5 Ways to Keep Your Metabolism Burning Fat

Take your workout seriously and look good all the time As we continue to explore ways to eat healthily and live a healthier lifestyle, our next healthy diet advice are ways to keep your metabolism burning fat. We often hear about our metabolism and how it affects weight loss… and weight gain. Your Meta embolisms the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. During this complex biochemical process, calories in food and beverages are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function.

It may be tempting to blame your metabolism for weight gain. But because metabolism is a natural process, your body has many mechanisms that regulate it to meet your individual needs. Only in rare cases do you get excessive weight gain from a medical problem that slows metabolism, such as Cushing’s syndrome or having an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). Unfortunately, weight gain is a complicated process. It’s likely a combination of genetic makeup, hormonal controls, diet and the impact of the environment on your lifestyle, including sleep, physical activity and stress. All of these factors result in an imbalance in the energy equation. You gain weight when you eat more calories than you burn or burn fewer calories than you eat.

 

While it is true that some people seem to be able to lose weight more quickly and more easily than others, everyone loses weight when they burn up more calories than they eat. To lose weight, you need to create an energy deficit by eating fewer calories or increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity or both.

You already know if you read our article on combination exercise that when you exercise, your metabolism gets boosted, leading you to burn calories and eat up your fat stores. What you may not know is after you finish your workout, your body is working to recover itself, which is when the afterburn effect takes place. This calorie and fat-eating phenomenon is more officially called “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption,” or EPOC

If you’re looking to burn extra calories and fat, if you’re looking to maximize your weight loss effects, these tips will increase your EPOC levels to burn more calories post-exercise.

Warm Up

Warming up is used to prepare the body for activity. The main objectives are to increase heart rate and breathing, increase body temperature, and also psychologically prepare the body for exercise. The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) recommends that a complete warm-up include both general and specific warm-ups. A

general warm-up includes activities and movements that are not necessarily going to be performed in your actual workout and should last approximately 5-10 mins at a low-to-moderate intensity.

Walking on a treadmill or using the elliptical machine before a resistance training workout is an example of a general warm-up. A specific warm-up involves movements that closely mimic those of the actual activity you will be performing. For example, performing push-ups prior to an upper-body resistance training session.

Increase your intensity

Intensity is probably the most important element of your workout because when you workout at a sufficient intensity, your body grows stronger and you’ll see changes in your weight, body fat percentage, endurance, and strength. Your exercise intensity must generally be at a moderate or vigorous level for maximum benefit. For weight loss, the more intense or longer your activity, the more calories you burn. Balance is still important. Overdoing it can increase your risk of

soreness, injury, and burnout. Start at a

light intensity if you’re new to exercising. Gradually build up to moderate or vigorous intensity.

Rather than worrying about the length of time you worked out, focus on the intensity. High-intensity workouts like a HIIT routine (high-intensity interval training) get your heart rate pumping quickly and efficiently. Alternatively, circuit training can provide a similar effect. Vigorous exercise puts more strain on the body, keeping the body burning calories for hours after the workout is over. Not only will you enjoy an increased EPOC level, but you may also lose weight faster, build muscle quicker, and increase your aerobic capacity.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines for most healthy adults:

Aerobic Activity

Get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity such as brisk walking, swimming or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity such as running or aerobic dancing. You can also do a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. It’s best to do this over the course of a week. You can achieve more health benefits if you increase your exercise to 300 minutes or more of moderate aerobic

activity a week. Even small amounts of physical activity are helpful, and accumulated activity throughout the day adds up to provide health benefits.

Here at Diet Rite, we have included this in our daily walks to increase intensity. Try holding your arms out to the sides for about 15 minutes or about ¼ mile. The resistance of gravity will increase the intensity of your walk. You will feel this move in your shoulders and in your back. We recommend trying this when you walk.

Strength Training

Do strength training for all major muscle groups at least twice a week. Consider free weights, weight machines, or activities that use your own body weight such as push-ups, pull-ups, or heavy gardening. Or try squats, planks, or lunges. Aim to do a single set of each exercise, using a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions

In addition to increasing your intensity, There are several benefits to strength training including:

• Maintaining Muscle Tissue.
• Increased Strength.
• Improved Bone Health.
• Controlling and removing Body Fat for good.
• Decreased Risk of Injury.

