To Speed Up Metabolism, The Myths....and ....the Facts!
You wanna speed up metabolism?
And you've been hearing lots of "this" and "that" about the subject.
You don't know which one's fact, which one's myth.
Let's start with the myths first.
Myth 1: "I'm putting on so much weight and can't seem to get it off! It's my metabolism!"
Don't always put the blame on metabolism here; it may not be the problem - it could be things like you've an underactive thyroid glands; you're on drugs and medication which cause you to put on weight; you're in deficit of essential fatty acids or you've imbalanced blood sugar.......
Myth 2: Foods like hot pepper, green tea, ginger......can speed up metabolism heaps!
Research says that hot pepper and spicy foods can increase metabolism by about 20% for about 30 minutes, but no one knows if the effect lasts longer than that.
Yes, hot pepper causes your body to heat up, hence you crank up your metabolism but studies have shown that maximum effects are felt only when hot pepper is taken together with high-fat foods (which you know, is high in calories).....
Now for green tea, you've heard so much of its metabolic "power" that you may be deeply convinced it's the FOOD to help you here....
Not so.
You see, granted that green tea contains a substance known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an antioxidant that's believed to have fat-burning effect and cause your metabolic rate to shoot up, no one knows for sure whether this effect would be enough to cause weight loss.
Nutrition experts conclude that you may have to drink so much of it to see even a small effect and they don't think it's really worth your while.
The bottom line? Hot pepper, spicy food and green tea could impact metabolism but only slightly and it's insignificant to cause you to lose weight.
Now the facts.
1. Heredity factor determines that not every one has the same metabolic rate, hence burns calories at the same rate. Some just have it slower.....
2. Your metabolism depends on several factors: your age (typically it slows at the rate of 5% per decade after age 40);your gender (men has higher metabolic rate than women) and the amount of muscle you've in your body (the more muscle you pack into
your body, the higher your metabolic rate)
3. The more weight you carry, the faster your metabolism runs. This is because the extra weight causes your body to work harder to sustain itself at rest, hence expense off more energy in doing so, which in turn causes your metabolism to perk up
Are There Ways to Speed up Metabolism?
Oh, yes.
Exercise is one.
Weight training is another.
Exercise and it would have to be cardio exercise. It powers up your metabolic rate and you burn more calories immediately.
Running, jogging, biking, swimming, dancing, horse riding,.....are good examples of cardio exercises.
Just commit 3-4 times per week for at least 30 minutes per session to exercise and you'll feel a difference in your metabolic power.
Throw in weight training 3-4 times per week for 20 minutes per session as this is the most effective way to increase your muscle mass. As muscle is metabolically active and burns more calories than fat, the more muscles you've, the higher your metabolism to burn more calories.
(P/S: 1 lb of muscle burns 30 -50 calories a day, while 1 lb of fat burns just 2 calories per day)
While 30 minutes of cardio exercise burns more calories than 30 minutes of weight training, the difference lies in the hours after the exercise - weight training gets your metabolism elevated longer and thus has a longer-lasting effect on more calories burned.
Cecelia Yap is an avid exerciser and author of the popular exercise website: perfect-body-toning.com - a web site born out of her passion which she successfully turns into a profitable business. Perhaps you have a passion or hobby you'd like to write about. Find out how you too can turn it into a profitable business like Cecelia does, here: www.perfect-body-toning.com/my-passion.html
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