12 Keys To Boosting Your Metabolism For Weight Loss!

You hear it all the time – “metabolism”, but what is it? It’s the process of converting food to energy. Metabolism happens in your muscles and organs and the result of it is what we commonly refer to as “burning calories”. Metabolism is essentially the speed at which your body’s motor is running.

“Basal metabolism” is the metabolic rate or caloric expenditure needed to maintain basal body functions such as your heart beating, breathing, muscle tone, etc. It’s how fast your “motor” is running when you’re still in a reclined position or sleeping. Basal metabolism accounts for about 75% of the calories you expend on a daily basis!

The good news is that there are 12 ways you can “boost” your metabolism! The more of these you’re able to incorporate into your life, the more you’ll boost your metabolism. That means you’ll be expending (“burning”) more calories 24 hours a day!

1) Always eat breakfast! Skipping breakfast sends the message to your body that you’re starving because you haven’t had food in 18+ hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down. Food, especially complex carbohydrates, fuels your metabolism.

2) Eat earlier in the day! Research has demonstrated that you can lose weight simply by eating a substantial breakfast and lunch, and a light dinner. Dinner should be eaten as early as possible, preferably at least four hours before bedtime.

3) Never eat less than 1200 calories per day! Less than 1200 is usually not enough to support your basal metabolism and thus will slow your metabolism.

4) Snack frequently! Complex carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, and grains) fuel your metabolism. Also, snacking prevents you from becoming too hungry. The hungrier you are, the less control you have over what and how much you eat.

5) Eat more carbohydrates (food from plants), and less fat (food from many animals and other food with added fat)! Carbohydrates boost your metabolism and have fewer calories per weight than fat.

6) Do some type of aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, stationary cycling, aerobic dancing, etc.) on a daily basis (preferably in the morning)! Forget this twice-a-week stuff. Our bodies were designed to be active on a daily basis! When we are, our metabolism soars!

7) In addition to your regular aerobic exercise, take a brisk 10 to 15 minute walk at lunch or in the evening. This serves to boost your metabolism even more!

8) Tone your muscles with weight training three days per week. Toned muscles send your metabolism through the roof. Do it!

9) Look for situations to be active. Park as far from the store as you can rather than looking for the closest parking spot. Use the stairs rather than the elevator, a broom rather than a blower, etc. Look for the “hard” way to do things!

10) Avoid alcohol! Alcohol depresses your metabolism and stimulates your appetite.

11) Drink 60+ ounces of water a day. Your metabolism needs plenty water to function properly. Carry a bottle of water with you and drink frequently throughout the day.

12) Avoid the”3 P’s”... pills, powders, and potions! There are NO quick fixes!

Get started today! You’ll feel better and your metabolism will be in “great shape”!

Greg Landry

Source: freeweightloss.com

Maximize Your Weight Loss Efforts by just Checking Your Calorie Intake

As anyone who has tried to lose weight can tell you, you need to understand what really works in order to be successful. Dieting, for example, is not just about eating less each day or not eating at all for two days straight. What you really need to do is increase your activity while reducing your intake of certain foods. If you understand how to control your calorie intake, you'll enjoy far better results with your diet than you'll see from any pill.

The premise of this method of weight loss, is to take in fewer calories than your body will use up, so that when your body needs fat, it will use your fat stores. You want to raise your level of exercise, while reducing the amount of calories that you are consuming, which produces a shortage of energy.

Many people have an easier time understanding this in numerical form, so let's start with the 3500 calories that are stored in one pound of body fat. If your exercise program use 3500 calories, that's one pound of body fat that you've burned off as opposed to simply not eating that 3500 calories. So the secret to a successful diet is to combine fewer calories with more exercise.

You must be vigilant, though, not to take your aerobic workouts to the extreme, or reduce your food intake to the point of malnutrition. Slow and steady is the key, as a balanced, patient approach will increase the chances that your positive results will be permanent. You will want to avoid injuries that may be sustained from excessive exercise, and drastically reducing your intake of food will cause your body to conserve calories, meaning that it will burn fewer calories thinking that your body is being starved.

The best plan is to slowly reduce the amount of calories you take in every day day while you gradually increase your cardio. For most people, a reduction of 500 calories a day is just about right. Of course, this will require you to carefully track the number of calories you take in every day as well as the calories you burn. The best way to maximize your results is to keep a close eye on both your calories and weight loss.

Calorie counting is really the basis for any good weight loss plan. The most successful plans you can follow have calorie counting at the heart of their program. To get a hold on your weight loss plan, you must keep good track of the calories you are eating and those that are being burned. Make sure you keep accurate track. Guessing at how much you eat and how much you burn will only result in no weight loss and lots of frustration.

Source: allbestarticles.com

Weight Loss Program: Motivate yourself for losing Weight

We all have to deal with excess weight after the holidays, but we also know that it is not so easy to follow a weight loss program or a diet to lose fat. We need motivation to start the program and complete it. Here we are going to discuss the top 4 weight loss motivation tips. Listen, only if you are able to motivate your mind about losing weight, you'll be achieving it one day.

Otherwise you'll be just dreaming of those wonderful things that would be happening once you lose pounds of weight from your body - but that won't be happening if you don't motivate yourself to loss weight! So, start motivating yourself through the following top 4 weight loss motivation tips:

1. Hitting the gym and lifting weights will surely increase your weight. But should you stop there? Never! You'll see an increase in weight you were building muscles while lifting weight. And muscles weighs more than fat. For the same reason you may find an increase in your body weight in the initial stages. But then you'll start losing weight in no time.

2. Just think about what you'll be able to do once you starting losing weight. Now, take a snapshot of yours and take a print out of it. It should be the "before" pic of yours - after you have succeeded in losing weight. Your plans should be to take that "after" pic - which will be looking awesome with you having succeeded in losing weight!

3. Never withdraw yourself from wight loss programs once you start it - thinking that it is tough and you won't be able to continue any longer. The fact is - only the first few weeks are the toughest. And once you are able to go further through the same weight loss program for a couple more weeks, you'll see you losing weight pretty easily than those early weeks.

4. Never make a plan to lose weight all at once! Did you put on weight overnight all at once? So, why should you lose weight all at once? You weren't knowing that you were putting on weight since the process is pretty slow. But it is continuous. Take note of the word "continuous". You should plan to tackle it doing things for losing weight in a continuous manner. Yup, you should be consistent in following your weight loss programs.

Only then you'll be able to lose weight the same way as you put on weight!

Also remember this last part of any weight loss plan is rest: it might seem not extremely essential, but whenever you are burning that fat, the body will probably be taxed and you will be tired. Keep in mind to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night!

Source: allbestarticles.com