How to Lose Weight

How to Increase Your Metabolic Rate

As discussed on the previous page, your metabolic rate determines how many calories you use in a day. Therefore increasing your metabolic rate is one of the best things you can do to lose weight and in the long-term, to stop gaining weight. While many of the factors determining your metabolic rate are hard-coded in your genes, there are two major things and a few minor things you can do to increase your metabolic rate.

The two major things you can do to increase your metabolic rate are:

• Exercise - Aerobic exercise (running, cycling, etc) is great for using calories but studies have shown it has only a small effect on your metabolic rate. To increase your metabolic rate you need to do anaerobic exercise (weight lifting) to increase muscle mass. You can gain muscle mass from doing as little as 20 minutes weight training, three times a week. One extra pound of muscle will add 50 calories a day to your metabolic rate.
• Be More Active - Find ways to get more activity into your normal daily routine. Do you drive to work? Maybe you could walk or cycle. Do you take the elevator up to your office? Maybe you could walk up the stairs. It all depends on your daily routine but for sure, there are ways that you can be more active. Do not look for excuses why you cannot change. Be positive and look for ways to squeeze a bit more effort into your life.

There are several minor things you can do to increase your metabolism. None of these will have a big effect but hey, every little helps:

• Caffeine - Caffeine is a stimulant so it will cause an increase in your metabolic rate. A few cups of coffee a day will burn a few extra calories. Of course, there is no point if you cancel out the benefit by adding sugar and milk to your cuppa.
• Spicy Food - Add a bit of spice to your diet. Adding chilies to your food actually increases your heart rate and metabolism for two to three hours after eating.
• Eat Little and Often - I will extol the virtues of this for other reasons when we start looking at diet. Among other things, eating regular small meals rather than two or three big meals helps to keep your metabolism ticking along.
• Eat Lean Protein - Your body uses more calories to digest protein than other food groups. I am certainly not going to support the all-protein diet that some fad diet routines recommend. You need to eat a balanced diet but if you can include a good amount of lean protein such as chicken then this is good.
• Drink Ice Cold Water - Your body uses calories to maintain body temperature. When you drink cold water, you will use a few calories to bring it up to body temperature.

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