How to Boost Your Metabolism Naturally
Due to the limited studies on metabolism-boosting supplements, most medical advice and dietary weight loss advisors recommend increasing your metabolism through natural means and lifestyle changes.
Changing your everyday habits can often boost metabolism and lead to greater weight loss than expensive and often ineffective supplements.
Eat Metabolism Boosting Foods
Adding many ordinary foods to your diet can have a positive impact on your body’s metabolism without harmful side effects.
- Protein-rich foods increase the thermic effect of food. This means that your body will use more energy to digest the proteins, which will lead to greater fat burning. Some proteins can increase your metabolic rate by 15%-30%, so increase the beans, meat, and fish in your diet and snack on some nuts between meals.
- Legumes, like beans, are a particularly effective protein-rich food to boost metabolism. The dietary fiber in legumes benefits your gut health, enabling the good bacteria in your stomach to facilitate better energy conversion. They are also high in arginine and glutamine, two amino acids that increase thermogenesis.
- Chili peppers, as we mentioned before, contain capsaicin to increase your metabolism. They have the added bonus of appetite suppression for weight loss.
- Coffee, tea, and energy drinks all boost metabolism by increasing thermogenesis. 200-300 mg of caffeine per day can be achieved with 2-3 cups of your favorite morning beverage. Green tea also contains those catechins that boost metabolism.
- Ginger tea has been shown to help your body burn extra calories per day when drunk before meals. As an added bonus, it can also suppress appetite, which is helpful for any diet.
- Apple cider vinegar can assist weight loss goals through a number of chemical processes. In recent studies, people who took apple cider vinegar in the morning ate much less throughout the day. Additionally, studies show that in other animals, apple cider vinegar increases enzymes that may help burn more fat and decrease fat storage.
- Coconut oil might be high in fat, but that fat is composed of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which pass directly to the liver and are not stored in the body. Studies have shown that MCTs increase metabolism more than longer chain fats.
Exercise Regularly
Of course, any weight management service or fat-burning plan should include regular exercise. Exercise will not only burn calories, but it can also raise your metabolism levels and keep them elevated throughout the day.
In particular, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is effective for keeping your metabolism elevated for long after you finish your exercise. Studies have shown that HIIT exercise can burn more calories and increases the body’s resting energy expenditure more than other forms of exercise [9]. That rate of energy conversion can stay elevated for the rest of the day.
In general, aerobic exercise is what burns caloric fat. But it is important to remember that muscle mass requires the most energy to maintain, so increasing muscle burns calories and is a key component for boosting metabolism.
Medical advice recommends that your regular exercise targets all of the major muscle groups at least once per week, using weight lifting or strength training.
Spice Up Your Fitness Routine
Building up good exercise habits can be frustrating, especially when exercise becomes repetitive. Implementing a few effective changes and variations can keep your metabolism strong while preventing malaise.
- Vary the tempo of your exercise. Prolong the reverse movements for resistance training by taking a 4 or 5 count to lower the weights.
- Change the number of repetitions for each exercise. Most people only think of increasing repetitions, but a high-intensity, fast set of fewer repetitions can also improve metabolism.
- Decrease rest intervals. Keeping your heartbeats high is important for metabolism also, so don’t let your heart rate drop too far during rest intervals.
- Isometrics are a good way to keep your muscles engaged without movement. If you are working in a stationary position most of the day, try to find isometric positions to challenge yourself, such as planks or wall sitting.
- Unilateral Movements can be a good way to spice up your fitness routine and correct body/limb imbalances. Focus on your off-hand during arm, back, and chest exercises, or do extra reps with your off-leg occasionally.
- Integrate your surroundings. Most of us have challenging activities all around us that we can use to spice up our fitness and boost metabolism. Do some reps with heavy groceries or other shopping items. Take a few lunges during the walk from your car to your front door.
Improve Sleep Hygiene
Data from studies now show that poor sleeping habits can negatively impact metabolism [10]. It is possible that varying your sleep habits by an hour can increase your risk of metabolic irregularity by as much as 27%.
Online health information recommends that you try to stick with a consistent bedtime and wake-up alarm. Avoid late night sleep-harming activities such as screen time and blue light exposure.
The best medical advice suggests that keeping your sleep patterns consistent also may help you keep your metabolism consistent and avoid unpredictable weight gain.
Stay Hydrated
Among the numerous reasons to drink lots of water each day, data from studies have shown that increased water intake can also increase resting metabolic rate [11].
The trick is consistent water intake throughout the day. Half a liter of water can increase metabolism by up to 30% for about an hour.
Cold water is preferable, because your body will expend additional energy raising the water temperature to match your internal body temperature.
As an extra bonus, water will also fill your stomach and decrease appetite, leading you to consume smaller portions. This will greatly benefit your weight management program.
Conclusion
While metabolism boosters can make you lose weight, you will probably gain much more benefit from the metabolism boost that comes with a well-balanced diet and regular exercise.
Make sure you consume a larger fraction of high-protein foods, and choose foods listed in this article that increase thermogenesis and amino acid production. Consume moderate caffeine daily, especially from green tea which also contains catechins.
The best health information recommends that you exercise each day, and include some high intensity interval training to really get your metabolism jump-started and keep it going strong all day.
And of course, whether you are taking metabolism-boosting supplements or not, increase your water consumption to keep your metabolism running smoothly. This is especially important in conjunction with supplement products, which can sometimes causeminor dehydration.