Did you know that one key to successful weight loss is by boosting your metabolism? Metabolism is the process of burning calories in your body. You burn calories naturally even if you are not exerting any effort, when you are at rest, and even when you are sleeping.
The recommended safe weight loss level of 1 to 2 pounds per week is really possible if you learn to work with your body and boost your metabolism. Your first five pounds or so of weight loss will always be mostly water weight. After that, if you increase your protein and limit your carbs and fat, which tend to get stored by the body, your metabolism should kick in to operate more efficiently.
Another way to boost your metabolism is through exercise. In many cases, if you perform the right exercises, you might not even have to think about trimming down your calorie intake.
The trouble with most diets is that they are only a short-term plan. What you want to achieve is permanent weight loss. This can only be achieved through increasing metabolism, but in such a way that it is sustainable, and not too difficult to incorporate into our daily lives.
Researchers have recently discovered, for example, that three or four short ten minute sessions of exercise per day, was actually more effective than one sustained forty minute burst of activity. Jane Fonda, whose workout put exercise on the map in the USA, was exercising up to three hours at a time at one stage. When she cut down to a more normal level, she never changed dress sizes.
So even if you are a busy person, incorporating a brisk walk at least twice a day for fifteen minutes will help kick-start your metabolism easily, and give you more energy. It will burn calories, and give you a positive outlook and change of scenery too.
Increasing your metabolism is a far better strategy than dieting because it will give you better long-term results, and will not increase your possibilities of gaining weight again, or of “rebound weight gain,” where you actually end up weighing more than before you started dieting.
Simple calorie cutting here and there, by making smarter overall choices, will also help you boost your metabolism. Going from whole milk to fat-free or 1% percent not only cuts calories, it cuts your intake of fat, which the body tends to store as energy.
Believe it or not, you are actually born with every single fat cell you will ever have in your body. They plump up or down depending on how much fat they are provided with to store—that’s right, the fat and other calories in your diet. But if you burn your calories you consume efficiently, there will be no chance to store them.
With a boost in metabolism through moderate exercise and watching what you eat, these small changes can add up to big results when it comes to feeling more fit and trim and losing weight. This in turn will contribute to your overall health and wellbeing, and positive mental attitude. Best of all, it is a long-term health and weight control strategy you can use for life.
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