2) Lifestyle
When we come across the term
lifestyle, we tend to think of the
basic day-to-day habits that we rely on; sometimes without giving them much of a second thought. And this is indeed the case when we talk about how lifestyle influences the speed
of your metabolism.
Now, quite honestly, most of us
live busy lives in one form or another, and therefore it’s challenging to
really keep an eye on all of our habits.
Balancing work, family,
hobbies, and other commitments means that our lifestyle isn’t so much of a
choice, as it is a necessity.
Yet with respect to the fact
that many of us face sincere limitations in our lifestyle choices, there are
many things that we can do – little things, but important things – that can
help speed up our metabolism.
The little things that you
change in your regular, day-to-day lifestyle can indeed have the most profound influence on the speed of your metabolism, and
the achievement of your short and long-term weight loss goals.
Get on the Wagon
Do you know people who
carefully choose low-fat, low- calorie meal choices, are very disciplined
when it comes to not ordering the Chef’s Special
pecan pie for desert, yet order a glass or two
of wine with their meal?
Well, unfortunately, these
people are really undermining their efforts to boost metabolism.
Studies show that drinking
alcohol with meals actually encourages over eating; which means more calories
that need to be burned away (or transformed into fat!).
Furthermore, many people are
simply unaware that many alcoholic drinks are laden with calories; almost as
much as sugary-rich soft drinks.
A bottle of beer can deliver a few hundred
calories, and most cocktails are in the same range. Wine is generally considered to deliver the
least amount of calories; but even this is a bit of a slippery slope. Three glasses of wine can be worth 300
calories that the
body simply has to deal with in
one form or another.
The tip here isn’t to stop
drinking alcohol altogether (despite
the title of this
section). If you enjoy alcohol then
there’s no particular reason why you have to quit cold turkey, but you will save
a bit of money and not consume as many calories. Simply, the call here is that
you become aware that it influences your metabolism. If you consume excess alcohol (even without becoming inebriated), you force
your system to deal with more calories.
Zzzzzzzz.....Zzzzzzzzz
This is a toughly. Most of us don’t have as much control over the amount that we sleep as we should. Work, family, education, housekeeping, and so many other tasks can literally prevent
us from getting the amount of sleep that we
need. However,
as the experts tell us, getting enough sleep actually improves metabolism. On the other hand, people who are constantly sleep
deprived typically find that they have less energy to do regular, daily activities;
including digestion.
As a result, sleep-starved
people often lower their own metabolism. They simply don’t have the strength to
break down food efficiently, particularly carbohydrates. This is a very difficult issue, because many
people can only find time to exercise by borrowing from their rest time. For example, after a long day of work and
dealing with family and home commitments, a person may find that the only time
they have to exercise (and thus boost their metabolism) is late at night; say
around 9:00 pm, or even later. So what
should one do? Ultimately, it’s a
question of balance. Naturally, if
you’re willing to exercise, and your doctor agrees that it’s healthy for you to
do that, then you’re not going to get fit by sleeping instead of exercising.
If you find that you have
trouble sleeping, then this can also negatively affect the speed of your
metabolism (because you won’t have enough energy the following day). Insomnia and other sleep disorders are very
common problems, and there exists a variety of support systems in place to help
people get the rest that they require. Some
non-medical tips to help you fall asleep include:
*Don’t eat late at night
*Try drinking warm milk before
bedtime
*Don’t turn on the TV at night
*Try yoga or other
stress-relieving practices
*Try having a warm bath before
bedtime
*Don’t exercise close to
bedtime; your body can become so energized that it doesn’t want to sleep!
Relax
We briefly noted yoga in the
list of Things to Do above, and
that brings us to another key influence of your metabolism: stress.
Believe it or not, but experts
are now telling us that stress can send unwanted signals to our body; signals
that lead to slower metabolism. Essentially,
what happens is that when the body is under constant stress, it releases stress hormones
that flood the system. These stress-related hormones actually tell the body to create larger fat cells in the abdomen. The result can be both increased weight
(through increased fat cells), and a slower metabolism.
Obviously, these are two very
negative factors in the quest to boost metabolism and lose weight. The last thing that we want is more and
bigger fat cells in our abdomen, coupled with a diminished metabolism!
Yet this is, tragically, what
happens to many people who experience constant, continuous stress. And, alas, this is many people; especially
those of us who have to balance so many competing objectives, such as work,
family, and other vital tasks. So the
advice here is indeed to “relax and chill out”, and there are some simple
techniques that can, and should, be added to your life.
These include walking more,
listening to relaxing music, meditation, yoga, eating non-stimulating foods (e.g.
no caffeine, no sugar, and so on), and building a daily regimen that includes periodic
time outs where you can re-center yourself and destress.
