The left-over legacy decades of diets have left many people especially women with metabolic damage. For the last 30 odd years a zillion different diets have been presented in a myriad of ways – books, magazines television, and of course the internet, yet they do little to increase metabolism and the rate our body burns fuel and instead work against it.
Constantly bombarded with promises like ‘lose 20 pounds in two weeks’ or ‘lose 8 pounds by next Friday’ convinced the majority of us that we needed to be on this diet or that diet to be slim and healthy and guess what?
They didn’t work – and the worst part is those same people who faithfully tried every new diet plan that hit the market are now left with a messed up metabolism and are still over-fat and overweight. The metabolic consequences of ‘dumb diets’ can vary for almost insignificant to the very serious, but the drop is for real and can continue long after the diet is over. We need to increase metabolism again by repairing the damage.
What we need to change to increase metabolism again
We know now that to lose weight permanently we need to do the things that will increase metabolism and increase the rate we burn fuel (calories) not decrease it. To do this we need to rebalance fat burning/storing hormones, rebalance blood sugar levels and appetite regulation mechanisms before that can happen.
You can self-diagnose your own symptoms and work out if you are affected by damage to your metabolism. Things like low energy… hungry all the time…food cravings that cannot be ignored or thinking about food constantly and it may seem like you are not losing weight fast enough for how little food you are eating. And heaven forbid if you return to normal eating you will be on the fast track to weight gain.
So, to get off this merry-go-round to nowhere we need to do the things that will increase metabolism. We want to get your metabolic motor running at full speed so you can burn that excess fat off your body and more importantly keep it off.
The number one way to increase metabolism is to rebuild and re-tone lost muscle tissue. If you have not been doing enough muscle building or maintaining activity your muscles will have become weak and flabby causing their energy requirements to dwindle and that will be why you have gained weight in the first place. So the first thing to do to increase metabolism is to get them toned back up with 2-3 sessions each week of a proper strength training exercise progarm and get your metabolism back working for you chewing into the excess fat.
Another important factor in the weight loss puzzle is to improve eating habits. It is not about dieting but eating healthier that will increase metabolism. The first thing to do is to get rid of as much non-nutrient processed food as possible and replace it with natural whole foods that you cook from scratch.
To increase metabolism means eating right
Yes, to increase metabolism that means YOU back in the kitchen preparing small healthy meals that you eat every 3-4 hours. The main rules for each of these meals are a portion of protein at each and the balance made up of vegetables. You should be eating ‘clean’ foods which are free of the chemicals that make and keep you fat by decreasing metabolism. Remember we want to increase metabolism and quality non-processed or refined nutrient dense foods are the way to do this.
It is now time to ditch the old fashioned ways that we used to believe were right to lose body fat and embrace the knowledge we have gained in the last few years. Forget ‘dumb dieting’ and instead focus on improving health and body composition (muscle/fat ratio) – the very things that will increase metabolism to get us into better, healthier, slimmer, leaner shape than we have ever been.
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