Raising Metabolism
Losing Body Fat
One way to raise your metabolism is to eat. Yes, eating itself will actually raise your metabolic rate. That's why it's better to eat 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 2 or 3 large ones. Eating 2 or 3 larger meals with a long time in between meals will make your body store more calories as fat because it feels that it might get fed again for a while. It's like what happens to animals that hibernate. Constant meals through the day will prevent your body from entering this state and give you more energy and a faster metabolism. Of course, you must make sure that your portion sizes are small if you eat 5 or 6 times a day and that you eat every 2 or 3 hours. This can be tough, so prepare meals ahead of time so you're not forced to eat the wrong kinds of food. Basically, you eat half as many calories per meal but eat twice as often. The meals you eat also need to be nutritious and high in protein. Make sure you get most of your carbohydrates in your earlier meals and less in your later meals so you're less likely to store them as fat. You'll be surprised how much eating more often will affect your metabolic rate and fat burning success.
Doing cardiovascular or aerobic workouts will also help raise your metabolism. While longer, less intense cardio workouts may burn more calories during your workout, shorter, more intense sessions will keep your metabolic rate higher after you're done working out. You may want to perform your cardio workouts for a moderate period of time, doing bursts of more intense or faster training during your workouts. Start with a few minutes of low intensity exercise, then do a minute or 2 of higher intensity work before taking the intensity back down. Every few minutes go back to the intense training for 1 or 2 minutes. This will allow you to burn more calories during your cardio session and keep your metabolism higher after your workout.
Another great way to raise your metabolism is to follow a weight training routine. Weight training will help you add muscle size. This added muscle mass will give you a higher resting metabolism, so you'll be burning more fat and calories all of the time. Follow a weight training routine where you split the body 3 ways - either chest and back one day, arms the next, and legs on the last day: or chest, shoulders, and triceps one day, back and biceps the next, and legs on the last day. Doing this will allow you hit every hard when you work them out and get plenty of rest between workouts. Weight training to much will cause overtraining. Chronic overtraining will eventually cause you to lose muscle mass which will have the opposite effect on your metabolic rate than building muscle will.
Most women are afraid that weight training will make them too big. You ladies needn't worry though, just keep your reps per set higher and focus more on lower body weight training with a little upper body thrown. Adding more muscle to your butt and thighs will give you a more pleasing shape when you get rid of the body fat.
In closing, a combination of eating smaller meals more often, cardio workouts, and weight training workouts will give your body a faster metabolism and put you well on your way losing bodyfat and improving the shape of your body.
If you're trying to lose body fat, it's important to raise your metabolic rate, or the rate at which your body burns calories for energy. If you have a faster metabolism you'll put your body in the perfect state to burn fat quicker.
