Get started in the early AM
- Make sure you eat breakfast. Eating a nutrient-rich morning meal shortly after getting out of bed literally wakes up your Metabolism (studies suggest to have breakfast within an hour of waking up).
- According to the National Weight Control Registry (an ongoing study that tracks 5,000 people who lost an average of 30 kg and kept it off more than five years), 78% of those who keep it off eat an AM meal every day.Remove trans fat from your diet
- Trans fat binds fat and liver cells, and slows metabolism
- Eating trans fat can also lead to insulin resistance and inflammation, both of which cripple metabolism and can cause weight gain.
- Lifting weights raises your metabolism long after you're finished—experts estimate that your metabolism stays elevated for up to 39 hours!
Build muscle
- Some experts estimate that each extra kg of muscle you gain burns 65-110 extra calories a day.
- While few others estimated that a kg of muscle burns 13-15 calories at rest, compared to 4-5 calories burned by a kg of fat.
Eat protein
- Protein is harder for your body to digest and thus takes more energy (compared to fat or carbs). The TEF of protein is 25%, meaning, 25% of the calories of each gram of protein is burned off through digestion, whereas the TEF of carbohydrates is 5%, and is only 2% for fats.
- PDCAAS (The protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) has been adopted by FAO/WHO as the preferred method for the measurement of the protein value in human nutrition.)
Get your omega-3
Eat 5 to 6 small meals each day
- So eating several meals, as opposed to three squares, raises your metabolism five to six times a day, as opposed to only three.
- This technique works on another level. When your body doesn't get food, your metabolism slows down. This is because our bodies are ingeniously programmed to protect against starvation—when your body senses that another meal may not be coming (even though food in our modern world is in abundance) it holds onto your body fat to use as energy.
- When you only eat three times a day, your metabolism slows greatly between each meal. On the other hand, by eating consistently every three to four hours, your metabolism will stay elevated, knowing that another meal is coming soon.
- Experts are promoting nibbling versus gorging as a way to keep metabolism running by holding blood sugar levels steady and preventing weight-gain-promoting insulin spikes.
- Enjoying six small meals a day should do the trick; keep them around 300 calories each, or divide your usual day's calories by six.