How can you speed up your metabolism and lose weight? - When you deprive yourself of food, your body reacts protectively against an ancient threat: famine. Your resting metabolic rate the calories you burn just to keep your body going drops to a lower level to conserve energy. Your body works harder to preserve the food it gets by storing it as fat. That's why people who regularly diet have higher percentages of body fat than non dieters, instead of counting calories, focus on cutting back on the fat and sugar in your diet.
- Exercise helps you lose weight in several ways. It raises your resting metabolic rate, thus offsetting the lowering effects of dieting and helping you burn more calories even when at rest. Strength training is especially important here, because it increases the amount of muscle you have. And your body burns more fat to meet the metabolic needs of all that high-energy muscle.
- After 30 minutes of intensity exercise-walking, bowling, gardening, your body begins to burn stored fat for energy. It also takes at least 30 minutes to burn more calories than your body can replace by eating.
- Choose high-energy exercise-such as walking, bicycling, cross country skiing, swimming, step aerobics-that gives your arms and legs a good workout. Try alternating gym workouts with outside activities, or change your routine every six weeks. You'll burn more energy and you won't get as bored.
- People who skip breakfast burn 5 percent fewer calories than those who eat a healthy morning meal.
- Avoid alcohol and smoking. Both inhibit the burning of abdominal fat. That's why drinkers and smokers tend to be bigger around the waist than abstainers.
- Your body is very efficient at turning the fat you eat into body fat. It takes a lot more energy to turn carbohydrates into fat. That's why cutting back to less than 30 percent of your calories from fat can help you reduce your body fat more than just cutting total calories.
- Don't skip meals. Studies show that both frequent small snacks and one or two large meals tend to lower your resting metabolic rate.
How Important is Water?
Our bodies need for water is second only to our need for air. In fact, over half of our adult body weight comes from water.
Water provides a medium for all of the body's fluids and is vital for breathing, digestion and metabolism. It also helps balance the acids in the body, carries nutrients into all the body's cells, and is essential for removing wastes from cells.
Not drinking enough water can impact the body in other ways, including: - Water Retention
- Digestive Disorders
- Back Ache
- Sore Muscles
- Muscle and skin tone
- Fat Metabolism
Whether or not you're dieting, you should drink at least 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses of water daily.
Getting adequate fluids helps your body function properly and may contribute to feeling full so you're not tempted to munch high-fat high-calorie foods.
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