BoostYour Metabolism

BoostingYour Metabolism: Five Top Tips to help you reap the greatest benefits from your weight loss regime.

Eat and lose weight?

Are you on a diet? Are you thinking of starting one? Are you giving up? Most women would answer "yes" to one of those questions and it is so easy to get discouraged but what if we could boost the amount we lose on a day by day basis simply by making some small but critical adjustments to our lifestyle?

Dieting is never easy but here are some tried and tested suggestions which can help you get the most out of your efforts to lose weight:

1. Snack to lose weight

Amazingly, eating more often can help you lose weight! When you eat large meals with many hours in between, your metabolism slows down between meals. Having a small meal or snack in between meals keeps your metabolism up, so you burn more calories over the course of a day. Several studies have also shown that people who snack regularly eat less at mealtime. An apple or dry crispbread or a measured amount of peanuts with a bottle of water or low calorie canned drink are all handy things you can easily have with you in case you are ravenous and mealtimes seem hours away. Arriving home starving easily leads to pigging-out and a nutritious snack can mean the difference between a healthy sandwich and a binge.

2. Stay hydrated

Drinking two 8 fl oz glasses of water before a meal can increase the sense of fullness, reducing appetite. Research shows that drinking water before a meal is a simple, cheap and effective route to weight loss. Furthermore, your body needs water to process calories. If you are even mildly dehydrated, your metabolism may slow down. Also, snacking on fresh foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, which naturally contain water, rather than high-calorie crisps, chocolate or biscuits, is more filling and less fattening.

3. Stand more, sit less

When a person is standing they are using their muscles more than when they are sitting still. In the past it was common to spend much more time on our feet - even standing at a desk to do clerical work and our current way of life which involves long periods of sitting not only encourages obesity but has also been linked to heart and lung disease and even cancer. So, even if you do not want to lose weight it is very important to spend as much time as possible on our feet rather than sitting. 

4. Burn fat faster with protein

Your body burns many more calories digesting protein than it does eating fat or carbohydrates. As part of a balanced diet, replacing some carbs with lean, protein-rich foods can boost metabolism at mealtimes. Good sources of protein include lean beef, turkey, fish, white meat chicken, tofu, nuts, beans and eggs. An open tuna sandwich with extra tuna and one less slice of bread, or a bigger helping of meat and fewer potatoes, for example.

5. Avoid crash diets

Crash diets - fewer than 1,200 (if you're a woman) or 1,800 (if you're a man) calories a day -- are bad for anyone hoping to speed up their metabolism. OK, you see the pounds fall off but it backfires, since the weight is mostly water and also muscle bulk which in turn slows your metabolism. Vital food groups are often excluded reducing vitamin and mineral intake so that you end up in a poorer state of general health.  Research shows that you put it all back on and often even more than you started off with. A less extreme reduction in food intake consuming a balanced diet and exercise achieving a weight loss of no more than 2 pounds per week is the most successful in the long run and has no ill effects on your metabolism.

If you are serious about losing weight, follow these tips and take it day by day.