5 Effective Natural Ways To Boost Your Slow Metabolism
Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to convert them into energy. Your metabolism rate affects your health because it’s your body’s method of manufacturing energy and also impacts how quickly you lose or gain weight. Once it slows down, your body will undergo changes that can negatively affect your quality of living.
Various factors influence the metabolism rate, such as genetics, age, sex, muscle mass, and activity levels. A slow metabolism can cause excessive weight gain, which increases your risk of body weight-related conditions. In addition, it exposes you to risks of diabetes and other life-changing medical conditions.
It’s important to note that you can’t totally control your metabolism since genetics is a factor that affects it. However, you can still do things to manage it to help yourself be healthy. With that in mind, here are effective and natural ways to boost your metabolism.
1 – Increase your protein intake
Protein is a helpful nutrient for boosting your metabolism rate. It does so through a process called thermogenesis, in which your body uses about 10% of its calorie intake for digestion. Protein also takes longer to burn than fat, which makes your body use more energy to absorb its nutrients.
An easy and appealing way of increasing your regular protein intake is adding whey protein powder to your smoothies. According to a study, whey had greater fat oxidation and thermal effect. Fat oxidation is the process of breaking down fatty acids, while the thermal effect provides the body with extra energy for burning calories.
2 – Eat smaller meals throughout the day
It may sound counterintuitive, but adding smaller meals to your diet can help fasten your metabolism. A study expounds how eating multiple small meals spread throughout the day can keep your metabolism active. Hence, even a reputable Kansas City weight loss facility won’t stop you from doing it, just as long as you continue to eat healthily.
You can integrate the first point in this one by eating and drinking protein in your small meals. For example, you can try six small meals with a total of 300 calories each. Furthermore, smaller meals throughout the day can help maintain your sugar levels to prevent an insulin spike that may lead to weight gain.
3 – Drink coffee
Except for having a caffeine allergy, you should drink coffee. Chalk this up as another benefit people can gain from consuming caffeine. However, to increase your metabolism rate, the coffee you drink must fit the necessary health standards.
Your coffee must have reduced amounts of syrup and cream, or it shouldn’t have either. Coffee is a great source of energy and can improve energy levels during exercise. It helps you work harder and longer, which enhances your body’s fat-burning capability.
4 – Sleep in lower temperatures
Sleeping in a cool room won’t only help you rest better, but it also improves your metabolism. Sleeping at a low temperature increases the percentage of brown fat in your body. Brown fat is a special type of body activated when you get cold and also has more mitochondria than white fat.
Mitochondria help in burning calories and deliver the energy your body gets from fat to your cells. Brown fat contains more mitochondria, which makes your metabolism active even while you’re sleeping. Sleeping in light clothing and reducing your bedroom temperature can double the amount of brown fat in about four weeks.
5 – Build more muscle
Just by increasing your muscle mass you can effectively increase your metabolism. Muscle is vascular (has veins) and requires energy to maintain, unlike body fat. The more muscle you have, the more energy it requires to maintain. So, by simply building more muscle, you can effectively increase your metabolism!
Improving your metabolism doesn’t take a lot of work. Instead, it takes adjusting your lifestyle accordingly to prevent quickly gaining excessive body weight. Watching what you eat and adding healthier options to your diet are some of the things you can do.
You don’t have to adopt all of these ways at once, only the ones you’re comfortable with. Start easy and slowly, and then gradually include other ways, and you’ll feel the improvements in a matter of time.
Though not a medical professional, Hodge Racter knows a lot about medical topics, including testosterone replacement therapy (having undergone the procedure himself). Today, he remains spry and energetic despite his age, and on his free days, he spends time with his wife and two dogs.
Have you ever wondered what percentage of body fat you need to be at to see your abs? If you are into fitness, or have ever cut weight to achieve your best look, then you have likely pondered this question. And although this number and exact percentage is different for everyone, there are some good general guides to get you close. This article will cover those.
As a general rule, 10% body fat for men (14-17% for women) is the key number to really show your abs. You will start to see the definition of your abs before you get down to 10%. However, to really see the definition of your 6-pack, then 10% is your best target number.
