Metabolism Boosters

What Is Metabolism?
Metabolism is the process by which the body breaks down food to produce energy. When you’re young, muscle mass stores up energy, preventing weight gain.

However, with age, we lost that muscle, which gives way to more body fat. By the time you hit 40, your metabolism starts to slow down 5% every decade, making weight loss particularly challenging.
The goods news is you can beat this metabolic slowdown.

Here are some great tips from Dr. Oz’s 7-Day Miracle Plan to Boost Your Metabolism.

Cut 100 Calories a Day
When you diet aggressively and make drastic cuts in your daily calorie intake, your body panics, signaling starvation mode; this actually slows metabolism. The best way to diet effectively is to cut 100 calories from what you normally would eat.

Rev Up Metabolism With Ice Cream
Rev your metabolism by still enjoying that bowl of ice cream after dinner. If you normally indulge in half a cup, eliminate 3 tablespoons from that amount, which equals 100 calories. By consuming this dairy-based treat, you’ll also be getting some calcium, which stimulates fat cells to break down fat.

Add Protein
If you want a faster metabolism, think protein.
Here’s why: Your body burns twice as many calories by digesting proteins than it does when digesting carbs. Add more protein to your diet with two fish-based meals per week. Packed with protein, fish, such as halibut or salmon, also contains omega-3 fatty acids, which increase fat-burning enzymes in the body.

Eat Every 3 Hours
Here’s a surprising fact about metabolism: If you eat more often, you’ll speed it up. Make sure to eat regularly, which means three meals a day, plus two healthy snacks. And remember to eat within an hour of waking up to keep your body from going into hunger overdrive. To keep your metabolism humming, adhere to this schedule:
    6-8 a.m.: Breakfast
    10 a.m.: Snack
    12-2 p.m.: Lunch
    3-5 p.m.: Snack
    5-7 p.m.: Dinner

Don’t eat after 8 p.m. Don’t skip your snacks. Research has shown that people who snack on 250 calories three times per day eat less at regular meals and have higher metabolic rates.

A good snack is a small handful of pistachios. They’re loaded with protein and monounsaturated fatty acids to help burn fat. A few dried apricots for fiber and some sweetness.

Drink 3 Iced Drinks a Day: Iced Coffee, Green Tea or Water
Coffee and green tea contain caffeine, a substance that naturally steps up metabolism. Add ice and you’ll boost it even more. Iced drinks force your body to work to warm up, which burns more energy.

Take Zinc
Zinc reduces hunger by increasing your level of leptin, a key hormone that alerts the body when you’re full so you won’t keep eating when you’re no longer hungry. You can buy zinc in 15mg packets or simply get it from your multivitamin, which usually contains about 12mg of this essential mineral.

Exercise in Short Bursts
When you exercise in short bursts, you wake up your muscles, causing them to immediately demand more calories and then burn them fast. A short dance or walking up a sudden hill are examples of such sudden bursts that can give your metabolism a boost.

From DrOz.com
February 2012

Metabolism Boosters

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