13 Easy Habits to Boost Your Metabolism and Burn Fat While You Are Sleeping
Chapter 1: What’s inside?
This article is a guide to developing easy habits that will help you lose weight and boost your metabolism, even while you are sleeping.
Habits begin as a discipline then change to spontaneous patterns of everyday life. While it may seem tough at the start, your body will slowly adapt to these patterns in your life.
The reason this guide is so easy to follow and incorporate into your daily life is that none of the habits shortlisted here contain strict regimes and diet plans.
When you compare the three aspects of a human being: the mind, the body and the spirit, it’s the body that is the easiest to train.
And if you can successfully train your body to follow healthy habits, you will start living a happier life.
Training your body to burn fat throughout the day and helping it to continue burning calories when you sleep, keeps your metabolism at an optimum rate. Having a high metabolism keeps your mind and body younger.
This guide has shortlisted habits and advice from famous people who are fit and healthy; it includes scientific research data and provides key lifestyle practices that will help you to become more energetic and fit.
The article focuses on three key points that need to be taken into consideration when you want to boost your metabolism and lose weight:
a) Calorie intake: The aim of any weight loss plan is to burn calories quicker and more efficiently, and this can be achieved by monitoring calorie intake and planning your meals well.
b) Physical activity: Any physical activity uses energy from the calories.Since you burn more calories while exercising, compared to when you area at rest – physical activity is credited for boosting our metabolism significantly.
c) Eating and Lifestyle: Eating pattern refers to when you have your meals and the number of meals you have in a day. Eating pattern determines how our body consumes calories. Tweaking the eating pattern into an efficient plan can significantly improve metabolism and help reduce weight.
Similarly, your everyday habits could determine the efficiency of your metabolism and your body’s ability to lose weight. This guide will introduce you to effective lifestyle and eating patterns, which are good for your metabolism.
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Chapter 2: The ABCs of Metabolism
What is Metabolism?
Metabolism is the biochemical reaction in all living beings that helps us to stay alive. The process helps us, humans, to grow, reproduce, recover from illness and react to our environment.
This biochemical process in our body helps to convert the food we eat into energy by burning the calories that we consume.
Our body needs energy to breathe, circulate blood, grow new cells, support brain activity, use muscles, and even to sleep. If we choose to live a healthy and disciplined life, we can boost our metabolism while we are awake, and while we are asleep.
How it works: Anabolism and Catabolism
Anabolism is the process by which the body uses energy to build things like growing new cells, increase muscle mass, help bone growth, maintain cell tissues and develop hormones.
Catabolism is the process where the body breaks down things to create energy, like breaking down carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins.
Metabolism includes the process of Catabolism (energy created) and anabolism (energy used). Any excess energy that your body doesn’t use is stored as fat and adds to our weight.
Basal Metabolic Rate
The amount of calories that our body burns while at rest for 24 hours is called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). BMR is based on our gender, age, height, and weight. As we age our BMR decreases by 2% every decade after the age of 20.
However, there are tried and tested methods which can help you boost your metabolism and slow down your aging process, making you fitter and feel younger.
Chapter 3: Check your Meal Plan
The first component of losing weight and building your metabolism is managing your calorie intake and having a healthy and balanced diet and meal plan.
These tips for your meals is easy to put into practice, and you will be surprised at how well your body reacts to these habits, making you feel healthier and fitter.
- Spice up your Diet
Adding spices to your food is known to help boost your metabolism between 5%-20%. Try including turmeric, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, ginseng, cardamom, black pepper and just a bit of chilly when you cook.
Turmeric is known for its antiseptic properties, but it also reduces insulin-producing levels, responsible for fat deposits in your body.
Garlic’s anti-inflammatory properties help burn those fat deposits, while black pepper is known to quicken the digestion process and increase your metabolism.
As for chilies- Remember the dish doesn’t have to be very spicy. The chilies are not meant to burn your lips but help you spike your metabolism. Chilies generate heat which in turn helps burn the fat in your body.
Where cinnamon and cardamom are concerned, the digestive properties in cardamom is widely believed to be a metabolism enhancer while cinnamon is beneficial for regulating blood sugar levels and reducing LDL (bad cholesterol).
