Cutting calories can slow down your metabolism, try these 3 tricks to boost your metabolism and start losing weight again
If you’ve ever been on a diet, then you know what it’s like to hit a plateau. It’s so frustrating when you’re cutting down on food and increasing exercise and your body simply refuses to lose weight. This plateau or stall in weight loss usually happens because your metabolism has slowed down. But the amazing thing you may not realize is that you can boost your metabolism without pills or shakes. These 3 metabolism-boosting tricks can help you lose weight again!
Before we dive into the three tricks you can use to get your metabolism going again, I want to talk a little bit about what metabolism is. Scientifically speaking, your metabolism is what controls how much energy your body burns.
Your metabolism measures how much you’re taking in and how much you’re putting out and tries to burn calories at a rate that will keep you alive. Notice I didn’t say at a rate that will make you drop weight or lose fat. Unfortunately, our bodies think that simply keeping us alive is enough - they don’t care so much about bikini season.
However, just because your metabolism chooses how much to burn doesn’t mean that you’re at its mercy! There are simple things you can do to keep your metabolism burning at a rate that you’re a little happier with. Your metabolism is never broken, it simply needs a pick me up some times and that’s what I’m going to show you how to do!
Metabolism-boosting tip #1: Move your body
Now that you know that metabolism is the rate at which your body burns energy, you can help boost your metabolism by increasing your movement!
One of the absolute best ways to move your body is by walking. Walking is simple, almost everyone can do it, and it’s 100% free! A lot of people don’t realize just how beneficial walking is! Here are just a few ways walking can improve your health:
Improve cardiovascular healthy
Manage conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and type 2 diabetes
Improves muscle endurance
Increases energy levels
Strengthens the immune system
Improves mood, cognition, memory and sleep
Strengthens bones and muscles
If you are currently inactive, then start walking! A simple 5-10 minute walk can help you lose weight and it’s not as strenuous on your body as other forms of exercise. Cardio is a great way to increase your heart rate and therefore, your metabolic rate!
If you sit for long periods, then make a goal to get up for 5-10 minutes every hour and walk around. Our bodies weren’t meant to sit all day and getting up and moving around will help boost your metabolism because you’re adding movement in. All movement counts towards your metabolism - not just exercise.
Another great way to increase your metabolism is to do strength, or weight, training. Strength training can help increase your metabolism in two ways.
First, strength training helps you burn more calories long-term than cardio training. During cardio exercise, you usually only burn calories during the time you’re working out. However, when you strength train you’ll burn calories during the exercise, and then you’ll continue to burn calories for a few more hours.
The second way strength training helps boost your metabolism is that muscle burns more than fat. As you increase your muscle and decrease fat, your body will burn more calories at rest.
Cardio and strength training are both helpful in weight loss and kickstarting your metabolism. This is why exercise needs to be a part of your healthy lifestyle!
Metabolism-boosting tip #2: Sleep more, stress less
Sleep and stress both have a direct effect on weight gain and metabolism which is why we need to make sure we address both if you’re feeling stuck in your weight loss.
Sleep is so crucial to not only weight loss, but overall health! During the third stage of sleep, around 5-6 hours, our bodies release hormones. Leptin and ghrelin are two major hormones that trigger our hunger cues, appetite. Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep pumps too much ghrelin into our system causing increased hunger and cravings and it causes too little leptin, the appetite suppressant hormone, to be produced.
If you’re trying to regulate or boost your metabolism you need to be getting 7-9 hours of sleep each day. This gives your body time to release the hormones it needs!
Another hormone that can disrupt sleep is cortisol, the stress hormone. When you’re overstressed for too long not only can cortisol prevent you from getting enough sleep, but it also increases your appetite and cravings even more!
Increased cortisol for a short time can boost your metabolism, but when we’re chronically stressed, it actually slows the metabolism down as part of the fight or flight response
Stress and sleep are intertwined and you must have tools to help you lower your stress so you can get quality sleep! Having a bedtime routine that includes stress-reducing activities is a great way to fight both! Meditation, journaling, yoga or reading for fun, are all great ways to wind down at the end of the day so that you can boost your metabolism while you sleep!
Metabolism-boosting tip #3: Eat more food
One of the ways we slow down our metabolism is by undereating. We are told that if we want to weigh less then we have to burn more energy than we take in. The simple solution is to cut our food intake, but if you cut down too much, then your body goes into starvation mode - where your metabolism slows down - and instead of burning energy quickly it tries to save any energy you’ve feeding it.
If you’ve tried restriction diets, or if you’ve tried to live on 1200 calories for a while, then you know how this goes. The truth is that if you want to increase your metabolism, you need to increase your food intake.
Now, I’m not saying that any time you hit a plateau you should go out and binge eat. That’s not going to be effective. However, when you increase your protein and carb intake, you can give your metabolism the boost it needs to start burning energy again.
Protein is always the best place to increase your intake because it’s the building block of cells! If you want healthy hair, skin, nails, muscles, bones, hormones, or anything else, then you need to be eating enough protein. Plus, as we discussed before muscle burns more calories than fat. Increasing your protein intake will help build muscle (especially if you’re strength training!) and you’ll burn more energy!
Now, the second most important macronutrient for metabolism-boosting is carbs! If you’ve been restricting your carb intake and your weight loss halts, then it might be time to reconsider what you’re cutting out and why.
Carbs are the body’s first form of energy and without enough of them your body will hold on to whatever you give it for dear life! When I’m working with my Macros Made Easy Mamas and they’re stuck at a weight for a few weeks, I will give them refeed meals where I increase their carbs for a meal or two. And a few days later their weight will start to dip again. It surprises them every single time.
By upping your carbs or reintroducing them, your body pumps out more leptin, that appetite-suppressing hormone we talked about earlier, and it realizes that it can release the stored energy (aka fat) because new energy is coming in and you lose weight again.
We’re so conditioned to believe that carbs will make you fat, but when eaten the right way, carbs can help you lose weight!
It’s important to choose quality carbs when you’re looking to boost your metabolism. Whole foods and carbs high in fiber are the best options to increase metabolism. Processed foods can do the same thing but not as efficiently.
Your metabolism plays an important role in your health and weight loss journey. Don’t become a victim to it! You have the power to live a healthy life if you invest in learning about it! In my Macros Made easy Program, I can teach you how to eat healthy and increase your metabolism without giving up your favorite foods! Schedule a discovery call today to create lasting weight loss results!
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