Boost your Metabolism

Lisa Branzel is a Certified Athletic Trainer with Trihealth Pavilion and she shared some really great information about boosting our metabolism on Amy’s Table this morning. Listen to the interview.

The question that researchers and doctors have been investigating for years is if your metabolism can be altered through various lifestyle and dietary changes. It appears your consistent workout routine plays a big role. That’s great news!

Boosting the metabolism is the holy grail of weight watchers everywhere, but how fast your body burns calories depends on several factors. Some people inherit a speedy metabolism. Men tend to burn more calories than women, even while resting. And for most people, metabolism slows steadily after age 40. Although you can’t control your age, gender or genetics, there are other ways to get a boost.

Build Muscle
Our bodies constantly burn calories, even when we’re doing nothing. This resting metabolic rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Every pound of muscle uses about six calories a day just to sustain it, while each pound of fat burns only two calories daily. That small difference can add up over time. In addition, after a bout of resistance training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.

Kick Your Workout Up a Notch
Aerobic exercise may not build bigger muscles, but it can rev up your metabolism in the hours after a workout.

Drink More Water
The body needs water to process calories. If you are even mildly dehydrated, your metabolism may slow down. In one study, adults who drank eight or more glasses of water a day burned more calories than those who drank four.

Eat More Often
When you eat large meals with many hours in between, you train your metabolism to slow down. Having a small meal or snack every three to four hours keeps your metabolism cranking, so you burn more calories over the course of a day.

Eat More Protein
The body burns up to twice as many calories digesting protein than it does for fat or carbohydrates. Although you want to eat a balanced diet, replacing some carbs with lean, protein-rich foods can jump-start your metabolism at mealtime. Healthy sources of protein include lean beef, fish, white meat chicken, tofu, nuts, beans, eggs and low-fat dairy products.

Drink Green Tea
Drinking green tea offers the combined benefits of caffeine and catechins, substances shown to rev up the metabolism for a couple hours. Research suggests drinking two to four cups of green tea may push the body to burn an extra 50 calories each day. That adds up to five pounds of weight loss in a year.

Avoid Crash Diets
Crash diets; those involving eating fewer than 1,000 calories a day are disastrous for anyone hoping to quicken their metabolism. Although these diets may help you drop pounds (at the expense of good nutrition), a high percentage of the loss comes from muscle. The lower your muscle mass, the slower your metabolism. The final result is a body that burns far fewer calories.

Best Bets
The impact of different foods and drinks on the metabolism is small compared to what you need for sustained weight loss. Your best bet for creating a mean calorie-burning machine is to build muscle and stay active. The more you move during the day, the more calories you burn.