Finally, try adding some Ginseng in your soup. It’s a sacred spice found in North America and in the Far-east countries like China, North and South Korea, Bhutan and Vietnam, and often used in Chinese medicines.
Its properties are known to help reduce obesity, and spike the body’s metabolism rate.
2) Drink Milk
A study by the University of Tennessee shows that drinking milk or including dairy in your diet can not only prevent osteoporosis but also reduce the production of fat.
Having about 1.1 grms of milk every day can boost your fat burning metabolism to up to 70%.
In an experiment conducted by Dr. Michael Zemel, an expert on weight loss and dieting shows that a group of people who had included 1000mg of low-fat yogurt succeeded in reducing their waist size by more than an inch when compared to another group that was given 400-500mgs of calcium supplement. The shrinkage was due to loss of belly fat.
Having low-fat milk after a workout is an excellent way to continue burning fat and spiking your metabolism.
A study has shown that dairy drinkers were able to gain up to 63% more lean muscles after 12 weeks of weight training when compared to those who were given energy drinks.
Do you remember: The very successful advertising campaign called “Got Milk” that took place in the United States to encourage people to drink milk, and understand its benefits? A host of well-known figures took part in it including Susan Sarandon, Beyoncé, and Martha Stewart.
3) Drink Water
Here are two reasons why drinking water is so important for weight loss and boosting your metabolism. First of all, water contains no calories.
Secondly, water helps to digest and metabolize the food that you have eaten much better.
Dehydration significantly lowers your metabolism rate. And what is worse, people often confuse thirst with hunger, which results in excess consumption of food.
Drinking 16oz (500ml) of cool water as soon as you wake up can boost your metabolism by least 25%.
It also flushes out toxins from your body and gives fuel to your brain since brain tissues are made of 75% water.
It is also a good idea to have a glass of water before every meal; this helps to douse hunger pangs and stops you from over eating.
4) Have Protein and Protein Shakes
Protein is a nutrient found mostly in fish, meat, and pulses, low-fat dairy, and legumes. Research has shown that eating high protein meals can boost your metabolism significantly and help you burn between 150-200 calories in a day.
People who include lean proteins as part of their (at least a third of the total daily calorie intake) meals lost nearly 11 pounds (5 kilos) in two months.
American College of Nutrition has recently written about the goodness of “whey” protein and protein shakes.
Whey is a component found in dairy. Whey can be isolated and is often used as a supplement.
Whey is considered to be a protein that includes the much needed nine amino acids. Our body can digest whey very quickly. This helps in increasing our metabolism, decreasing fat, and in losing weight without losing muscle mass.
Whey protein shakes can be an ideal meal replacement every few days in a week. You could make healthy smoothies with fruits and low-fat milk or yogurt with whey protein.
Bonus: Proteins curb your hunger pangs.
5) Eat Fish
Fish, especially oily fish has earned the status of Superfoods because it’s rich in Omega 3 fatty acids or good fats.
Omega 3 helps to boost the fat-burning enzymes in your body, and it lowers the leptin levels in your body that allows the body to burn calories at a much faster pace.
Salmon, mackerel, sardine, and trout are fatty fish packed with omega 3. Try baked or slightly sautéed or poached preparations of these fish, and include them in your meals, at least twice a week.
A study by the International Journal of Obesity showed that including 5 ounces (142 gms) of salmon per week, over four weeks, helped a trial group to lose 2.2 pounds (1 kilo) more weight than those who didn’t include fish in their diet.
Omega 3 is also good for brain tissue maintenance. With age, our cognitive powers decline, however, studies have shown that those who eat fatty fish regularly have slower rates of cognitive decline.Did you know: Eating fish can make you happier? Omega 3 fatty acids is saidto be helpful in treating mild to moderate depression
6) Consume Qualitative Calories
Weight loss, fat burn always comes down to calorie intake. However, it’s important to distinguish between food that gives empty calories versus those that are good for the metabolism and help in burning fat.
For example, ¼ cup of almonds has around 164 calories or a medium sized avocado has 227 calories, but they are both very good for the metabolism and have components that help reduce the LDL (bad cholesterol) in our bodies.
On the other hand, one mini hotdog that has only 168 calories gives little nutrient value to the body. It doesn’t help the metabolism, and in fact adds to the fat in our body. This is what is known as empty calories.
