Boosting Metabolism: Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Author: Linda Moore
Published: 2010/04/02 - Updated: 2018/09/08
Category Topic: Human Metabolism - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main

Synopsis: A number of questions and answers on boosting metabolism rate to help lose weight for good.

Introduction

The vast majority of overweight people want to lose their excess weight. Most of them want to know how to lose weight fast. And the first thing they usually do to achieve this goal is find a diet to get on. There's no shortage of fast weight loss diets available. But the problem with most of these diets (aside from just being plain unhealthy) is the weight lost whilst on the diet is mainly water weight and comes right back as soon as you come off the diet.

Main Content

The key factor in losing weight fast, and keeping it off, is your metabolism. Your metabolism is responsible for burning fat off your body. Now here's the question: Is your metabolism fast enough to burn off enough fat for you to lose weight? And if it is not, what are some things that you can do to speed it up

Your metabolism is your body's way to burn calories. Each person's metabolism is different depending on your age, your physical activity, and even your genetics to a degree. Children will burn calories much faster than anyone. And the vast majority of teenage males will also burn calories very quickly.

As we get older, our metabolic rate will decrease significantly. But now that you know that, don't think that there isn't anything you can do to prevent yourself from gaining weight as you get older. Even though your metabolism will slow down naturally, there are some things that you can do to bring it back up to speed and keep it burning as many calories as possible, as quickly as possible.

Here are some things that are commonly claimed by some "experts" to boost your metabolism and the truth about if they work.

1. Strength training:

Claim : If you add strength training to your exercising routine, you can boost your metabolism up to ten percent.

This is actually true. Surprisingly, if your exercise routine includes harder exercises, your body will burn more calories. When you are doing harder exercise, you are building more muscle and muscle does burn more calories. So instead of doing the same repetitions, try adding free weight exercises or bodyweight exercises to boost your metabolism.

2. The most important meal of the day:

Claim : Eating breakfast will boost your metabolism, weight loss, and is overall healthier for you.

The jury is still out on this one. While studies have shown that eating breakfast is associated with losing weight, there have been no real conclusive data found that it will boost your metabolism. The good plus to eating breakfast is that it will prevent you from being too hungry by lunch time and eating far too much. Just make sure that your breakfast is something reasonable, like a protein bar or something high in fiber and some fruits.

3. Drinking green tea will help boost your metabolism:

Claim : Drinking this tea is supposed to burn up to eighty more calories per day

While green tea has many health benefits, it is not suggested for use of boosting your metabolism. The general thought behind it is that the caffeine in tea will help you burn more calories, but if you look at what other caffeinated beverages are doing for your body in that regard, it really doesn't do much. So, if you want to drink green tea, try to stick to the unsweetened tea.

4. Fat burning supplements:

Claim : Taking these supplements will help you burn more calories and lose a lot of weight.

If you take a look at the ingredients in these supplements, you will notice that they are primarily caffeinated pills with some other herbs and minor ingredients thrown in. So when you take them, you will notice a surge in energy and mistake that for in increase in metabolism, but it's really just the caffeine kicking in.

5. Ice cold water and lemon wedges:

Claim : Your body will burn more calories when drinking ice cold water because it needs to warm your body up. Your body also works harder to burn lemon juice.

In physical science class, we all learned that it takes more energy to heat up water, but unfortunately, our bodies do not work the same way. This is just too easy of a way to boost your metabolism, weight loss. Too bad we can't lose weight by drinking a lot of ice cold water. Since it sounds too easy, it really is not true.

6. Six small meals instead of three big ones:

Claim : Many small meals will help boost your metabolism.

This is very true. In fact, it might go hand in hand with the breakfast tip. Eating many small meals is actually better for you and can help you exercise good portion control. It is also found to help reduce and control cholesterol.

7. Eat protein:

Claim : Protein will burn more calories.

This one is also true. Not only does it burn more calories, but it will also help you stay full longer, which will help prevent over eating.

8. Interval training over basic cardio workouts:

Claim : By doing interval training, your body will boost your metabolism, weight loss after the workout than if you do plain cardio workouts.

This is a very good start. It also goes hand in hand with the first tip. Since they are harder exercises, your body will be able to burn more calories.