Wellness

Diet Tricks That Boost Metabolism

Spicy foods speed up your metabolism. Have grapefruit juice with your meal to burn more fat. Drinking ice cold water boosts your metabolism. We hear claims like these all too often, but are they too good to be true? Many are, and even those that are true are often over exaggerated. Read on to learn about simple diet changes that can really help you maximize your metabolism.

Eat Breakfast

Research has repeatedly shown that breakfast is beneficial for weight control. For starters, people who eat breakfast tend to have healthier diets and consume less calories than those who skip their morning meal. But that’s not all: eating breakfast revs up your metabolism! While you sleep, your entire body – including your metabolism – slows down. Noshing in the morning wakes your metabolism up and gets it back up to speed. Within a few hours of waking, try to eat a balanced breakfast consisting of complex carbohydrates, protein, and a little heart healthy fat. Try Greek yogurt mixed with berries and a slice of whole grain toast spread with natural peanut butter, or oatmeal made with skim milk and topped with dried fruit or nuts.

Eat Every 3 to 5 Hours

Think of your metabolism like a fire: if you want to keep it burning, you have to consistently feed it. Do this with your diet and you will burn more calories over the course of the day. Aim to have a meal or snack every 3 to 5 hours to keep your metabolism humming and energy levels up. Waiting longer than this will slow your metabolism and increase the likelihood that you will overeat next time you nosh. This is a double whammy to your waistline – eating a huge meal when your metabolism has actually slowed down is even worse because your body will not burn the calories as quickly.

When establishing a regular meal pattern, remember that the same routine doesn’t work for everyone. Some people prefer to eat three main meals and one or two light snacks while others feel better eating 5-6 mini-meals. Pick the routine that’s best for you, just be sure to include protein and high fiber carbohydrates at each meal or snack. Try whole grain cereal topped with berries low-fat milk or fresh fruit and low-fat cottage cheese.

Don’t Drastically Cut Calories

Everyone knows that in order to lose weight, you need to reduce your calorie intake, but going to extremes can actually backfire. Females need a minimum of 1200 calories per day and males should take in at least 1500 calories. Dropping below this will cause your body to go into starvation mode, where your metabolism slows down and tries to conserve any calories that it gets.

While you may still lose weight when you drastically cut calories, a high percentage of that will be muscle mass. This is damaging to your metabolism because muscle is very metabolically active, so lose too much and your metabolism will slow down.

Eat Plenty of Protein

Any food you eat, whether in the form of carbohydrates, protein or fat, will temporarily boost your metabolism. This is called the thermic effect of food. But protein has a larger impact on your metabolism than the other two nutrients. This doesn’t mean you should go on an Atkins-type diet – it is still important to eat a balanced diet that includes complex carbohydrates and heart healthy fats in addition to protein. A good rule of thumb is to include a good source of protein at each meal and snack. You’re not limited to beef or chicken, either. In addition to lean meat, poultry, and fish, you can get your protein from eggs, low-fat dairy products, cottage cheese, nuts and seeds and beans, just to name a few.

Another metabolism boosting effect eating adequate amounts of protein is that it will help your body maintain and even increase metabolism-boosting muscle mass. Of course this is dependent upon exercise; all of the protein in the world won’t help build muscle mass unless you exercise on a consistent basis.