There are many reasons why someone would want to lose weight. You might have started to feel unwell because you’re larger, for example. Perhaps you want to fit into your old clothes. Maybe you’re in line for surgery at a weight loss clinic and you need to lose a few extra pounds before it is safe to go ahead.
Whatever the reason, something that can often cause people problems is the time it takes to lose the weight. Because it takes so long (especially compared to how quick it is to gain weight), it’s easy to become demotivated.
Of course, losing a lot of weight in a short period of time is never recommended; it’s bad for your health for one thing, and it usually means that, as soon as you stop doing whatever it is you did to cause the weight loss, you’ll put it all back on again.
So what is the solution? The reality is that it’s all about your metabolism. If you can increase your metabolism, you will lose weight more quickly (although still at a safe rate) and stay more motivated, improving your health and your confidence in general. Read on to find out how it’s done.
5 Easy Ways To Boost Your Metabolism And Lose Weight
Drink More Water
Dehydration can do a lot of negative things to the body, but one that you might not have thought about or known about before is that it destroys our metabolism. When we’re dehydrated, our body will make us think we’re hungry rather than thirsty because the hypothalamus in the brain which is responsible for regulating both hunger and thirst, stops working correctly. Therefore, what you think of as a hunger pang might actually be thirst.
If you suddenly feel hungry even after you’ve eaten, try drinking a glass of water. If the hunger dissipates, it was dehydration all along – this will lead to less snacking and overeating.
As well as this, drinking a nice big glass of water before sitting down for a meal will make you feel fuller, and thus you will eat less. If you find that you’re eating healthy food but you know your portion sizes are an issue, this might well be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Take Fish Oil
Fish oil is a wonderful nutrient that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. This is something that a great many people have low levels of, and that’s a problem because it actually naturally boosts the body’s metabolism.
It will also help to keep your heart more healthy, will balance your body’s sugar levels, and even reduce cravings, which is always a positive when it comes to cutting certain elements out of your diet. And it does all this without the need for any additional exercise or a change of diet (although exercise and a healthy diet are good habits to get into nonetheless).
You might think that you’re going to need to eat a lot more fish than usual to get the right levels of fish oil into your body to do its job, and this is certainly a good way to do it. If you’re not fond of fish or you don’t want to eat too much of it, then there are supplements you can take instead which will do just as good a job.
Cut Out Processed Foods
Processed foods are bad for you, and that’s a fact. They contain all kinds of unnatural, nasty chemicals, fillers, empty calories, GMOs, preservatives, sugars, and carbohydrates (of the bad variety; some carbohydrates are needed in your diet, but not the ones that come from processed foods) and these aren’t going to be helping you when it comes to weight loss or your overall health.
When you eat processed foods, you might feel full for a short while, but you will soon feel hungry again because the food is lacking many of the essential nutrients that tell your brain you’ve eaten enough (or at all). So you’ll eat more to make up for it, and of course, that means you’re more likely to put on weight.
Cut these foods out of your diet and only eat fresh foods that contain the vitamins and minerals you need, and your metabolism will work as it should again, knowing what it is being fed and how to deal with it in the right way.
Increase Your Protein
The idea of increasing anything when you want to lose weight sounds strange, but the fact is that to lose weight you need to improve your metabolism, and to do that, you need to increase the amount of protein you consume since protein is very useful when it comes to weight loss. This is because it takes more energy for the body to digest protein, and therefore more calories are burned during the process.
Protein comes in the form of lean meat, fish, plant-based foods, and eggs, among other things. If you can eat protein-packed foods your metabolism will continue to work for longer and help you lose more weight. If adding more protein to your diet is difficult, you can try protein shakes to make up the difference.
Eat Breakfast
A lot of people skip breakfast altogether because they don’t have time, they don’t feel hungry first thing, or they think if they miss a meal out it will help them to lose more weight. Unfortunately, this way of thinking is not going to help with weight loss, and might even contribute to weight gain.
Missing out on breakfast means that it takes longer for the metabolism to start working, and by the time you reach lunch, it will still need to be woken up and you might find that you aren’t able to digest your food properly. This means that the food turns to fat rather than useful nutrients, and if you’ve ever felt sluggish after lunch, even if it was a healthy dish, this is the reason why.
On top of this, if you skip breakfast you are going to feel hungry before it’s time for your next meal, and you’re more likely to snack on unhealthy foods. Eating a healthy breakfast kick starts the metabolism and ensures that everything you eat during the day is dealt with in the right way, plus you’ll be much less likely to indulge in any snacks. You’ll feel more energetic too.