5 Simple Ways To Ramp Up Your Metabolism

Getting lean fast requires boosting your body’s metabolic rate – the rate at which it burns calories throughout the day – long after your workout is over.

By increasing your body’s metabolic rate you burn more calories because the body automatically goes into “work mode,” preparing itself for a day of hard physical labour.

So, even as you sit at your desk, or stretch out in front of the TV, your body continues to burn calories at a higher rate even though you finished your work-out five hours ago. You want the rate at which your body burns calories to increase.

Here are five tips to get your engine revving all through the day.

1. Alternate High Carb And Low Carb Days

Drop any low carb diet. Low carb diets slow down metabolism. The problem worsens if you’re also on a low-calorie diet. When you work out, your body needs energy – energy you’ll burn throughout the day. Weight trainers feel energized throughout the day because their bodies are burning food (fuel) efficiently all day long.

You should reduce your calorie intake in order to lose fat, but this doesn’t mean zero carbs. While you may see some quick results in the first week, during that second week your metabolism slows considerably.

As it does, you feel miserable and fat loss slows to a crawl.

In order to overcome this, alternate a high carb day followed by a low carb day. By doing so, you'll manage your metabolism. You’re in control.

2. Pump Up The Speed Of Your Workouts

Another strategy that works great for increasing metabolism is to increase the speed of your workouts. Go from one exercise to the next as fast as you can while still maintaining proper form. No resting for three minutes in between each circuit while you drink water or stretch.

Rest the minimum amount of time necessary to perform your next Alpha or Omega set.

Remember: lifting increasing amounts of weight is still important so don't move so fast that you're lifting less weight, but do keep moving throughout each circuit, taking time to re-hydrate as needed. The objective, here, is increased work-out intensity, not a circuit training workout.

3 Get More Sleep

Another way to boost your metabolic rate is simply to sleep more. When you cut down on sleep, you don’t give your body the time it needs to recover and rejuvenate itself after a strenuous work-out.

As a result, all the processes that take place in the body slow down. In addition, lack of sleep increases appetite, so now you not only have a slowed metabolism, you're hungrier, too. NOT a good combination.

4. Focus On Protein – Especially Fish

Another way to increase metabolism quickly is to consume more protein-rich foods. Strength trainers know that protein is important for building muscle and maintaining that muscle while on a lowered-calorie diet.

What some lifters don't realize, however, is that by consuming protein, they burn more calories than they would eating carbohydrates or fat.

This is called the thermic effective of food, which essentially represents the number of calories you burn digesting what you eat. Out of all the nutrients, protein is the one that has the highest value here so when you boost your intake of protein, you get an immediate metabolism boost.

The best source of high-quality, low-fat protein is white fish – fresh sole, for example – lightly grilled with a squeeze of lemon or lime. You can’t beat it.

5. Cut Back On Cardio

Surprisingly, one of the most effective ways to boost metabolism is to cut back on your cardio work-outs.

When you work the muscles with a jog or brisk walk, over time the muscles treat this activity in the same manner they treat a low-calorie diet. The 'starvation' mechanism kicks in and your body slows its metabolic rate so it can hold on to whatever fat is has.

By reducing cardio training, you're essentially telling the body that you aren't, in fact, starving it and it's perfectly fine to rev up the metabolism again.

Consider making some changes to your workouts and to food management to keep your body revved and your metabolism at its peak.

Get a copy of RCB manual & spice up your workout routines with new workout ideas that will make you look ripped, cut & buff

Yours for good health and happiness,

Edward Khoo, Strength Trainer

Christopher Fee, Applied Exercise Science & Yale University Strength Coach