Lifestyle Solutions for Increasing Your Metabolism
There are a few things that you can do to make sure that the food choices you’re making are supported by your lifestyle choices. Listed below are some the the natural ways to increase metabolism
- Make sure your calories come from a good source.
And this stands for foods that increase metabolism and other foods alike. Vanessa Lee, ND, FABNO, a naturopathic oncology provider at Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center says, “When choosing foods, it is important to remember that the source of your calories matters!
“For instance, ingesting 300 calories from a bowl of fruit will provide a boost of beneficial vitamins and antioxidants, while 300 calories from a sugary dessert can negatively impact blood sugar regulation and contribute to obesity.”
Half of your plate needs to be filled with green vegetables, 20-30% is protein, 10% is healthy oil and 10-20% should be nuts, seeds, beans, fruit, quinoa or sweet potato.
- Focus on low-glycemic, high-protein foods.
Low-glycemic foods are foods that helps to keep your blood sugar and insulin levels steady. When focusing on your low-glycemic foods, you’ll naturally find yourself leaning towards protein sources, which is something that’s very important for boosting your metabolism.
“Eating a meal high in protein (especially breakfast) can help your body with glycemic control throughout the day and can keep your body accelerated for several hours after your meal,” says Farley.
Short term advantages of protein are not the only ones you may receive. Lean protein helps the maintenance of muscle tissue. If you are deficient on protein, you are opening yourself up to lose muscle tissue; in return your resting metabolic rate will slow down.”
- Eat the recommended amount of calories (calculate it) for your body type and activity.
Eating too few, in addition to exercising, causes your body to go into starvation mode which slows down your metabolism.
- Eat the right number of meals.
There is a common misconception that eating 5-6 small meals every day is better for your metabolism. “Research has disproved that theory showing over and over that 3 meals a day is just as beneficial, if not more beneficial, to your metabolism.
That being said, something that can help is to eat smaller portions and add healthy snacks to your diet more often, so that you avoid getting overly hungry at meal times and risk overeating.
While all of our experts strongly disagree with the idea that metabolism-boosters are best in pill or powder form, there are a few supplements that can help you boost your metabolism in addition to eating the right foods.
- See the sun.
It doesn’t just make you feel better, it’s better for you. A study shows that getting exposure to sunlight in the morning can help boost metabolism “Sunlight sets your body clock, which is important in regulating metabolism.”
- Choose organic.
The benefits of organic foods just keep on coming. The best way to make sure that the foods you choose are actually doing their job is to choose organic whenever possible.
Our bodies need regular clean up of the dirt (free radicals) that builds up every day from what we eat, from stress and from exposure to toxins. Your body’s clean-up team comes from all the different fruits and veggies (aim for a rainbow), but if those are ‘dirty’ (contain lots of pesticide residues), it makes the clean up team less efficient – it’s like mopping your floor with dirty water.
Keep your food clean, and your metabolism will be that much more efficiently boosted. These are the best ways to increase metabolism and live healthy.
Wow, this is a very useful article for me, especially because my age more than fourty so that the metabolism have inreased naturally. I just knew that exposure to sunlight in the morning can help metabolism. Choose organic food is difficult now because pesticide is a need for farmers in order the fruits and veggies not be eaten by pest or other gulma. Do you know how to get organic foods if there is no label in the foods ?
It is good to know how to maintain good health as you get older. The two major things to do is focus on diet and exercise as ways to get going. The exposure to the sun is something knew that I actually learned in my research. Non-organic fruits and vegetables, not organic, are covered in pesticides that can potentially make you sick. I’m not sure of your last question but Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Walmart, Costco and even Whole Foods have great deals on organic items. I will also post some to my site down the line. My goal is to lead people in the direction to better health and I’m glad you found this site to be informative.
Thanks for the great tips! The one about the same 300 calories from a piece of fruit or a sugary snack really holds true for me as I notice I am full after an apple but starving after a piece of apple pie. Plus I just don’t feel good after eating a ton of sugar.
The only one I would add is to avoid alcohol. I think that affects metabolism too.
Alcohol is the worst thing we can put in our bodies. People do not usually know there is a difference in good calories and bad just as it is with cholesterol. Thanks for the advice I think I will use that within the content. I usually eat a watermelon and other fruits to quench my thirst for something sweet after I eat and that can be the difference between me feeling full or not.
Hi there,
I have read your article with great interest and enthusiasm as it covers a very important topic. I like how you have broken our diet down into sections and you have made it very easy to follow.
The fact that you are advocating organic is very interesting to read and I like that you are not being over reliant on supplements as well.
I blend some fruit and a few veggies every morning and I think that’s a good start for me, makes a good start to my day.
Thanks for some great info
Cheers Phil Browne
Thanks for taking the time to read the article. I’m glad that you found the content to be informing and hopefully you learned new things to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Non organic fruits and vegetables are usually sprayed with pesticide which can make consuming it less healthy. Antibiotics are used in conventional meat production as a way to increase growth. In the past, Farmers did not know why antibiotics helped to make animals larger, only that they worked. Most people never think that the same agents that fatten up meat animals (antibiotics, grains) will likely also cause weight gain in humans. No matter what you do sometimes you need the advantage of supplements to help you achieve your ideal weight and you must do extensive research on these supplements to figure out what is right for you. Continue with the fruits and veggies every morning but remember no matter what you do it is best to maintain the right balance of nutrients within your diet.
Hello,
As a bodybuilder metabolism plays a great role in building and growing my muscles, I’ve always focused on consuming great amount of protein without paying attention to my metabolism and finding ways to boost it, but your article shed some lights on that matter and I found it very helpfull.
Im glad you found the article helpful. I went through phases when I use to just focus on protein in a effort to gain weight and didn’t have a balance diet. If you are into body building try to take supplements that are natural because it will be beneficial long term opposed to short.
Wow I never realised organic food and sunlight exposure could actually help increase your metabolism, I’ll make sure to pass this onto my parents. They’re a little overweight so could do with eating, sleeping and pretty much doing all of the things you’ve listed on your page. Of course they’ll still need to do a little more than that but thanks for the useful information!
Your welcome and I’m glad my content proved to be useful and enlightened you to things you did not know. I recently published more content that may help, and everything we do is about finding the right balance in our daily activities and combining it into a healthy lifestyle. The right supplements along with exercise and diet is usually necessary to achieve the body we want.
Some sound advice here – kudos.
You did mention supplements and since I’m a sucker for dietary supplements, there are indeed options when it comes to giving the matabolism a boost.
What do you think about fat burners and which brands would you recommend? Most are packed with stimulants so they definitely increase metabolism.
Its has material on the bad and the good that comes with it. I recommend Hawaii Slim as a safe and natural product to increase metabolism. It is always better to use diet pills that have natural ingredients.
Just be careful with whatever supplements you plan on using and do your research to pick out the right one.
I found this article to be helpful.Thank you for all the great advice.I am a big advocate of eating organic whole foods rather than relying on vitamins. Lately I have been seeing stories in the news about intermittent fasting to lose weight. It seems to me that this would actually slow down your metabolism.What is your opinion of that?
I think fasting is a poor choice to losing weight as it will leave you with less energy throughout the day. Proper eat, sleep and exercise all plays a role in how our metabolism works and learning the right balance for your body is key for good health.