Weight Loss
March 31, 2009 by Tisha Tolar
Filed under Exercise
Your best friend eats pizza and chocolate like they’re going out of style and never gains an ounce, while you watch 
everything you eat and can’t seem to lose any weight. Does this mean your friend’s metabolism is that of a race car driver and yours takes after a turtle? Possibly, but that doesn’t mean you should give up. Everyone has the ability to speed up their metabolism, regardless of age, genes, gender or current fitness level.
Here’s how to speed up your metabolism and accelerate weight loss:
Metabolism is the process in your body of breaking down fats, carbohydrates and proteins to give your body energy. The speed of your metabolism depends on a number of things, from your genetic makeup, to the number of calories you consume versus the number of calories you burn when exercising. Since you can’t do anything about your genetic makeup, the best way to speed up your metabolism is to make your body require more energy so that it burns more calories.
A body burns fat when it’s exercising, but of course it is quite impossible to exercise all day long – particularly if you have to do some work and that work is done from behind a desk! Your body will continue to burn calories about an hour and a half after you exercise or lift weights, and sometimes up to a full 24 hours after an intense workout. Lift weights that are heavier than usual (without hurting yourself!) and your body will use more energy to repair the small, normal muscle tears that occur with the increase in strength training. To maximize calories that your body burns after exercising, integrate a high intensity interval followed by a moderate intensity interval of exercise – for example, walk for 3 minutes followed by an all-out run for 30 seconds, followed by another 3 minutes of walking. You’ll increase your calorie burning using this method of exercise.
When you increase the muscle mass of your body, you require more calories to maintain yourself. So every pound of muscle burns 50 more calories without effort.
Metabolism will be increased when you eat foods that require energy to digest. Proteins are a great option for increasing metabolism since your body will burn twice as many calories digesting proteins than it does digesting fatty foods or carbohydrates.
Finally, don’t forget to get enough sleep! Numerous research studies have shown that a lack of sleep can decrease the number of calories your body burns when resting.
