Eating Regularly For a Better Metabolism - Three Meals Isn't Enough

You may have heard how extremely low-calorie diets are not actually good for you. You may also read about people who consume a massive amount of calories a day and are, unsurprisingly, massive. Basic logic might indicate that consuming less than 2000 calories per day would cause you to lose weight, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Your average person needs about 2000 calories a day to function properly. Any fewer than that, and your metabolism slows down, causing more of those calories to be stored as fat. The result of this is that you feel sluggish, unable to think, and unable to exercise.

Your body is shutting down, thinking that since you can't give it enough food to function properly, it will have to do with what you have given it.




The same also applies on the short term, eating throughout the day. By only eating three large meals during the day, your resting metabolic rate in between those meals is relatively slow, causing much of the food to be converted into fat, because your body thinks that it won't be receiving any more nutrition for some time.

The solution to this, of course, is to eat a small nutritious snack between meals. I like to bring a little cup of yogurt and an apple to work to eat between meals. You don't have to overeat, or eat anything even close to a full meal, but you need to give your body something to work with. No, chips and empty calories are no good. You should go for something with real nutritional value.

You'll notice yourself thinking clearer and feeling more energetic throughout the day, just by continually giving your body something to work with and boosting your resting metabolic rate.

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Eating to Boost Your Metabolism

Depending on how much weight you need to lose, you may adjust your exercise and calorie intake so that you're aiming to take off up to two pounds per week, which means your body needs to use 1000 calories more than you're eating each day. Again, you'd do this through a combination of diet and exercise.

However, you don't want to do much more than that. And that's because if you drop your calories too drastically, your body will think it is starving. If it goes into starvation mode, it will drop your metabolism, which stalls your progress.

At this point, most people jump start the weight loss by eating even fewer calories. The body responds to this by slowing your metabolism even more in a desperate attempt to conserve energy.

It's a vicious cycle.

So what you need to do instead is eat in a way that fuels your body so that you have enough energy for your workouts and your metabolism keeps roaring all day long.




Here's how you do it:

Eat Multiple Smaller Meals to Boost Your Metabolism

Every time you eat a meal, your metabolism raises slightly. Thus if you split up your daily calories into six to eight small meals (rather than three big ones), you get six to eight mini metabolic boosts.

Eat Balanced Meals to Boost Your Metabolism

For now your goal is to look at your plate and eyeball your meals to strike a balance. Try to have about:

40% of the food on your plate consists of good proteins.
40% of the food consists of slow-burning carbs.
20% are healthy fats.

You can eat this balance for every meal. You can also look at your day's total calories and meals and seek an overall 40/40/20 balance. However, you might choose to eat the bulk of your carbs in the morning to fuel your day's activities. Your last meal can consist mainly of proteins and your fats.

Eat Clean to Boost Your Metabolism

Sure, in theory you could lose weight just by eating candy bars or McDonalds all day, as long as you were taking in fewer calories than your body needs each day for basic functions as well as to fuel your workouts. But if you don't eat clean, you'll end up with a whole host of problems, including:

More fat, less muscle. Your body may decide to burn muscle alongside the fat stores, which means you'll end up smaller... but flabby. You'll look like an old lady. And that look doesn't exactly drive the women wild on the beach!

No energy. Poor eating habits leads to poor energy. And that means you can't give 100% during your workouts, which leads to poor results.

Slowed metabolism. Let's say you find out you need to eat 2500 calories to lose weight. If you're eating "dirty" calories (like sugary, fatty, processed foods), eventually you'll have to eat even fewer calories. That's because these foods do nothing to keep your metabolism roaring.

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5 Healthy Ways To Boost Your Metabolism

Some people just have faster metabolisms than others. It isn't fair that one person can go through a pint of ice cream without gaining a single pound. Genetics play a huge role in one's metabolism, the body's engine that helps continually burn calories. At the end of the day, however, slow metabolisms are no fun and the desire to make them work faster is ever-growing.

We all like easy ways, hacks if you will, that help kick-start any process. While there is no magic pill or a one trick fix to speed up the process, there are several natural ways to increase metabolism. Using a combination of the following methods, you can achieve the results you want.

Eat Breakfast:

Getting out of bed and beginning the day can be a lethargic process. Expending the energy to make breakfast, in addition to all the other elements of a morning routine, may not seem in the cards. A healthy breakfast plays a key role in helping to shift the metabolism into gear. When you skip breakfast your metabolism slows down to conserve energy because no morning fuel has been provided. A hearty cup of steel-cut oats with fresh berries, which power you with antioxidants, and a banana is a great way to begin the day. You can also make some overnight oats so that breakfast is ready in the morning. Additionally, you can blend a fresh vegetable smoothie with spirulina and almonds to help get you going.




Amp Up Your Workout:

Exercising is a great way to get the juices flowing, but incorporating interval training can rev up your metabolism. If your workout consists of a 30-minute walk, for example, jog for 60 seconds every 5 minutes to help burn calories more efficiently. When you insert interval training into a workout, you consume more oxygen and make your mitochondria work harder to burn energy. Interval training can help burn calories more efficiently throughout the day.

Sip Some Green Tea:

Instead of drinking your morning java, substitute in some green tea for a metabolism-boosting, caffeine spark that'll get you going. Not only is green tea filled with antioxidants, it promotes healthy digestion and weight loss, when combined with at least three hours of exercise per week. It's also beneficial to alternate between hot green tea and cold water in the morning. The alternation of hot and cold makes your body burn calories to neutralize the liquids to its core temperature. The amount of calories burned is not substantial, but it's a great way to boost your metabolism. Also, drinking eight 8oz. glasses of water a day is recommended and can help boost your metabolic engine. One thing to note is that you should avoid drinking bottled green teas because many of them have sugar or artificial sweeteners.

Spice It Up:

When it comes to adding extra flavor to your food, spice it up with some heat; you can avoid the salt because that is not something you need. Add a few dashes of cayenne, chili powder, or fresh peppers to your meal. Capsaicin, the compound found in peppers, boosts your resting metabolic rate and increases the amount of calories burned after a meal. Additionally, the added spice to your food makes you feel full and satisfied. So there will be no late night snacking, which can interrupt proper digestion.

Sleep and Relax:

Getting proper sleep can help your metabolism function at its optimum level. The less sleep you get, the more difficult it is to process carbs. When you are exhausted all the time, your body cannot function properly because it lacks sufficient energy. This means that your metabolism naturally lowers. Sometimes you are stressed, which can inhibit proper sleep. It also means that your body is full of stress hormones that promote fat cell growth in the abdomen and increase food cravings. Take a load off and relax with some well-deserved "me time." If you have trouble falling asleep, there are a few tricks that will help you enter a deep slumber.

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