Increasing Your Metabolism with Diet
1 – Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day. Extending the time between meals makes your body go into “starvation mode,” which decreases your metabolism as a means to conserve energy and prevent starvation. While some people are able to lose weight through intermittent fasting, most people generally eat less overall when they eat small, frequent meals. In addition to having four to six small meals per day, eating healthy snacks will also increase metabolism.
- Packing extra non-perishable snacks and keeping them on you is helpful. You never know when a train will be delayed or when you’ll be stuck at the office. If you allow yourself to get hungry, you’ll end up eating something you shouldn’t and your diet will go out the window.
2 – Choose lean proteins. Eating a diet rich in lean proteins will increase your metabolism because it takes more energy for your body to digest the protein. Choose lean proteins like turkey, fish, eggs, beans, and tofu.
- Cottage cheese is a good source of casein protein. Eating cottage cheese, particularly before bed, is a good idea because it releases slowly into the body, and as a result, your metabolism is working all night.
3 – Add spice to your favorite foods. Adding spicy peppers, crushed red pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper to your recipes can help increase your metabolism. The effects of eating spicy foods are only temporary, but you can add a little spice to one or more of your meals every day to keep getting the metabolism boosting benefits.
- Hot sauce is another great addition to any meal. Not only does it help to increase your metabolism, but it doesn’t have many calories, if any (depending on brand).
- Keep in mind that although spicy foods do increase metabolism, they only increase metabolism by about 8%, so it is still important to watch your calories if you are trying to lose weight.