Foods That Increase Metabolism

What Are Some Foods that Increase Metabolism?

Your metabolism controls the amount of calories that your body burns and boosting it with foods that increase metabolism rates can help you reach your weight loss goals and maintain a healthy regular body weight. The body’s metabolism is defined by the physical and chemical processes known as anabolism (responsible for growth and repair of cells) and catabolism (breaking substances down to produce energy). Together these processes are responsible for providing the body with nutrients, and using energy in the form of calories in the course of providing nutrients. Your metabolism is affected by many things that cannot be changed, such as sex and age, but it is possible to change your body’s Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) through diet changes and exercise. BMR is defined as the rate of calories your body needs to consume to maintain all the basic body functions at rest, such as heart beat, breathing and digestion, and can account for about 60-75% of your energy expenditure. Boosting you BMR will cause your body to burn more calories while you are resting and make your slimmer in the process.

Exercise is the best way to increase your metabolism. Building lean muscle increases your metabolism because muscle burns more calories than fat. In fact, 1 pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day, while 1 pound of fat only burns 2 calories a day. Exercise performed everyday causes your body to burn more calories, reducing body fat, and speeds up the metabolism. However, diet is the partner which helps to also boost your metabolism. A healthy eating plan will help your body change it’s BMR and there are even some food that help boost your metabolism instantly.

Fasting and skipping meals may lower your daily caloric intake, but it serves to teach your body to store food as fat right away, and lower its metabolism to save calories. It is best to eat more times a day, in smaller portions. This keeps your digestive system, which uses about 10% of the calories in the food just to break it down, working all day long. This causes your metabolism to speed up. When constructing your metabolism boosting diet plan, keep the following guidelines in mind. Eat more meals in smaller portions every day, reduce your sugar intake, quit smoking, eat lower fat and higher lean protein meals, drink more water, and eat breakfast. Breakfast is important to jump starting your metabolism every morning after being quiet all night.

The types of food that you eat are important. Some foods actually require higher amounts of energy to break them down, and negative calorie foods require more energy to break down than are in the foods themselves. Examples of negative calorie foods are celery and raw broccoli. Here are some basic guidelines of foods that increase metabolism because they require more energy expended by the body to break them down.

Lean Protein such as beef, chicken and turkey provide the building blocks for muscles (which burn more calories) and allow you to feel full longer. Some studies suggest that the body uses 25% of the calories found in lean meats just to digest them.
Fatty fish such as tuna and salmon contain high protein and omega 3 fatty acids that help boost the metabolism. They also contain a metabolism boosting hormone called leptin.
Spicy foods contain a chemical called capsaicin that actually raises your metabolism instantly by 25% by raising body temperature and heart beat.
Green Teas boost your metabolism instantly through a substance called EGCG that affects the nervous system and works as an appetite suppressant.
Caffeine, such as that found in coffee has the same instant metabolic effect as teas, as they can help by increasing the heart beat as well.
Apple cider vinegar with honey has shown the ability to boost the metabolism. The same is true for garlic.
Foods that are high in calcium, such as soy, broccoli and milk are also metabolism boosters. Other foods include:
Berries
Mustard
Whole grains
Oatmeal
Eggs
Whey protein
Spinach
Lemons
Grapefruit
Chili
Brown Rice
Red Potatoes
Apples
Cabbage
Yogurt
Lettuce
Cantaloupe
Cucumbers
Almonds
Brussel Sprouts
Cinnamon

Coupled with increased exercise, eating foods that increase metabolism rates is a great way to help jump start your weight loss program. Reaching your desired weight goals and maintaining a healthy lean body can be achieved by altering both your metabolism and lifestyle.