Being fit and healthy isn’t just about six-pack abs or buns of steel. It means losing fat and staying lean, not losing weight and staying thin. The safest path towards physical fitness is through your metabolism.
Boost your metabolic rate or the amount of energy spent in a given time so the next time you sit in front of the television, you are burning 100 calories, instead of just one. With a simple tweak in your lifestyle, you can improve your health significantly and obtain the body you’ve always wanted.
1. Meal Time Management
When you sleep, your metabolism slows down too. It will only resume its normal rate after your next meal. If you skip breakfast, your body burns only a few calories so you still have enough energy to survive until your next meal. On the other hand, eating a solid 350-calorie breakfast revs up your metabolic rate instantly and maintains that pace throughout the day.
Load up your breakfast with high-fiber carbohydrates, such as whole grain cereals, egg whites and fruits. Compared to fats, it takes some time before your body absorbs these carbs. This is good because you won’t get hungry easily and avoid overeating during meals.
Likewise, avoid any midnight snacks, especially right before bedtime. Since you don’t do any physical activity in your sleep, food becomes fat instead of energy. Go light on your dinner and reserve the bulk of your appetite for the next day.
2. Eat All Day
Consume five to six small meals rather than three large plates each day to keep your metabolism active. Despite how odd this strategy seems, it helps you avoid an empty stomach and considerably improves your digestion. Contrary to popular belief, not eating after six pm does not make you lose more weight. You can savor a healthy meal until three hours before you hit the sack.
Eat a small meal every three to four hours. For your lunch and dinner, add more protein sources like chicken, tuna, fish and legumes. Protein is even harder to break down than fats and carbohydrates. Your body will certainly burn a few calories getting rid of them. Grab a combination of yogurt, fruit and low fat food as snack.
3. Spice Up Your Life
Add a pinch of pepper to your noontime tofu or dinner soup. Spices temporarily heighten your resting metabolic rate by releasing more stress hormones like adrenaline. More jalapeno and cayenne peppers mean more burned calories.
Making your meal extra spicy also tends to make you feel stuffed faster even if you’ve only consumed half your plate. Don’t forget to maintain a low-fat meal before ordering a box of Indian curry or Bicol Express.
4. Calorie Counting
Nobody likes crunch numbers, especially during meals. However, calorie counting is a great way to monitor your fitness level. Remember that your body will always try to normalize your system, including your weight. If you start reducing 1,000 calories from your diet, your body responds by slowing down your metabolism because it assumes that you are starving.
There is no golden rule in determining the ideal amount of calories you need to take. This isn’t exact science so reduce your calorie intake in moderation and never do anything drastic to your diet.
5. Drink Water
Despite how simple this sounds, many people take drinking water for granted. Metabolism needs water to digest food. If you want to speed up your metabolic rate, you need to drink more water. Drink at least eight glasses or two liters of water a day and add an extra cup or two if you do heavy exercises.
Skip the cocktail or beer during meals. Water, not alcohol, makes up roughly 60% of your body. Liquor also causes people to eat more. When you drink, your body burns the alcohol first while the rest of your meal becomes nothing more than fat. Now you know how a beer belly is formed.
6. Do Sweat It
No physical fitness program is complete without the right amount of exercise. Nobody wants to do it but everybody needs it. Lifting weights greatly increases your metabolic rate, even when you aren’t doing anything. If you have enough muscle density, you can burn at least 100 calories by watching television alone.
Diet and exercise go together like Crockett and Tubbs. They are absolutely essential to your health and fitness. Muscle burns more calories than fat, while running endlessly in place won’t get you far either. Combine cardiovascular activities with intense strength workouts to lose fat quickly. The weight you lose must be from fat, not muscles.
7. Relax, Rest and Retire
Finally, something easy! Getting ample sleep of at least seven hours is also an integral part of obtaining physical fitness. If your sleeping pattern is messed up, your body doesn’t function properly. If your body is tired, it doesn’t have enough energy to burn calories.
When you don’t sleep, you get stressed easily. When this happens, your body releases a wave of stress hormones that increases your appetite and produces more fat. If you exercise regularly and have a normal diet, getting a good night’s sleep shouldn’t be a problem.
Win the battle of the bulge by incorporating these simple adjustments to your daily routine. Attaining physical fitness should never be a chore. Instead, use it as motivation so you could add a little more pizzazz to your daily experiences and get the most out of life.
From: lifehackery.com
Posted in: Health News