Revving Up Your Metabolism
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With a few changes to your lifestyle, you can speed up your metabolism and burn more calories 24 hours a day:
- Eat five or six mini meals a day, or three meals and healthy snacks: Skipping meals or fasting causes your body to go into survival mode, slowing your metabolism and storing energy in the form of fat.
- Drink water throughout the day: Water is essential, and a lack of it slows your metabolism and tells your liver to turn its attention to water retention instead of performing its other duties, such as burning fat.
- Be active! Walk, dance, clean, wash your car or rake leaves: Aerobic exercise revs up your metabolism both during and after exercise. At least 60 minutes of moderate activity every day is recommended, but all activity that gets your heart rate up counts.
- Include weight lifting or resistance exercise 2 to 3 times a week: Muscle burns more calories than fat, so building muscle increases your metabolism. Building muscle also counteracts the natural decline in muscle mass -- about 5% each decade -- which causes your metabolism to slow with age.
Following these suggestions is likely to increase your metabolism and help you lose weight, with one side effect: improved health.
Healthy regards,
Megan Porter, RD
