How To Maximize Your Metabolism

Break Up Your Workout Sessions A University of Pittsburgh study found that women who did four separate 10-minute workouts during the day lost thirty percent more weight than women who did one big 40-minute workout a day. Scientists conclude you can lose more weight and keep your metabolism moving faster by doing smaller, shorter workouts.

Make Exercise More Intense You’ll continue to burn calories at a faster rate after you exercise if your work-out is a high-energy one like spinning, running or tennis. In fact, your metabolism’s pace will stay on overdrive for between 12 to 14 hours after an intense workout.

Drink Lots Of Water Ironically, drinking water not only keeps us from retaining water and being bloated, our metabolism needs it to work well. At the Clinical Research Center in Berlin, scientists discovered that our metabolism rate increases by thirty percent within ten minutes of drinking water. Aim for a 12-ounce glass eight times a day.

Opt For Fiber And Protein Your body burns the most calories digesting foods that are higher in fiber and protein than processed, sugary foods. To bump up your metabolism, make protein thirty percent of your daily diet.

Get Active In The A.M. The best time to work out to lose weight is early in the morning because it puts your metabolism into overdrive first thing and helps you burn more calories during the rest of the day. You still burn calories with an evening workout but your metabolism will slow back down once you’re asleep.

Pump Up Your Muscles One pound of muscle automatically burns five to 14 calories a day. Think about it: If you put on five pounds of muscle, your metabolism will burn up 25 to 70 extra calories a day – and you can lose up to seven pounds of fat a year. And you’ll look great.

Sip Green Tea Research reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that green tea helps to burn up to forty-three percent more calories a day. Another study showed that men who drank green tea for three months lost almost twice as much weight as those who didn’t drink the brew.

Make It Hot An Oxford University study concluded that just adding three grams of chili pepper to meals boosts the metabolism, while another British study showed that a dollop of spicy mustard helps folks burn an extra 45 to 75 calories during digestion three hours after their meal.