So try to incorporate strength training into your exercise routine.

Along the same lines and directly in line with strength training is

Lifting Weights

Lifting weights is often an overlooked part of losing weight. Most “Diet sites and Diet Advisors mention cutting carbs, doing more cardio as the main solution to the problem. However, Diet Rite has discovered through its research and trials that lifting weights or strength training is equally as important to not only your weight loss goals but to your overall health as well.. To begin with considering this, the more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate

(BMR), BMP is the number of calories your body burns at rest. According to a review in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, your BMR eats up a whopping 60–75% of your total daily calorie burn.

According to myfitnesspal.com a pound of muscle burns between 7–13 calories over a 24-hour period, whereas a pound of fat only burns between 2–5 calories over the same amount of time. This is a stunning discovery. So, if you can maintain or add muscle, you’ll increase the number of calories your body burns at rest, which can help you shed more fat. In addition, you’ll likely burn more calories

after a strength-training session than after a run or bike ride. “Cardio doesn’t cause the same stress on the muscle as doing a heavy lift, and that stress causes more turnover in the muscle that then causes a greater need for repair, This repair process uses more energy in the form of calories than a typical cardio session does. As a result, your post-workout calorie burn stays elevated longer. Clearly, we can see that lifting weights can be very beneficial to your weight loss as well as keeping the pounds off.

Opt for protein after a workout

After you’ve completed your exercise for the day, eat a protein-filled snack. Protein, particularly whey protein, ensures your metabolism levels remain high after your workout. Protein takes more energy for your body to digest and absorb than sugars and carbohydrates, leaving your body in overdrive as it works to break down the food. This ramped-up process leads to a higher calorie and fat burn in the hours ahead. Plus, if you’re looking to replace fat with lean muscle, protein helps your body get there.

Hair and nails are mostly made of protein, your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood. This is what makes the Diet Rite System so good for you. The DRS is a protein-rich low-carb system. This allows you to feel fuller longer causing you to eat less and lose those unwanted pounds as well as the other important benefits we just mentioned Become a Diet Rite now.. You’ll thank yourself later

Eat healthy snacks between meals

You’ve probably heard the advice that eating small meals throughout the day is how you win the battle of the bulge. The claim is that frequent snacking, as long as it’s healthy, keeps your metabolism humming, staves off hunger, and controls blood sugar. The end result: You eat less. Except it may not work that way. According to WebMD, A study from the University of Ottawa found that on a low-calorie diet, there was no weight loss advantage to splitting calories among six meals

rather than three. A second study found that switching from three daily meals to six did not boost calorie-burning or fat loss. In fact, the researchers concluded, eating six meals a day actually made people want to eat more. ( The DRS… need we say more)

However, having a healthy snack after workouts can keep your metabolism working longer. Additionally having healthy snacks between meals can reduce the feeling of hunger that so many people who diet suffer from.  Here are just a couple of healthy snack ideas for you to try.

Apples

Apples are high in pectin, which binds with water and limits the amount of fat your cells can absorb. Apples are also high in fiber, which makes you feel full; numerous studies have found that eating an apple a half hour to an hour before a meal has the result of cutting the calories of the meal. Recent research suggests eating apples has other benefits, too; the antioxidants in apples appear to prevent metabolic syndrome, the combination of high cholesterol, high blood

pressure, and pre-diabetes. It’s never too early to Diet Rite and it’s never too late to Diet Rite. Are you a Diet Riter?

Carrots

Carrots are the perfect snack — crunchy, full of nutrients, low in calories, and sweet. They’re associated with heart and eye health, improved digestion, and even weight loss. This root vegetable comes in several colors, sizes, and shapes, all of which are great additions to a healthy diet. Carrots are a particularly good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and

antioxidants. They are weight-loss friendly and have been linked to lower cholesterol levels and improved eye health. What’s more, their carotene antioxidants have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer. A bag of baby carrots and cold water is a perfect snack to keep hunger away, boost metabolism and help with weight loss. Try it!

The list of foods is pretty extensive, so rather than trying to include them all in this article, we will be writing another article soon about foods that boost metabolism and help burn fat. As always we try to include why it does it and how it does it without skimping on the explanation.

Till then, try these metabolism-boosting tips and watch the extra pounds melt away!