Increasing your metabolism can help you to achieve your goals for weight loss. Some methods of increasing the metabolic rate have a short term effect. Some foods, for example lentils, require your body to burn more calories to digest them than the number of calories they supply.
The metabolic rate measures how fast the body burns calories. Some people naturally have a high metabolic rate, while some persons have a low metabolic rate. If your metabolic rate is higher, it is more difficult for you to gain weight.
High intensity workouts can help to increase your metabolism. Low intensity workouts do not have this effect on metabolism. High intensity workouts are those that work your heart rate at around 75% of your maximum heart rate.
Although high intensity workouts increase metabolism, low intensity workouts burn more calories from fat. However, you burn more calories in less time with high intensity exercises.
Low intensity exercises only burn calories while you are doing them. High intensity workouts continue to burn calories after you have finished doing the exercises, because they raise your metabolic rate. You continue to burn fat hours after doing high intensity exercises.
Eating small meals throughout the day, instead of a few large meals with a large amount of calories, can help to boost your metabolism. Some experts recommend that we eat the same amount of food that we would for three regular size meals, but divide that into about six smaller meals that we eat throughout the day.
Eat breakfast. Skipping breakfast lowers your metabolism and actually helps you to gain weight. Have protein in your breakfast.
Eat more high fiber foods than processed carbohydrates which are low fiber. Generally, high fiber foods force your body to burn more calories than low fiber foods.
Build more muscle mass. Muscle uses more calories than other tissue, so having more muscle can help you to burn more calories, even while you are resting. One extra pound of muscle burns about 50 extra calories a day. Persons who do weight training regularly boost their basal metabolic rate by around 15%.