10 Natural Ways To Boost Your Metabolism
We’ve all been there, whether it’s around the holidays, or perhaps the cold months are rolling in- there’s always that time of the year where keeping up with exercise and gym visits becomes a hassle. So whether that’s the case, or you’re simply looking for some natural ways to keep your body working around the clock, here are 10 natural ways you can boost your metabolism.
1) Get A Better Night’s Sleep
Many people assume this is counter-intuitive to raising metabolism, given that you aren’t really doing anything. But sleep, especially when done properly, can be your body’s most intrinsic and natural way to boost your metabolism. Now, why is this? Sleeping is obviously resting for your body from your busy day to day activities, but even while your body is resting, it’s working. Your body is still breaking down calories and using the nutrients and vitamins to help your body recover. To get the most out of this natural metabolism booster though, you have to get a good night’s rest. Many people assume this means sleeping longer, which can be hard given busy schedules. Really though, what counts is that however much sleep you do get, that it is the best you can achieve. Simple things like ensuring there are as little light sources present in the room as possible, and keeping the room cool can make a world of difference for your body. Let your natural metabolism enhancer do the work for you!
2) Sit Less
Another unbelievably simple way to boost your metabolism is by changing how much sitting you do in a day. Think about it this way, no matter your size or weight, if you are standing, you are the only thing supporting yourself. Training your body to be in a constant state of working is how you raise your metabolism, so if you’re constantly standing, your constantly making your body work by supporting yourself. Studies have shown that people who stand at their place of work on average burn 200 calories a day just by being at work-not even taking into account what they actually do at work. So long as you are standing, your body and your metabolism are working to facilitate that function. So instead of worrying about putting in a ton of time at the gym, make this easy change to get some easy gains from your metabolism.
3)Build More Muscle
Now for some, this trick to boost your metabolism can be a bit of a struggle given day-to-day schedules. But it goes without saying, the more muscle you have, the more your body works to maintain that muscle. This is where your metabolism comes into play. The more muscle you have, the more nutrients and vitamins they need to maintain themselves. This means your metabolism naturally has to increase since it has this working order to maintain all this new muscle that you’re putting on. Again, just like standing over sitting, keeping your body in a natural state of work will boost your metabolism to facilitate that fact.
4) Do High-Intensity Workouts
Now for those of you that hit the gym regularly, or perhaps have some muscle but feel like you’ve hit a stand still-high intensity workouts are the way to go. Because if you have the amount of muscle you want already and workout regularly-your body is simply at its point of maintaining what you currently have. Therefore, if you want to naturally boost your metabolism more so, you need to shake your body up. Go to the gym and really go at it, if you normally jog-break it into a run this time. If you do weight lifting-try going for the heaviest weight you can control safely. This is about pushing your body past what it’s used to doing so that your metabolism has another work order to fill. Again, its all about training your metabolism to work harder by getting used to working more often or at higher intervals.
5) Drink More Cold Water
While you’re doing all this metabolism-boosting, you’re obviously going to require hydration. The simple answer in general here is to drink more water period. Staying away from sugar-laden beverages will always benefit your health. But if you really want to naturally boost your metabolism-drinking cold water specifically will benefit you. The reason being that your body has to warm up cold water in your stomach for your body to be able to process it for its needs. Aka making your body work-even when you’re just drinking water! We’re starting to sound cruel at this point with how much work we’re making our bodies do but hey, it’s for a good cause!
6) Eat More Protein
Now obviously we all still need a balanced meal in our lives, but eating more protein is another natural way to boost your metabolism. And at this point, I’m sure you’re seeing a pattern “The more work my body has to do, the more my metabolism is boosted to meet those needs”. But what does protein have to do with that fact? Well, compared to other foods, protein has a higher thermal effect in the body. Your body has to work more to process protein and therefore you burn more calories because your body is in this heightened mode or processing food given the presence of protein. Its the same logic as a bonfire. When you have a big bonfire with logs, the fire has to get really hot to burn through those big fuel sources. But after it does there’s still a bed of scalding hot embers. You throw a few sticks or some lighter stuff on top of it and it’s going to go up in flames no problem. Same as throwing some green beans and potatoes in after some steak, your body already has those embers from the steak, so the rest is no problem.
7) Having Caffeine In Your Diet
Now just like protein, we obviously don’t want too much of any one thing to naturally boost our metabolism, this includes caffeine. However, given caffeine’s natural boosts to the body-it too can help with increasing your metabolism as it accelerates most internal processes in your body when it comes to processing food. And furthermore, instead of just going for something like coffee to get your caffeine fix you could try other alternatives like various teas. Nowadays especially, things like matcha are huge and can give you a healthy caffeine kick as well as being good for digestive health in general.Â
8) Take A Well Rounded Vitamin
This particular way of naturally boosting your Metabolism can be argued in terms of how “natural” it is. Vitamins obviously are specifically made by processes created by people-so not a natural existing product-but the ingredients in them are all-natural. So splitting hairs I suppose, either way, this is another great way to help your metabolism get a boost. Having a well-rounded vitamin to give you all the nutrients your body needs helps your body all around with its processes, including metabolism. Just like getting enough sleep assists your body with recovery, vitamins ensure your metabolism has all the right ingredients to succeed in its job.
9) Spice Up Your Life!
Now, this one won’t be for everyone, adding spicy foods to your life can gradually boost your metabolism naturally. Eating a diet that consists of peppers or hot sauces/spices can actually help your body’s metabolism work harder. The reason for this being is the naturally occurring chemical in many spicy peppers/foods called capsaicin. The short of it is like the cold water tip mentioned above, your body has to heat up the water before it can process it. Well with capsaicin, its the same kind of deal, your body has to work through the capsaicin to process the food that is either containing or covered in it. however, studies show that for this to really take effect you have to be an avid spice lover and have it highly present in your day to day diet. So there’s give and take here. If spice isn’t your thing, you can do just find boosting your metabolism through any of the other tips listed here.
10) The Most Important Meal Of The Day!
That’s right folks, breakfast! Studies show that people who eat a balanced breakfast at the start of the day consistently have a higher metabolism and lose weight easier than those on highly restrictive diets. And the reason this naturally boosts your metabolism is quite simple. Once you wake up from your good night’s sleep your body needs fuel to get itself going onto your busy day. If you don’t eat breakfast your body has to fuel itself with the stores of nutrients in your body already-but your body needs those to maintain itself as is. Give your body the fuel it needs to start your day, rather than making it take away from itself just to get by. Again, all these tips involve putting your body to work and getting it used to have a naturally boosted metabolism-so give it what it needs to succeed and be the hardest worker it can be for you.
