Knowing about metabolism and how it works will help you losing weight. Simply put, it is the rate at which your body burns calories. Low metabolism leads to weight gain, so it is smart to learn how to keep a healthy metabolism. This is the main key to weight loss and maintaining it. A low metabolism is caused by our choice of food, not getting enough water, exercise, nutrients, and vitamins.
BMR or basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories that your body burns daily. Knowing this rate or number will help you to be aware of just how many calories you need to consume to maintain your weight. Slashing calories from there is the key to losing weight. More information about BMR and how to calculate it can be found here.
For maximum metabolic performance, eat more protein and fewer carbohydrates. Limit carbohydrates daily to 100 or less calories. An example of proteins would be: legumes (beans), cereal grains, and meat. Examples of carbohydrates include: potatoes, corn, pasta, and breads. What these foods do is supply amino acids and sugars to your cells for energy.
Here are a few things you can do to help your metabolism stay at peak performance and get yourself started losing excess weight:
1. Never skip breakfast: Breakfast helps you maintain energy and will help you to not feel a need to snack or over eat later in the day when your hunger can over take your better judgment. Trying to by-pass breakfast and starving your system will not help you lose weight but will keep your body thinking it is starving and will store fat.
2. Eat more often, not less: Instead of three meals a day eat 5-6 smaller ones. Eat the same amount just more often. By doing this your body knows that its source of energy is good so it will burn it instead of storing it as fat for later usage.
3. Drink more: Drinking water will help flush out waste from the body and that includes fats. This doesn’t mean pop or juice which have a lot calories because they contain sugar. Getting in the habit of drinking green tea is of great help to your weight loss since it has amazing fat burning qualities.
4. Change what you eat: Nuts, grains, lean meats and fruits and vegetables are all good choices. If you choose foods high in sugar your blood sugar will spike and this will force your body to store food as fat.
5. Exercise early in the day: It will help to hike your metabolism all day. Add weight training at least three times a week which build muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Even at rest the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
6.Eat the majority of your food earlier in the day: Try not to eat after 8 o’clock (or three to four hours before bedtime), and make your dinner the lightest meal of the day. This will help your body to burn off calories when you are still moving around and active to burn more per hour.