If you have ever done any research on natural ways to lose weight, you will have more than likely come across several different ways to boost your metabolism. While there are many different ways that you are able to boost your metabolism, they are all not created equally, and some are going to work much better than others. This is because there are actually some metabolism boosting methods that can actually cause you to gain weight instead of losing it. You read that correctly, there are some metabolism boosting methods that will cause you to become bigger as opposed to what you really want, to slim down.
So how are you supposed to sort through all of the different methods out there to boost your metabolism and know which one is going to work better than all the others? Before you are able to really learn what you should be doing, it is much more important to understand what you should not be doing. As soon as you do, it will be much easier for you to start getting the metabolism boosting results that you are looking for.
With that being said, here is what you should and should not be doing when you are trying to dramatically boost your metabolism.
Dos:
- Be sure that you are keeping a food journal of everything that you eat and drink. This will allow you to look back upon your daily diet and make the necessary changes to get even better results.
- Increase you amount of daily activity. The more active you are, the higher your metabolism is going to be, meaning that you will be burning many more calories throughout your day.
- Use your favorite treats as a reward for following your meal plan and reaching activity goals. If you do this, you will still be able to enjoy your favorite treats but reach all of your goals as well.
Don’ts:
- Try not to follow any fad diets no matter how attractive they are made out to be. Fad diets are called fad diets for a reason, they simply are not going to last long. And unless you are planning on eating that way for the rest of your life, there is a very high chance that as soon as you stop and go back to eating ‘normal’, you will gain back all of the weight that you lost and potentially even more.
- Start taking different types of diet supplements. Diet supplements are ok to use to help supplement your nutrition if you are occasionally falling short through the foods that you are eating, but they should never be relied upon as your main source of nutrition. Think of diet supplements as a cheap insurance policy for your nutrition.
- Consuming energy drinks is simply never a good idea. Energy drinks are packed full of synthetic chemicals that may give you a little burst of energy, but will cause you to crash hard, as well as wreak havoc on your body.
Increasing Your Metabolism
There is no shortage of articles floating around in magazines and online explaining to you how you can help to increase your metabolism. Some of these may suggest that you start eating a healthier breakfast or breaking down your meals into smaller ‘mini-meals’ that you can eat throughout the day to feel fuller longer, as well as help your body to burn more calories at the same time.
However, while these methods can potentially work, there is one common flaw that they share. That flaw being while they will boost your metabolism, they are also going to boost the number of calories that you are consuming at the very same time. In fact, often times these methods will even boost the number of calories that you are eating much more than they are going to be boosting your metabolism. Since you will be taking in more calories and not burning them off, the end result can potentially be the complete opposite of what you want, which means that you can actually get bigger instead of smaller.
When it comes to your health, you need to keep in mind that there is never going to be anything wrong with eating the number of calories that you need to throughout the day. On top of that, you should never try to starve yourself in order to lose a few pounds or slim down a little bit. However, if you are looking to start losing some extra weight, you should start incorporating some metabolism boosting strategies that are not based off of eating more food than you actually need to eat.
There are actually some more effective things that you can be doing to help increase your metabolism naturally. These methods are not going to require you to eat any kind of special foods, take any type of dietary supplements, or even have you snacking more throughout your day. In fact, the absolute best way to start burning more calories is going to be much simpler than that. If you are serious about losing more weight, you are going to need to start moving more than you are eating.
Here are 3 simple steps to drastically boost your metabolism while not adding any additional calories to your daily intake. When you follow the steps outlined below, you will be creating the energy deficit that is required in order for you to lose weight, but without relying on any expensive diets or hard to find foods. After you have followed this plan for about 2-3 weeks, you will notice that you have more energy, your metabolism will be running higher naturally, and your weight loss efforts will have been put into hyperdrive.
Step #1: Know Your Numbers
When it comes to your own individual diet numbers, they are going to be completely different than anybody else’s numbers. This is due to your body being very unique, your health history being very unique, and your schedule being very unique. With that said, to truly be successful when you are trying to boost your metabolism for faster weight loss, you are going to need to rely solely on your body’s numbers.
One of the mot important numbers you will need to know is going to be how many calories you are eating on a regular daily basis to maintain your current weight. You may be wondering how to find that number? Al you need to do is use one of the many online calculators that will estimate exactly how many calories you should be eating on a daily basis. Just be sure that you keep in mind that this number is for weight maintenance, not weight loss.
Another, much more accurate way to get this number is going to be by keeping a food journal for about a week. While this particular method is going to be al little bit more time consuming, it is also going to be the most accurate as it factors in your individual schedule and lifestyle. On top of that, the food journal method is going to be the one that will give you the best results when it comes to boosting your metabolism.
Step #2: Start Increasing Your Daily Movement
Once you have a good idea of how many calories you are eating on a daily basis, it is time to start boosting your metabolic rate. There is no way that you should expect to skyrocket your metabolism by consuming a huge breakfast that is packed with tons of calories or eating more snacks throughout your day. You also don’t need to start filling up with metabolism boosting foods or sipping on different energy drinks and special teas. In fact, you are going to continue eating the same diet that you are currently eating but are going to start increasing your metabolism through more movement.
The secret to doing this step correctly is going to be starting slowly. To get started, simply add on some non-exercise movements on a daily basis. This can be as simple as walking a little bit more, opting to take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator, or even carrying your groceries home from the grocery store. You can even use an activity tracker to help increase how many steps you are taking on a daily basis, which will then help to increase the number of calories that you are burning every day.
After a couple of weeks, you should be ready to start adding some more intense workouts into your routine to help boost your metabolism even higher.
Step #3: Reward Yourself with Something Other Than Food
As your daily movement increases, you may start to feel hungrier during the day. This is completely normal, so the final step is to start managing your food intake. Do a simple comparison of your caloric intake now and compare it to when you started. You are going to want to make sure that you are not increasing your caloric intake just because your metabolism has increased. Whenever you do accomplish a milestone, try to not reward yourself with food. This can be one of the biggest killers to your newly boosted metabolism.
If you are able to follow this simple 3-step method to boosting your metabolism naturally, you will be seeing weight loss benefits faster than you could ever have imagined.