It’s obvious that a consistent exercise schedule will help you shape up, but intense workouts are not the only way to burn more calories. There are a number of strategies you can use to burn more calories throughout the day. These tricks can help to boost your metabolism. "Your metabolism is the sum of everything your body does to convert food into energy," says Jim White, R.D., an American College of Sports Medicine-certified health-fitness instructor. "So while you can't change how many calories it takes to keep your brain humming and your heart beating, you can help your body burn an extra 500 calories or more each day by implementing some easy lifestyle strategies."
Found in green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG for short) gets a lot of attention for its disease-fighting properties. But it turns out this little antioxidant can make a big difference when it comes to numbers on a scale. Research in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that the compound can up your metabolic rate for a full 24 hours by increasing your energy production from digestion of fats. While a few cups a day should be enough to move the needle over time, that's only if you opt for high-quality brews. Cheap-o brands often don't contain enough of the fat-burning ingredient to increase metabolism, says weight-loss specialist and board-certified internist Sue Decotiis, M.D.
Studies show that drinking water enhances weight loss in overweight, dieting women. Want another reason to increase water intake? German researchers had 14 participants drink about 17 ounces of water. The volunteers’ metabolic rate — or how quickly they burned calories — jumped a third within 10 minutes of drinking the water and remained high for another 30 or 40 minutes. The researchers estimated that over a year, increasing your water consumption by 1.5 liters a day (about 50 ounces) would burn an extra 17,400 calories, or about five pounds’ worth.
A meal's not a meal unless it contains lean protein. Why? Protein contains the amino acids your body needs to produce metabolism-revving, calorie-burning muscle. Every pound of muscle gained increases your metabolism by 20 to 30%. Each day, aim to eat one gram of lean protein (from sources like chicken, fish, grass-fed beef, or eggs) for every pound of body weight. Vegetarian or vegan? Swap meat out for nuts, seeds, dark greens (kale packs a protein-rich punch), and, if you eat them, eggs and Greek yogurt.
Capsaicin, which gives peppers and spices their heat, can also fire up your fat burners. Eating spicy foods regularly can increase your body's production of heat as well as the activity of your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for both the fight-or-flight response and spice-induced sweating) by about 50 calories a day, which translates to a full five pounds of fat lost in a single year. While cayenne, chili peppers, and jalapeños are great, the hotter the pepper, the better. The ridiculously spicy Korean pepper gochu is believed to have the highest calorie burn out there and is typically sold as a paste, called gochujang.
Walk for the same amount of time at the same intensity day in and day out and your body gets as bored with your workout as you do. Throw it a curveball with interval training, which involves varying the intensity of your workout throughout your exercise session. Every five minutes into your walk, jog for one minute. Every five minutes into your bike ride, shift into a higher gear and pedal hard for a minute. If you swim, turn on the speed every other lap. You’ll burn more calories in the same amount of time.
Multiple studies have shown that people who spend much of their day sitting down have increased rates of a number of health problems, including high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, metabolic diseases, and heart disease. Here’s the kicker: these results hold true regardless of how active you are during the rest of the day. This means that, even if you exercise regularly, sitting for extended periods of time can have negative long term health effects.
The good news: short breaks from sitting can help to mitigate the risks. Data suggests that the total amount of time you spend sitting in a day is not as important as how long you spend in the chair before getting up again. Whenever you end up in the seated position for an extended time, take a break every hour to get up and stretch your legs. Walk around, do a few body-weight squats, touch your toes—anything to get your body moving. This will help to keep your hormones and metabolism in check so that you can keep burning calories efficiently throughout the day.
More muscle = less fat. But who wants to spend hours sweating it out with strength sets when you can opt for quick, high-intensity resistance training? Brief workouts using heavy weights can increase your metabolism by 452 calories for the following 24 hours, according to recent research in the Journal of Translational Medicine. That's 354 calories more than the increase experienced after traditional low-intensity strength training (and it takes just four sets of 8 to 10 reps). Here's how it works: the harder your muscles work, the more post-workout rebuilding they have to do, which burns calories and elevates metabolism-revving hormones, according to researchers. The best part? In the study, the high-intensity resistance trainers completed only three exercises. Talk about time-saving.
Turn down the temperatureYour body loves to sit pretty at 98.6 degrees, so if you throw off your internal temperature, your body will burn more calories to raise it back to where it belongs. This can be utilized to burn a significant number of calories without exercising. In fact, a new study by the National Institute of Health Clinical Center showed taht people who slept in a 66-degree room burned more than 7% more calories than those who snoozed at 75 degrees.
Sleep more
Not getting enough sleep affects more than just your energy the next day; it throws off your levels of of leptin and ghrelin, the hormones that help regulate energy use and appetite. Research from Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin shows that regularly clocking just five hours of sleep reduces levels of leptin by 15.5% and increases levels of ghrelin by 14.9%. When it comes to a healthy metabolism, shoot for nine hours a night, suggests research from the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center.
Not getting enough sleep affects more than just your energy the next day; it throws off your levels of of leptin and ghrelin, the hormones that help regulate energy use and appetite. Research from Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin shows that regularly clocking just five hours of sleep reduces levels of leptin by 15.5% and increases levels of ghrelin by 14.9%. When it comes to a healthy metabolism, shoot for nine hours a night, suggests research from the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center.
Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com, http://www.rd.com/health/, http://www.507fitness.com/
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