Getting to 10% is simple, but it’s not easy. And always keep in mind that most of the work and heavy lifting is done in the kitchen, not in the gym.
Many people have the opposite perception of this important fact. You can do ab work and core work every day for hours, but if your diet is full of fat and unhealthy foods, then it’s a nearly impossible journey to get to 10%.
The Fundamentals of Getting to 10% Body Fat
Reality is, to cut weight and get to 10% body fat you simply must lose excess fat on your frame.
And the most effective way to do this is to consume less calories than you burn over a given period of time. And that period of time of course depends on your starting point.
If your body fat percentage is 25% or higher, then that is defined as obesity. So the journey will take longer but it’s still totally achievable. Whereas if your body fat is 15%, then you are very close to your target and it will not take as long.
However, if you have ever cut weight and reduced your body fat to 10%, then you likely know that the last 5% are oftentimes the most challenging. If you are obese, or severely obese, the weight falls off rather quickly when you start dieting and cutting weight. The first few months it’s possible that you might lose 5 pounds a week just with small changes.
But as your body adapts and becomes more efficient, and your metabolism changes to adjust to the reduction in calories, it is natural for the process to slow and become more challenging. But look at this as a positive thing, as your body is becoming more efficient.
Check out our friends at A Lean Life for more info on the process of getting lean.
Reduce Carbs…But Not Entirely
Most people trying to get extra lean need to reduce their carbohydrate intake. Carbs are a major stumbling block for many people, and the key to getting to 10% body fat is reducing carbs.
Cutting back on carbs has plenty of health benefits like losing weight, and it can also get you closer to getting your target % body fat. But how does one actually do this when most of us have diets that include a lot of carbs?
Here are some Diet Tips to get you to 10%:
1 – Enjoy healthier drinks.
Sugar-sweetened drinks like soda or iced tea are high in sugar and carbs. If water quenches your thirst, but not your craving for something tasty to drink, add lemon or sugar-free sweeteners like Stevia, Erythritol, or Xylitol. This will make your iced tea or water pretty tasty!
Also, fruit juices contain lots of carbs and so much sugar. Even those that claim they’re 100% fruit! So, you might as well eat the actual fruit so you can have some fiber too.
2 – Low-carb snacks can also make you feel full.
If you get really hungry a few hours before a meal, enjoy a quick fix of low-carb snacks like nuts and cheese—make sure you have them in small servings! Protein bars (100 to 250 calories) also work really well.
3 – More veggies, less bread and potatoes!
Especially when eating out, a lot of meal choices include bread and potatoes. Check with the restaurant if you can replace these high-in-carbohydrate foods with healthy vegetables instead. Healthcanal.com has compiled a list of the healthiest vegetables with detailed nutrition facts that you may find useful. White bread and pasta are considered simple carbohydrates, and are on the no-go list when you’re cutting to get shredded. Not to be mistaken with complex carbs, such as brown rice and whole wheat bread (which are healthy and necessary).
4 – Load up on protein.
This will make you feel full because of the “fullness hormone” PYY that’s released by protein. It reduces the feeling of hunger, and can help stop certain cravings of more food. Have at least one of these with breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Cheese
Cottage Cheese
Nuts
Eggs
Greek Yogurt
Lean meats (sirloin steak)
Fish
Poultry (white meat chicken – grilled, no skin)
5 – Read food labels and count carbs!
Choose food items that have lower carb and sugar content, and also watch your calorie count. A good target is a calorie deficit of 200-300 calories per day.
You’ll lose fat, but not too fast where you start to lose muscle also.
You can even try out using nutrition trackers – look for available apps on your phone. These trackers will help you keep count of your carbohydrate intake.
The Bottom Line on Body Fat for Abs
If you want to see your abs, then you need to be 10% body fat (or at least very close). It’s not an easy journey, but it’s very doable with some discipline and a lean diet.
If you workout, then we know you want to get SHREDDED; aka Lean, Cut, Aesthetic, Defined and Muscular. I mean, who doesn’t want to have 6-pack abs to show off? The thing is, as with everything in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. This article will go over the best way of how to get lean while maintaining your hard-earned muscle mass. So, then you can look like Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or the new Bodybuilding Mr. Olympia sooner than you think!
