5 Tips To Boost Your Metabolism and Burn Stubborn Fat
Raise your hand if you are frustrated with your weight. The majority of people are and believe it takes hours of cardio, lack of food, food that doesn’t taste good or worse.. unhealthy fad diets. Having the right information will boost your metabolism, burn fat and help reverse resistant weight gain.
You can powerfully impact your metabolism with the simple changes below to break through weight loss frustration.
1. Eat Breakfast and Add Eggs!
Research shows those who eat breakfast lose more weight and keep it off compared to those that do not. Eggs are a great choice due to their high quality protein and healthy fat. Studies show those who eat 2 eggs for breakfast lose 50% more weight over those who do not. If you don’t like eggs, not to worry; simply choose a high quality protein such as chicken, fish, whey or pea/rice protein and add a healthy fat to your meal such as avocado or nuts.
2. Add Protein To Every Meal.
Adding protein (about the size and thickness of the palm of your hand) to every meal to balance blood sugar. This keeps hunger and cravings away, maintains and builds lean fat-burning muscle. Muscle is metabolically active and burns calories even at rest. Protein also triggers beneficial weight loss hormones such as CCK that tells your brain you’ve had enough food and the hormone Glucagon that helps to release fat from fat cells to be used for energy.
3. Drink a Glass of Water Before Each Meal.
Water not only helps you feel fuller, it also boosts your metabolism by 3-5% for hours afterward. Remember too, that mild dehydration can cause hunger and cravings – especially for sugar and carbs. Drink 1-2 glasses of water 30 minutes before a meal to markedly help boost weight loss. The key is consistency with water intake – throughout the day, every day. Drink half your body weight in ounces each day; if you weigh 120 lbs, drink a minimum of 60 ounces of water daily.
4. Make Half Your Plate Veggies.
Veggies are so nutrient dense that their effects are remarkable not just for optimal health, but weight loss as well. Make half your plate veggies to balance your blood sugar, increase your fiber intake (which will make you feel fuller) and increase your antioxidant intake – all of which lead to less cravings and fat cell inflammation that promotes weight gain. Eat vegetables that you like! If you don’t like broccoli – don’t force yourself to eat it. Veggies are not your thing? ‘Hide’ them in foods you do like such as omelets, soups, stews and other dishes.
5. Strength Train.
Strength training will BUST through your weight gain! It’s fat-burning effects are remarkable – even with stubborn belly fat. Also, all types of strength training i.e. – using your own body weight (push-ups, squats, pull-ups etc), resistance bands, using weights, weight machines, circuit training etc. boosts brain function and improves memory; just 20 minutes of strength training was found to enhance long-term memory by about 10%. Schedule it for 2-3 times per week for multiple benefits – weight loss, strength, brain health, mood, blood pressure and more. Don’t worry ladies, you will not end up looking bulky – only toned.
Adopting even a few of these strategies will boost your metabolism and will not just help create a lean, toned body..but optimal health as well.
©2015 DLS HealthWorks, LLC. Lori Shemek, PhD health expert and weight loss expert. Author of How To Fight FATflammation! and the best-selling author of ‘Fire-Up Your Fat Burn!’