By making a few adjustments to your lifestyle habits, you can boost your metabolism and naturally burn more fat. For a healthier and happier existence, incorporate these simple strategies into your daily routine. As needed, consult with a healthcare provider about your particular circumstances when trying to drastically change your level of activity or dieting patterns.
Building Muscles and Increasing Your Physical Activity
Introduce Weight Training into Your Health Program
The simple state of having more muscle mass means your body burns more calories. Pound for pound, your body burns more calories from having muscle than from having fat. Hence, if you want to naturally burn fat, you can put forth some effort into building up your muscles. Weight training and strength training programs can be crucial for increasing your muscle mass and optimizing your body’s ability to burn through the calories.
Increase the Intensity of Your Aerobic Activity
Including sporadic intervals of high intensity exercise can help keep your metabolism higher for longer even after you finish your workout. You can also maximize the benefits of aerobic exercise by being active throughout the day rather than pouring all of your exercise time into one isolated workout. If you’re serious about burning fat, do a twenty minute workout in the morning before your day begins and another twenty minute workout before dinner. You can also find natural ways to fit more exercise into your day by parking at the far end of the lot, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and pacing while you talk on the phone or watch television.
Adjusting Your Dietary Habits and Your Go-To Foods
Reduce Your Calories at a Reasonable Pace
Although a sudden interest in losing weight can lead you to believe that a crash diet is most effective, drastically cutting your calories can actually slow down your metabolism and can backfire when it comes to weight loss efforts. Avoid making sudden and dramatic changes. The specifics of what’s safe depend on your current eating habits, but you may benefit from cutting back a little each day to gradually get to where you want your daily calorie consumption to be.
Load Up on Lean Proteins
Your body actually burns more calories while digesting protein than while processing fats and simple carbohydrates. Opt for lean proteins and whole foods like oatmeal and whole wheat bread while saying goodbye to processed meals and empty calories full of fats.
Include More Iron-Rich Sources of Food on Your Plate
Because iron helps transport oxygen to cells, a lack of iron can actually slow down your metabolism and stop your progress when it comes to burning fat. Since lentils are high in protein, iron and fiber, they are a tremendously healthy food to add to your diet. Because you also need access to a variety of other minerals like potassium and magnesium, make sure you’re eating nutrient-dense foods that offer substance.
Don’t Forget About Low-Fat Dairy Products
A pick like greek yogurt, which offers calcium, vitamin D and protein, can help you successfully burn excess body fat. This is definitely my personal go-to product that I eat multiple times a week, but you can also opt for skim milk or low-fat cottage cheese for fat-burning benefits. Identify what serves your tastebuds and proceed accordingly.
Drink More Water Throughout the Day
Being dehydrated negatively affects your body’s metabolism and can cause you to hang onto what you ultimately want to burn. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water every hour so that you’re never in danger of going below your body’s required threshold.
Spice Things Up to Boost Your Metabolism
Eating spicy foods like hot peppers can give your metabolism a temporary boost so don’t forget to turn up the heat. Add some chopped up chili peppers into a salad, a dash of seasoning to a soup, some hot sauce onto your fish or a little bit of dried cayenne to the top of your egg-white omelette.
Limit Your Unhealthy Fats
Fats of the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated varieties that are found in nuts and fish can be good for your health when eaten in moderation. You need these good fats to help build muscle, lose fat and keep your heart functioning properly. Saturated fat and trans fatty acids, on the other hand, should be eaten very minimally.
Say Goodbye to Alcohol
Drinking alcohol affects your central nervous system and slows down your metabolism, making your body store more fat than it otherwise would. Drinking interferes with your health goals, wastes your hard-earned money and destroys your ability to make good decisions so kick the habit to the curb once and for all.
Getting Your Body and Mind in Order
Get Your Thyroid Problems Under Control
Because your thyroid regulates your metabolism, having a thyroid problem can dramatically interfere with your fat-burning goals. If you suspect an issue or just want to make sure things are okay, set up an appointment with your doctor to check on your thyroid levels and to identify if you do have any related troubles.
Learn to De-Stress and Seek to Get Your Depression Treated
Stress and anxiety can slow down your metabolism and increase your body’s fat storage. Clinical forms of depression can have long-lasting effects when untreated so make sure to talk to a counselor or other healthcare professional if you’re dealing with anything serious. If you’re dealing with something less severe, you may simply want to talk to a friend or spiritual adviser about your situation.
Make Sure to Sleep Well
Not sleeping enough negatively affects your metabolism and how your body deals with fat. If you want to keep your body ready and able to burn calories, you have to prioritize healthy sleeping habits to give yourself the rest you need to live well. Although we all need a different amount of sleep in order to care for our personal circumstances, a rule of thumb to know if you’re getting enough sleep at night is if you don’t actually need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. Try going to bed earlier until you can wake up feeling refreshed all on your own.
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