First, this article is a continuation of our previous article, JACKED – How to get Big and Strong. In that article, we discuss your basal metabolic rate, activities for muscular growth and nutritional concepts to manipulate your weight. If you have not done so already, I recommend you go back to that article first to get a base for what we discuss here. Then you will have a basic understanding of how to get bigger and build muscle mass, properly.
This article will teach you how to maintain your muscle mass while losing body fat. So then you will look lean and shredded like a pro bodybuilder!
What does it mean to be SHREDDED?
So what do we mean by getting SHREDDED?
What most people want to do when losing weight or getting leaner is lose body fat while maintaining, or even increasing, muscle mass. This helps to give an aesthetic look that shows off the muscle you have already built. But, oftentimes people have a non-optimal way they go about losing body fat that also decreases their muscle mass.
So, before getting into the details of how to get lean, let’s review a little…
Metabolism Basics
“To lose weight you simply must eat fewer calories than you use.”
First, to lose weight you simply must eat fewer calories than you expend through your basal metabolic rate and daily activity, or exercise.
Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories you expend without activity, or at rest. This rate can be raised by increasing your muscle mass; as muscle is calorie expensive tissue compared to body fat. That means your body has to work to maintain your muscle mass where fat tissue just sits around. This puts stress on your body to keep your muscles working.
So, if you want to increase or maintain muscle mass while losing weight, you must give it a reason to stay. You can do this by placing stress on the muscles, forcing them to be maintained.
Then, if you want to gain weight, you just have to eat more calories than you use daily. However, if you don’t stimulate muscle growth, then the extra calories will be stored as body fat.
This is the basis for using muscle mass to your advantage when manipulating your body weight.
Designed for Survival
Our bodies are designed very efficiently and only have one goal in mind…survival. So, our body systems work in unison for us to be able to survive out in the wild on our own.
With this in mind, we were not designed to have a plentiful supply of food throughout the day. We can see this through our ability to absorb almost all of the nutrients we consume and our capacity to store body fat.
Our bodies were designed to be ready for fasting, or starved states. So everything we consume is absorbed and what we do not use is stored.
Body Fat Is Necessary
Knowing this, we can see that storing excess calories as body fat is a necessary adaptation for survival. However, that does not always fit into the current aesthetic goals of most people today.
Many people of today want to lose body fat but maintain muscle so that they can look good, or SHREDDED. The problem is our body does not care how we look. It just wants to survive. And, unless properly stimulated, body fat is more valuable to survival than muscle.
This is because muscle is energy costing and vascular, or has blood vessels. These characteristics of muscle make it difficult to maintain compared to body fat; which is stored energy that can be used for survival when needed.
This poses a problem for those trying to maintain their muscle while losing weight. But there is a solution…exercise!
How To Lose Weight
Overall, losing bodyweight is an easy concept to understand. It is just the opposite of gaining size. You just have to eat fewer calories than you expend daily.
This is easier said than done because many people do not like to feel hungry.
Still, what do people do to lose weight? They eat less and start to exercise more by doing a ton of “cardio”. This can work, but it is not the best way for your health or long term success.
If you exercise more, you must eat more, or be in caloric balance, to adapt to the new workload. Otherwise, you will not have enough energy to workout as hard as you should. Then you will lose muscle mass due to lack of nutrients.
Also, “cardio” is not the best way to lose weight.
Doing cardio is great for burning calories but it does not have long-lasting effects extending beyond 24-48 hours after training.
Think of this…cardio burns calories today, muscle burns calories forever. What that means is that when you do cardio you burn calories during and shortly after. However, the effects will wear off within 24-48 hours, depending on the intensity. Then you will have to do another session to get the same results.
When building muscle, though, the new muscle burns calories during your training session and every day thereafter as long as you maintain it.
Of course, resistance training and cardiovascular training should be used together to present the greatest results.
Just remember that whatever you do, it must be intense.
Resistance training must be intense enough to stimulate the muscle to grow or maintain itself. And your cardio should be done as high-intensity intervals. That form of cardio helps to maintain muscle mass while burning the most fat.
