If you are trying to lose weight or struggling to maintain the current weight, keeping the metabolism robust should be high on the list of your priorities. Metabolism should be robust at all times because it is the process or chemical reaction in the body which converts calories (through the food you consume) into energy form. This energy is required to sustain all body functions, including growth and repair of cells, to run blood circulation, and to even perform something as basic as breathing. People who resort to crash dieting to lose weight realize that weight loss becomes stagnant after a certain point of time and that happens due to slow metabolism; where the extreme calorie restriction triggers an energy-conversation mode in the body, lowering the rate at which calories are torched. This slowing down of metabolism is to preserve energy and minimize use of fat reserves. If you are worried about a slumped-up metabolism, here’s how to lose weight without slowing down metabolism.
1. Start on a Nutrient-Dense Weight Loss Diet: Although cutting calories is one of the most effective ways to melt away extra fat, eating too few calories can cause metabolism to slow down. The solution lies in choosing a weight loss diet which is nutrient dense and is not based on severe restriction of calories – which promotes healthy eating – all while keeping you in calorie deficit – and all of this is possible with the Rati Beauty diet. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
2. Preserve Muscle While Burning Fat: When trying to lose weight, your main strategy should be to get the body to burn more fat instead of muscle in order to get a lean and well-toned look. Fad diets tend to target both muscle and fat, and when you start to lose muscle, metabolism dips and fewer calories are burnt, making weight loss journey a struggle. For every half kg of muscle, the body burns 50 calories in a single day and if you have 5 kg of muscles, it would add up to 500 calories burnt without any effort. So, more the muscles, more effectively the body torches up calories, and lose extra weight in the process. Want to know how to preserve muscle while losing weight – read about “6 ways you can preserve muscles and burn fat at the same time.”
3. Boost Levels of Leptin Hormone: With weight loss, body fat percentage also decreases with fat cells shrinking in size. When fat cells start to shrink, leptin (which is also called as the satiety hormone) drops. Leptin is a hormone which regulates appetite and increases metabolic rate, and when leptin levels fall, metabolism also dips and level of ghrelin (also called the hunger hormone) rises. Eating foods rich in antioxidants (pomegranate, green tea, avocado, green leafy vegetables, turmeric, blueberries, etc.) including healthy fats (avocado, olive oil), avoiding sugar, can all improve levels of leptin hormone in the body. Additionally, read how you can boost leptin hormone in this post.
4. Coffee: The caffeine content in coffee has been proven to increase metabolic rate and also boost the release of fats from cells, but do make sure to skip sugar and creamer to get maximum benefits out of your cup of coffee.
5. Eat a Cheat Meal once a Week: Cheat meal is an important factor in weight loss because when you cut calories by a great degree to lose weight, the body tends to lower down metabolism to hold on to fat storage more to conserve energy. Over a period of time, you would hit a weight loss plateau where the body slows down its metabolism to preserve fat. To avoid this situation, indulge in a cheat meal once a week to reset a sluggish metabolism and trick the body into believing that food is available and it’s okay to continue burning fat.
6. Exercise Consistently: Regular exercise not only burns fat, it is an awesome metabolism booster. Also, with exercise and building of lean muscle tissue, you can increase your resting metabolic rate.
7. Eat Protein With Each Meal: This nutrient not only helps build and repair tissues in the body, it also boosts metabolism to a great degree. Quinoa, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, beans, legumes, soy, and even green peas are amazing sources of protein that you can include in your daily diet. Additionally, here are “17 Cheapest Protein Sources at the Grocery Store.”
8. Sip on Green Tea: Green tea is rich in antioxidants (polyphenols), catechin (epigallocatechin gallate), flavonoids, etc. which have numerous health benefits, not to mention, a cup of green tea has immense metabolism-boosting properties, aiding in weight loss. Also read: “10 Ways to Maximize Benefits of Green Tea for Weight Loss.”
9. Indulge in Spicy Food: Cayenne pepper, capsicum, jalapeno, and other chilli peppers have a compound called “capsaicin,” that boosts metabolism by increasing the core temperature of the body. So, do say yes to tabasco sauce for the sake of your metabolism!
10. Say Yes to Dark Chocolate: Don’t be surprised if we told you that dark chocolate is good for weight loss – the monounsaturated fat content in dark chocolate has been found to improve metabolism and boost the rate at which calories are burnt. But dark chocolate with percentage of cacao higher than 70% have been found to be effective, so make sure you are nibbling on dark chocolate with high cacao level.
Last but not the least, get your 7 hours of beauty sleep to wake up with a strong metabolism.
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