3) Diet
3) Diet
Ah yes, diet. For most of us, our information concerning metabolism has related in one way or another to
eating. Most of us have been told of metabolism-friendly foods, or
metabolism unfriendly foods.
But really, while we may be
basically aware that, all else being equal, a stalk of celery is better for
your metabolism than fries with gravy, our understanding of diet and metabolism
is pretty low. To fix this, the
following section looks at some powerful and scientific diet-related tips that
will boost your metabolism.
Indeed, as you’ll soon learn,
it’s not merely what you eat that matters; it’s when, and how, too.
The word calorie has a bad rap.
We constantly come across calorie reduced or low calorie foods. And it’s not
uncommon to overhear someone gasp about the immense calorie content of certain
foods, such as a rich and creamy desert, or a giant fast food burger.
All of this anti-calorie
rhetoric therefore has made a lot of us pretty calorie-phobic; as soon as we
see something that has lots of them, we run away. But is this wise?
Yes and no. Yes, it’s wise in the sense that avoiding
that double- layer chocolate fudge cake for desert is probably a good idea
(actually, scratch that; it is a good idea).
The calories that come from the
cake are really going to be the so-called empty calorie kind; which means that
there’s no real nutritional value that your body can squeeze out and make use
of. But in the bigger picture, it’s
unwise for your metabolism to become calorie-avoidant.
Why? Because your body is a marvelous machine that
tries, at all times, to do what it can to make your life easier. Indeed, while it may not always function at
optimal levels (for a variety of reasons, including genetics), it still tries
to do its very best. The body, for all
of its limitations and so forth, is not a lazy thing!
With this in mind, the body is
always trying to keep is alive and functioning in the manner that it deems to
be healthiest. And that’s why if you
suddenly decrease the amount of calories that you need, your body won’t try to
do more with less. In other words, your body won’t respond in the
way that you want it to: it won’t necessarily provoke catabolism and thus reduce
weight and fat cells. Instead, your
smart and wise body will try to keep you alive by slowing down its
metabolism. It will simply believe that something is wrong – maybe you’re trapped
somewhere without food – and it will just begin to become very stingy with
energy.
Eat More?
Fresh on the heels of the
discussion on calories, it’s also helpful to note that eating frequently
throughout the day can be very good for boosting metabolism. There are a couple
of reasons for this.
ü
The first reason is that people who tend
to eat throughout the day do considerably less snacking. As a result, they tend to avoid the potato chips
or candy bars that they might otherwise consume if they suddenly felt hungry. People
who eat throughout the day don’t tend to experience severe hunger pangs,
because they don’t reach that stage.
ü
The second reason, and the one that you
can probably guess based on your understanding of metabolism, is that by eating
throughout the day, you are constantly keeping your metabolism in motion. It’s
kind of like having a generator run all the time; it will simply use more
electricity than if you powered it on 3 times a day.
Now, it goes without saying (but we should say
it anyway just in case!) that just because it’s good for metabolism-boosting to
eat frequently, this doesn’t mean that you can eat junk all day long! Rather,
if you choose to eat more frequently, then you’ll certainly need to be very
aware of what you eat; because you can easily exceed your required amount of
daily calories if you don’t keep an eye on this. That’s
why, if your plan is to follow the eat-more-to-burnmore
approach, then you should keep
a food journal that notes what
you eat (and drink of course) throughout the day. You should not
merely know the calorie levels of what you eat, but you should
know the overall nutritional values, too.
Eat Early
We’ve all heard that breakfast
is the most important meal of the
day. And in terms of boosting your metabolism, this is indeed the case! There are a couple of reasons why eating a
hearty and healthy breakfast can boost metabolism and lead to weight loss goals.
·
The first reason is that people who eat
breakfast are much
less inclined to snack
throughout the morning. For example, if
you had a good breakfast of fruit and low-sugar cereal in the morning, your
chances of visiting the vending machine at work around 10:30am diminish
significantly. Of course, as you recall
from our previous discussion on eating more frequently, this doesn’t mean that
you shouldn’t eat something between
breakfast and lunch. It simply means
that, since you won’t be extremely hungry at 10:30am (because you skipped
breakfast), you’ll be less inclined to eat anything that you get your hands on;
such as a nice donut that your co-worker was kind enough to offer you. In other words, by starting your day in a nutritious way, you’ll
have more control over what you eat throughout the day.
·
The second reason is more aligned with
metabolism boosting. Studies have shown that metabolism slows during sleep, and
doesn’t typically get going again until you eat. Therefore, starting the day with breakfast is
like kick starting your metabolism.
You’ll actually burn more calories throughout the day, simply by eating breakfast.
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