That form of cardio helps to maintain muscle mass while burning the most fat. For example, you could perform a HIIT rowing machine workout or sprints where you perform 10 rounds of 30-seconds flat out rowing, followed by 60-seconds of rest.
Overall, it is better to use muscle stimulating training that will cause growth in combination with some intense cardio training, such as sprint intervals, to obtain the greatest overall calorie deficit.
Training vs. Dieting
“Weight loss is NOT 10% training and 90% diet!”
How many times have you heard people say something like, “Weight loss is 10% training and 90% diet.”?
I’m here to tell you that is not true. Not even close! How can it be? Diet has limits much smaller than that of exercise. Plus, you do not get the same adaptations through diet as you do for exercise.
Diet affects your energy balance, but exercise affects everything.
Exercise influences your energy balance, muscular growth, hormonal changes, cardiovascular system, digestive system, central nervous system and so much more!
Still, don’t believe it?
Let’s think of it like this…an elite athlete is going to look like an elite athlete even on a poor diet. However, a sedentary person will not get a 6-pack no matter their diet.
“When it comes down to it, exercise is what makes people look lean and SHREDDED.”
Sedentary individuals can be lean but they cannot have a strong muscular look without some form of exercise to create muscular growth. This is because diet does not influence your body as much as exercise and activity do.
Yet, it almost doesn’t matter what an endurance athlete eats because their energy expenditure is so high that even if they only eat what we consider to be “unhealthy”, they will still have low body fat. Assuming that their caloric intake to energy expenditure is balanced.
However, a sedentary individual that is in caloric and energy balance, meaning they eat the same amount of calories they expend through their basal metabolic rate and any activity, will be much more likely to lose muscle and gain body fat even on a healthy diet.
Diet only plays a role in energy balance and performance but has minimal influence on your ability to lose body fat alone.
Exercise, however, plays a major role in stimulating muscle and reducing body fat. So, when it comes down to it, exercise is what makes people look lean and SHREDDED.
Stimulate Your Muscles
Again, losing weight is as simple as eating fewer calories than you use to survive on or use for activity. This is true, but when losing overall weight on a caloric deficit you will likely lose muscle faster than you lose fat unless you give it proper stimulus.
If you stimulate your muscles for growth or at least put enough stress on them to be maintained, then you will lose less muscle and more body fat.
Again, your body just wants to survive. So if you put stress on your muscles to where they need to adapt by growing you will maintain your muscle mass while using your body fat to balance your caloric deficit.
This is beneficial in two ways: by allowing you to maintain your muscle mass and burning more body fat than you would have without the exercise.
Now in order for this to work the best, and allow for the least muscle loss, you must make only small, incremental changes over a long period of time.
After you have built yourself up enough by eating enough to maintain your current activity load, then you can start cutting back calories to lose body fat.
You should start by being in a 200-500 calorie deficit while training in order to start losing weight. Then, only drop another 200-500 calories after it has stopped working. I recommend you start with 200 calorie change, then adjust as needed.
This should occur while doing intense exercises such as strength training, sports training or intense cardiovascular exercise, like sprints.
Whatever you choose, the exercise MUST be intense. Without enough intensity and volume, as discussed in the previous article, your muscle will not have enough of a reason to be maintained.
Also, you must continuously increase your total workload, so your body to be forced into muscular adaptation or maintenance.
With a caloric deficit and intense training, you can force your body to survive in a low body fat state, making you look lean and SHREDDED!
Eat More and Exercise More
“Eat more, exercise more, and then start to drop weight.”
For most people trying to lose weight, it is best to simply start increasing their workload through exercise. Start small and progressively increase over time for the best results.
As you increase your activity, you should actually eat more before trying to lose weight. This allows your body to adapt to the stresses of exercise while increasing your basal metabolic rate, before decreasing body fat. Basically, you need more calories to meet the energy needs of your new activity level.
Then, by eating more you will increase your muscle mass and basal metabolic rate so you can eat more calories than before. This allows you to have more room for free eating, or cheat meals. Then you can stay satisfied with little effect on your total caloric balance.