Therefore, when counting calories, it’s important to pay attention to the total qualitative aspect of the food and its nutrients rather than just the quantitative one.
It’s advised that you always read carefully the nutrients and ingredients mentioned in the food package. Try and avoid all processed, flavored, and fast foods, sugary foods, and alcohol, if you really want to lose weight and boost your metabolism.
You can read Alcohol and metabolism – a scientific study and method of consumption
What to look for on a food package: Total calorie count, calories from fat (the calories from fat should be only a small percentage of the total calorie count), cholesterol and sugar percentages should be very low in single digit numbers.
Chapter 4: Move your Body
BMR, as you know, is the metabolism rate when you are resting. Therefore, any physical activity that you do spikes up your metabolism rate.
The advice in this chapter doesn’t include difficult regimes or extreme exercising. The chapter focuses on easy, tried and tested practices.
7) Walking- Low-intensity long duration activity
Those who walk regularly do not only have a better metabolism but are also likely to have their stress levels under control.
Since Walking is a low-intensity exercise it helps improve your stamina and increase blood flow to all parts of your body.
A brisk walk for 45 minutes to an hour will help you burn calories and significantly increase your metabolism. As per Mayoclinic.com, you can burn 204 calories if you walk at a 2 mile per hour rate for one hour.
Studies have shown that walking for nine or more hours every week improves your resting metabolism as well which means your body continues to burn calories at a faster rate, while you are resting.
It’s useful if you have a step counter like Fitbit because it helps you track your achievements every day, and motivates you to increase your count.
Did you know: Celebrities like Julia Roberts, Heidi Klum, and Brooke Shields all practice regular power walking? You don’t need to go to a gym to walk; you can walk in your city as part of your daily exercise or when you have to do errands.
“I don’t exercise every day, but in New York, it’s easier because we walk everywhere. I make my kids do that too,” Brooke Shields said in an interview with Babble.
8) High-intensity short interval training
If walking is not your cup of tea and you need the motivation that you get in a gym, then go for high-intensity workouts for short durations. You can choose
from aerobics, running, spinning or power yoga. The hardest part or fastest rhythm should last no longer than 30 minutes. Once the hardest part of your workout is completed, the rest of the exercise should be very slow-paced.
The idea is to reach a peak in every routine. But not to push yourself over, as this could lead to over-exhaustion and nausea.
Interval training not only burns fat and tones your muscles but it significantly improves your metabolism. Most importantly, such workouts help your system to continue burning calories even after the routine is over.
9) Post-meal Activity
The best way to burn calories from the food you eat is to walk for at least 20 minutes after each meal. Sitting or sleeping immediately after eating does not help you to digest food easily.
This means that there is a higher probability of converting food to fat rather than helping your body burn calories. Belly fat is an apt example of what happens when you sleep or nap following a meal.
For office- goers, try to keep at least 40 minutes for lunch, 20 for having it and 20 for walking off the calories.
As for dinners, it’s best to have dinner before 7 p.m; this allows you ample time for activities (like walking around the house, doing chores, etc…) that help boost your metabolism while you are awake and continue burning calories while you sleep.
Chapter 5: Re-think your Eating & Lifestyle Patterns
Eating patterns represent eating frequency and how you choose to consume calories throughout the day.
Similarly, lifestyle choices are about habits that you follow in your everyday life.
This chapter is about key lifestyle and eating habits that could transform your life and health, by training your body to burn calories faster and longer.
10) Intermittent Fasting
This is a proven method for systematic weight loss and improvement of your metabolism.
There are different fasting techniques that vary from once a day (12-14hrs a day) to twice a week. It’s important that you check with your doctor before starting intermittent fasting.
There are two reasons behind the success of this method. One, you don’t have to watch every single calorie during your meals.
Second, the calories that you do consume are burnt by your body during the fasting periods, even if you don’t exercise.
Since your body continues to burn calories to give you energy, it improves both your metabolism as well as your energy levels.
Intermittent fasting is one of the most successful weight loss methods that help the body to continue burning calories even when you are asleep.
As you lose weight, it’s important to review the fasting pattern and to modify it to your needs.
The 5:2 Fasting Plan: This is a very popular weight loss procedure introduced by British doctor Michael Mosley.
In this plan, you can eat your normal diet for five days in a week, but on the remaining two days, you curb your calorie intake to 500-600 calories a day.
