Lifestyle Hacks to Put Your Metabolism Into Overdrive

If you want to give your metabolic rate a kick, eating the right foods and doing the right exercises is a key part of this. However, you also need to make sure you’re leading a lifestyle that promotes a healthy metabolism. In this article I’m going to be taking a deeper look at this topic and listing five top lifestyle tips for boosting your metabolic rate.

Don’t Overdose On Caffeine

When consumed in moderation, caffeine can actually give your metabolism a boost. However, overdosing on caffeine can interfere with your body’s internal processes and cause you to become dehydrated. This has a negative effect on your metabolism and reduces the amount of calories you burn each day.

To prevent this from happening, be mindful of how many caffeinated drinks you’re having per day. This will still allow you to enjoy plenty of black tea, coffee or green tea during the day without adversely affecting the amount of calories you burn.

Look For Opportunities To Stay Active

Every day is full of opportunities to stay active, burn some extra calories and rev up your metabolism. However, most people don’t look for these opportunities and as a result they don’t use up as many calories as they could during the day.

To make the most of these opportunities, be more aware of the options available to you and choose the one that’s best for your metabolism. For example, if you have a choice between taking the elevator and the stairs, take the stairs. If you’re planning to use the car for a short journey, consider walking or cycling instead. Doing this will significantly increase your metabolism and allow you to burn plenty of extra calories each day.

Moderate Your Alcohol Consumption

Like caffeine, alcoholic drinks are something that can be enjoyed in small quantities but when consumed excessively, they slow down your metabolism. The reason for this is that large amounts of alcohol cause your body to become dehydrated and this inhibits your metabolism and limits the total daily calories you burn. To prevent alcohol having a negative impact on your metabolism, limit your consumption to two alcoholic drinks per week.

Stay Hydrated

As mentioned above, dehydration slows down your metabolism and reduces the total number of calories you burn each day. Staying hydrated has the opposite effect, helps you maintain an optimal metabolism and maximizes the amount of calories you burn each day.

To ensure that you stay hydrated, consume the equivalent of eight glasses of water per day. There are plenty of different foods and drinks that can help you hit this target, so even if you’re not a huge fan of water, it’s still really easy to stay hydrated. Simply enjoy black tea, coffee, green tea, water rich fruits (such as grapefruit and melon) and water rich vegetables (such as broccoli and spinach) regularly and you’ll easily stay hydrated and burn the maximum amount of calories possible each day.

Get At Least 6 Hours Of Sleep Per Night

Getting six hours or more of high-quality sleep each night boosts your metabolism in numerous ways. First, it stimulates the release of growth hormone - a hormone which burns body fat and builds muscle (muscle cells burn three times more calories than fat cells, so naturally raises your metabolic rate). Second, it ensures that all your vital organs function optimally and prevents your metabolism from slowing down. So if you’re not currently getting at least six hours of quality sleep on a nightly basis, make the effort to improve your sleep patterns from today.

Get More Plants in Your Diet

Plants contain a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and all kinds of nutrients that your body needs to function properly. While these nutrients don’t have a direct effect on calories, they do have an effect on how your metabolism functions. It’s important to get a wide variety of different fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds in your diet every day. Sometimes life gets busy though and it’s easier to reach for convenience foods instead of nutrient dense foods. This is where whole food supplements made out of real fruits and vegetables can be extremely beneficial. While they don’t replace the need to eat fruits and vegetables, they do help fill the nutrient gaps in your diet on the days that you’re not eating as healthy as you’d like to.

When combined with a diet that’s rich in metabolism boosting foods and drinks and a consistent metabolism boosting workout plan, the tips above will maximize the calories you burn on a daily basis. So take another look, make sure you’re implementing all five and give your metabolism a kick.