Today we're going to talk about strategies you can use to help boost your metabolism. The name of the game is burning calories and thus burning fat. In order to do so in the long-term, you have to have a fat burning metabolism. You need to increase your metabolism so that you are burning calories during the entire day; not just when you exercise.
The first thing you need to do is strength train. The reason we talk about strength training is because we need to build lean mass. We need to build muscle. If you are a woman, don't worry. We're not talking about getting bulky; we're just talking about developing more lean mass. What that does is it raises your basal metabolic rate.
In one of the previous lessons, we looked at equations that allow you to calculate your BMR and how many calories you burn during the day. If you remember the lesson, you will know that your BMR is heavily dependant on lean mass.
The more lean mass you have (muscle), the higher your BMR will be, which is what we want. Strength training is the key. A lot of people go wrong when they want to lose weight by doing more and more cardio.
Cardio is great in the short term. It is going to burn calories during the cardio session, but many people don't think about the benefit down the road. If they did, they would incorporate more strength training. Strength training gives you a long-term investment for caloric burning.
The second thing I would recommend is exercise early in the morning. Whether that is strength training or walking or running, whatever you do, get yourself out of bed and get moving.
The earlier in the day you can get moving the better. Any time you move, you raise your metabolism. Studies have shown that if you move earlier in the day you will have an easier time burning more calories during the day because your body is awakened.
If you sleep in or sit around in an office all day, you are not burning many calories. If you work out later in the day it is beneficial, but if you can get your workout in earlier you are going to get a lot more benefits for your efforts. If you do workout in the evening, at least do what you can to walk or get moving in the mornings.
Take the stairs. Do anything you can do to get your muscles actively engaged.
That takes me to my next point. If you work in an office, you need to find a way to engage your muscles somehow. Walk during your lunch hour if you can or get in a quick workout.
Another thing you can do are static contractions.
Static contractions are powerful. This is something you can try right now. Contract all of the muscles in your body. Do it right now and hold it for 10 seconds. If you did that, you will have noticed a tremendous increase in your body temperature.
This happens because we've initiated contraction in a huge portion of your muscles. Because the muscles are working, that means you are using up calories and you are going to raise your metabolism.
Any time you raise your body's temperature, you raise your body's metabolism. If you are cold all the time, you need to increase your metabolism. When you increase your temperature it is an indicator that you are burning more calories. Static contract whenever you can. Do it in the elevator, on the subway, wherever, and static contract for 10 repetitions if you can.
No let's talk about some nutrition strategies. I am not a huge believer in fat-burner pills like caffeine or ephedra. You want to avoid those. They will kill you in the long run. Nutritionally, what you want to look at are ways to support your thyroid gland. Your thyroid gland is at the front of your throat. It is the master gland of metabolism.
A lot of people, especially women in their younger years as well as their older years have low thyroid function. If your thyroid is not functioning properly, your metabolism will slow down. Let's look at some ways to support your thyroid through nutrition as opposed to medication.
Thyroid hormones are highly dependant on the minerals iodine and selenium. Your best source of iodine is by far sea vegetables. If you can incorporate more sea vegetables into your diet such as dulse, kelp, nori, wakame, and arame, the better off you will be from an overall health perspective. They have more minerals than any other food on the planet. Kelp, for example, is amazing. One serving has 2000% of your RDA for iodine. Iodine is one of the base minerals that are needed for thyroid hormone function. For selenium, try some Brazil nuts. One or two Brazil nuts are all you need to get your selenium requirements in a day.
Other than that you are looking at supporting your liver through a whole foods diet and making sure that your digestive system is working properly. Make sure you are eliminating properly as well.
All of these things make a big difference even though you may not think of them in terms of how they are going to help your metabolism. Everything in the body is interrelated. Another big issue is stress. Reduce the stress in your life. Practice meditation and yoga. Go for a walk in nature.
Do whatever you can do to reduce the stress on your adrenal glands because when the adrenal glands are stressed, they can stress thyroid function.
Lean proteins increase your metabolism because they make your body work a little bit more to digest them, but I definitely do not recommend that you eat a lot of animal protein.
But one more point I will mention is the thermic effect of food. Roughly 10% of the calories you burn come from the thermic effect of food.
When you eat something, your body must expend energy in order to digest the food. So there are negative calorie foods such as fibrous vegetables like celery, asparagus, broccoli, etc. All of those foods are very nutrient dense and low in calories. Because they are high in fiber, the body has to work hard at digesting them which is going to help burn more calories.
You can take advantage of this by eating small meals throughout the day.
Think of your metabolism as a fireplace. You want to consistently feed the fire with pieces of food now and then.
Fitness and Fat Loss Expert, Yuri Elkaim, helps thousands of busy health conscious individuals lose fat while sculpting lean muscle with just 3 short enjoyable workouts a week. Take his 20-lesson myfitteru.com/abs six pack abs e-course for free by visiting myfitteru.com/abs myfitteru.com/abs today!
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