Who’s a fan of the 5:2 Fasting Plan? Amongst many other fit and famous people, Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Lopez and Miranda Kerr follow this Fasting Plan.
11) Cold Showers
Here’s an effective technique to boost your metabolism and burn calories. The trick is to finish your bath or shower with cold water. You could start with warm water and then switch to cold water before wiping yourself dry.
Or for those willing to brave it, you can choose to bathe only in cold water. Since the cold water cools your body and brings down the temperature, your body automatically begins to use energy by burning calories, to keep you warm. This helps to improve your metabolism.
Remember though; this method doesn’t require you to have ice baths every day as you could fall seriously ill. Having a cold shower, or ending your bath with cold water results in a quick drop in body temperature.
So it is advisable that you don’t stay cold for a long period of time, especially during winter months.
Did you know: Sofia Vergara, star of Modern Family TV series, who is considered to be one of the fittest and most beautiful actresses on television, shared this beauty advice in an interview with Vogue magazine: “My mother used to tell me to shower with cold water so, until today at the end of my shower, I use cold water.”
12) Sleep well
Here’s how deep sleep could help you burn fat and boost your metabolism. Sleeping well for at least 8 hours a night improves the HGH (Human Growth Hormones) levels.
Check Obesity and hormones
Extensive research has established the direct link between the increase in HGH levels to an increase in metabolism.
HGH is responsible for decreasing fat accumulation, protecting organs including skin from aging, and keeping our body lean.
As we age the HGH production slows down. Stress, exercise, diet all affects the HGH levels.
However, since 70 to 80% of the HGH production happens during sleeping, you should try and get quality sleep every single night.
Bonus: during your 8-9 hours of sleep, you don’t consume any calories, but the body continues to burn calories, and thus you lose weight.
A study done by the University of Pennsylvania shows a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and quick weight gain.
Have you heard about the Sleep Revolution? It’s a book written by Arianna Huffington, co-founder, and editor-in-chief of Huffington Post, where she speaks extensively on the importance of sleep to our mental and physical health.
13) Stay Consistent
The best method to weight loss is following a disciplined pattern for diet and exercise habits. The worst thing you can do to your body is to keep changing weight loss plans every few weeks. It’s also best to avoid any extreme programs like “Juice Only” diets or “Excessive Workouts”. While this may help you lose weight quickly, you will find it hard to sustain such a lifestyle over a long period, and you risk putting your body through a yo-yo process, alternating between weight loss and weight gain.
Those who choose a balanced diet and a moderate work-out routine, which they sustain over a long period, are successfully able to train their bodies to burn fat consistently and systematically.
Chapter 6: Useful Tips to Get You Started
A lot of us find it difficult to alter our lifestyle. Even though this book includes simple habits, you may wonder how best to re-organize your life. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Cross the 30-day mark
It takes around three to four weeks to make a new habit into an automatic one. So commit yourself to cross the 30-day mark, and you will see how easily your new habit becomes part of your daily life. And once it becomes a daily habit, you can sustain it over a long time.
Start Simple
Don’t try to change everything at once. Introduce two new dietary habits and one new physical activity every week.
For example, drinking water first thing in the morning and adding fish to your diet is very easy to introduce in your daily life. Similarly, try walking for 20 minutes every day and increase the duration by 10 minutes at the start of each new week.
Find a Buddy
If you can rope in a partner, friend, roommate or colleague to follow the new habits and patterns, you will find it easier to stay motivated and consistent.
Do away with Temptation
This is tough at the start, but a very helpful advice. Remove those packets of chips and cookies and frozen hot dogs and beer from your kitchen.
Replace the instant pancake mixes for high-fiber cereals and milk. When you want to turn to a healthy and fit lifestyle, foods with high fat and high-calorie content must go out of sight and out of mind.
Think of it as an Experiment
If you are still skeptical about the benefits of the 13 habits mentioned, then try it as an experiment for at least a month. You have nothing to lose, except your weight!
Find your Motivator
This is something that always helps. A motivator can be a wedding, a trek, a college reunion, a family get together or even going for pregnancy. It makes it easier when there is a definite date and goal by when you want to get fitter. Remember though; your goal must at least be three months or more away, giving you ample time to develop your habits and see the results.