Which would you rather be?
This can be best viewed by thinking of two situations.
Situation #1: An individual trying to lose weight eats 2,000 calories daily on average. Then they cut out 500 calories per day to be in a deficit. After they plateau, they then cut out another 500 calories to lose more weight. They are now down to 1,000 calories per day which greatly limits the amount of food they can have to reach their nutrient needs and poses health risks.
Situation #2: An individual exercises and eats more calories until they reach a 3,000 calorie daily balance. They then have a much greater amount of calories they can cut down on to lose weight while still getting in enough food to be satisfied and healthy. Not to mention, they also gained more size and strength in the process. So, when they cut back calories they have more room for adjustments. Plus more drops they can do. And that is how the IFBB pro Bodybuilders do it, so it obviously works!
So the best approach is, eat more and exercise more, first. Then you can start to decrease your caloric intake by 200-500 calories while maintaining the same workload.
This allows you to eat more than you would have previously so that you can feel more satiated, while still allowing you to lose weight.
Eat more, exercise more, and then start to drop weight.
Final Notes on How To Get Lean
So, the next time you start on your goal to look lean and SHREDDED or hear of someone trying to lose bodyweight, you have an idea of what it takes.
I recommend anyone trying to get leaner does so with a partner. You can make each other accountable and help each other during the times when it gets hard. Just remember, consistency is the key.
Exercise intensely while consuming appropriate amounts of calories before starting to slowly decrease calories over time. As you reach your goals, keep training hard but then you may begin to eat more so that you are in caloric balance with your activity level, or excess to build muscle.
I wish you the best of luck and remember to keep getting stronger!
Weight loss is simple. It just takes dedication and time! Yet, how to lose weight and keep it off for years to come is something few people truly know how to do. Some people believe it’s all diet, and some focus all on exercise. While others think they need special supplements to burn fat. Overall, diet and exercise together are the best. However, it’s vital that you do the “right” diet and exercise combo if you want real results. So let’s get started on teaching you the keys to fat burning and losing weight, the right way.
If you’re looking to Burn Fat and Lose Weight, then you’ve come to the right place!
Provided below is all the information you need to learn how to lose weight, the right way. So, get ready to transform your body forever!
Weight Loss Basics
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill for weight loss, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be as hard as many people make it out to be.
Weight loss can be simple! You just have to work at it, and simple things can make a big difference! So let’s get started!
What most people want to do when losing weight or getting leaner is lose body fat while maintaining, or even increasing, muscle mass. This helps to give an aesthetic look that shows off the muscle you have already built. However, oftentimes people try to lose weight too fast and actually end up decreasing their muscle mass.
Overall, lowering body weight is an easy concept to understand. You just have to eat fewer calories than you expend daily. However, if you also want to maintain your hard-earned muscle, then you need to be careful about how you go about your weight loss.
The problem is our body does not care how we look. It just wants to survive and, unless properly stimulated, body fat is more valuable to survival than muscle.
This is because muscle is energy costing from both activity and being vascular (has blood vessels). These characteristics of muscle make it difficult to maintain compared to body fat which is stored energy that can be used for survival when needed. This poses a problem for those trying to maintain their muscle while losing weight, but there is a solution…strength training!
Exercise
Of course, you can do long cardio sessions and burn off a ton of calories, but think of this…
What this means is that by doing a cardio workout you will burn calories during and after the session, but the effects will wear off within 24-48 hours, depending on the intensity. Then you have to do another session to get a similar caloric burn.
When building muscle, you are increasing your Basal Metabolic Rate to where you burn calories all day, every day.
Of course, strength training and cardiovascular training should be used in combination to present the greatest results. Just remember not to be stuck on one thing or the other.
For your diet, to lose weight and allow for the least muscle loss, you must make only small, incremental changes over an extended period of time.
You should start by being in a 200-500 calorie deficit daily while training regularly, in order to start losing weight. Only drop another 200-500 calories per day after that has stopped working with your current workload.
If you cut out too many calories too fast, then you will lose muscle and plateau your results.
So, start slow and make gradual changes to your diet and exercise.
