When you sleep
your metabolism slows down and you use much fewer calories. This is necessary
to get a good night's sleep. When you wake up your body has used glucose as
fuel and your blood sugar level is low. Your body have experienced a short starvation.
You need to speed up metabolism and tell your body that the starvation is over,
or else your metabolism will remain slow.
Eat breakfast
You ought to speed up metabolism in the morning. By skipping breakfast you are sending a temporary fasting signal to the brain that food is going to be scarce and it's time to store food. Instead of speed up metabolism your body prepares
to use as little energy as possible and save as much as it can in its fat cells.
By eating breakfast
you are telling your body that the starvation is over. Eating breakfast increases your metabolism. So just be eating breakfast every day, you can burn as much as 10 % more calories each hour.
Don't skip
meals
If you skip meals
several bad things happens:
Your
body thinks it's facing another starvation period and instead of speed up metabolism it engages all of its
fat storage hormones. Your body prepares to save and store as much fat as
possible out of your next meal
You
probably lack concentration and feel hungry and discomforted.
When
you at last eat, you eat fast, and you eat much more than you would if you had
not skipped a meal. You may even eat so much that you feel to full.
The body does it
job very well. It converts as much food as possible to fat and it stores as
much fat as possible. Then it tries to prevent you from using up the stored
fat by making you tired and sleepy. You might feel like wanting to take a nap,
your metabolism slows down and there you are again!
Eat as much as 5-6 or even 7 small meals a day
When you eat
your body needs energy to digest the food. Every time you eat, you speed up metabolism. So if you eat 5-6 small meals, your metabolism will be at a higher level
than if you eat just 3 times a day. Just by eating 6 small meals, you will fire
up your metabolism by another 10 %
BUT - that does
not mean that you should eat more if you eat 6 times a day than if you ate 3
times a day! Eat the same amount, but divide it into more meals.
Breakfast - snack
- lunch - snack - dinner - snack in the evening. You will never feel hungry
because it is not more than 2-3 hours between meals, and you will not eat too
much at the major meals because it is not so long since you had a snack.
The snack is not
meant to be a huge portion of french fries or a candy bar or some junk food!
Healthy options are fresh fruit, a whole grain sandwich with lean meat, berries
or some other low-calorie but satisfying food. You can find more snacking tips
at
Fast weightloss tips
If you add a little
more activity in your daily life, you can speed up metabolism even more, but
a good start to begin with to speed up metabolism is following the easy steps
above.
Do you want to
know more about speed up metabolism? I will soon add the option to sign
up for my newsletter, covering more useful stuff to lose weight and keep it
off. Please return back soon.
* * *
References:
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HR, Grunwald OK, Mosca CL, Klem ML, Wing RR, Hill JO (2002). Long-term weight
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F., McDevitt, R. & Prentice, A. M. (1997). Meal frequency and energy balance.
British Journal of Nutrition, 77, 57-70.
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