight, while you’re on your diet. Your body will thank you because of it.
So keep these quick weight loss tips in mind to boost your metabolism so you can reach that dream weight you’re after.