There are other ways to increase your metabolic rateIntense workouts: Although most
gyms and trainers will advise steady
cardio work to lose weight, allow us to be so bold as to say that they may actually be wrong. According to some studies, the best way to lose weight is shorter, more intense workouts.
When researchers compared high and low intensity workouts, they found that while at low intensity it took 78 minutes to burn 500 calories, at high intensity it took just 51 minutes. This is simply wonderful news.
But that's just half the story. They also found that an hour after exercise, the
high-intensity group were burning twice as many calories as the low intensity group. In fact, even three hours after the
workout, they were still burning 24% more fat.
There are many high intensity workouts to choose from, including interval training, spinning classes,
cycling and
intense weight training.
What you eat and when you eat it: Your
metabolism will also be affected by what you eat and when you eat it. Most dieticians are concerned about how much
processed food and simple carbohydrates have become the mainstay of Westernized diets, and rightly so. Recent research compared two diets; one high protein (21%), the other regarded as normal protein intake (8%). It was revealed that even though the
total calories were the same for both diets, the high protein dieters burned 37% more fat than those on the normal protein diet, even at rest.
There was also a marked difference after workouts. Whereas the
high protein group
burned fat after working out (as described above), consuming simple carbohydrates after a workout ceased the burning of fat post-workout.
The lesson from this is clear;
consume more protein and less
simple carbohydrates and avoid simple carbohydrates after a workout.
Green Tea: You may wish to consider adding
green tea to the
diet. In addition to all its other wonderful properties (green tea contains
anti-oxidants and cancer fighting chemicals); it has also been found to increase the number of
fat calories burned by 35% . To date, science is unclear as to why.
Dietary Supplements: The sales of
dietary supplements that purport to aide with weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry. While some
extra nutrition may prove helpful in the transition from an
unhealthy lifestyle to
healthy lifestyle, there really exists no cheap way out. When purchasing dietary supplements, be certain to choose natural vitamin supplements. However, a
diet rich in whole foods truly is the answer to
successful weight loss.
The bottom line is that if
excess fat tissue invades the body's structure, the
base metabolic rate will be slower. Understanding that the human body is not designed to exist in this condition is step one in
increasing the metabolic rate. Step two is putting forth effort to
lose excess body fat and increase muscle mass. A muscular body simply
burns more calories than a body burdened by excess fat.