Top 10 Fastest Ways to Kick Start Your Metabolism

Sometimes we all need a kick in the butt- we need to know what can help rev up our metabolisms, either at the beginning or when we hit a plateau (which we wrote about here). Maybe you have noticed that the amount of fat you’re burning is slowing down. Those amazing results that you might have experienced when you first started have almost disappeared, or simply might not there at all. Here are Health Fitness Revolution‘s tips to Kick Start your Metabolism!

• Add more fat burners to your diet: Limit your intake of fresh fruits to red grapes, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries. Not only are these fruits low in carbohydrates, but they also break down fat so it can be eliminated faster from your body. An even better fat burning combination is berries with low-fat Greek yogurt.
• Get your caffeine fix from green tea or black tea: These both specifically burn belly fat, and with lemon, work even faster. Read our article about Green tea here.
• Take your exercise outdoors: If you have lost a lot of weight on the treadmill or in aerobic classes and it isn’t working anymore, it might be because your body has gotten used to the intensity of the exercise and is no longer burning fat as efficiently. Our first instinct is usually to increase the intensity of the workout, but your body may still resist. The best approach is to change your exercise venue and intensity. Take a long walk or jog outside, try rock-climbing, cycling, or even surfing!
• Use interval training: Vary the intensity throughout your workout to improve your body and metabolism!
• Add spices to your meals: They boost fat burning hormones and rev your metabolism up 20-25%! Read our article about spices here.
• Drink A LOT of water: It will keep your metabolism going even when you’re resting. In a University of Utah study, participants who downed eight to 12 glasses of water a day burned more calories at rest than those who drank four. Try putting five rubber bands around your wrist every morning. That’s how many 16-ounce bottles of water you should drink during the day to boost your metabolism and burn more calories.
• Eat a protein filled snack after your workout: exercisers who drank a 250-calorie shake with 24 grams of protein after strength training lost about four pounds more fat and created one and a half pounds more lean muscle in six months than those who didn’t drink the shake. You can also have a banana with peanut butter if shakes aren’t your thing.
• Do some yoga! Yoga gets you in burn mode. In one study, participants who zen’d their way through a 50-minute yoga session saw a drop in their levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can inhibit fat burning.
• Fidget: People who drum their fingers or bounce their knees burn at least 500 calories a day. That adds up to losing 1 lb a week.
• Eat more greens: Spinach, kale, and Swiss chard are natural appetite suppressors, while broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts release the toxins that store fat.