Nottingham connected
Health & Food
23
Bottom Line: Lifting weights is important for building
and retaining muscle. Higher amounts of muscle will
result in a higher metabolism. Bottom Line: Eating spicy food could be beneficial for
boosting your metabolism and helping you maintain a
healthy weight.
5. Stand Up More 8. Get Some Rest
Sitting too much is bad for your health. Some health
commentators have even dubbed it “the new smoking.”
This is partly because long periods of sitting burns
fewer calories and can lead to weight gain. In fact,
compared with sitting, an afternoon of standing up at
work can burn an extra 174 calories. Sleep deprivation has also been linked with increased
blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, which are
both linked to a higher risk of developing type 2
diabetes. It’s also been shown to boost the hunger
hormone ghrelin, and decrease the fullness hormone
leptin. This could explain why many people who are
sleep deprived feel hungry and struggle to lose weight
and keep it off.
Bottom Line: Sitting for a long time burns few calories
and is bad for your health. Try to stand up regularly to
break up the length of time you spend sitting down or
invest in a standing desk.
6. Drink Green Tea
Green tea and oolong tea have been shown to increase
metabolism by 4–5% in some people. These teas help
convert some of the fat stored in your body into free
fatty acids, which may increase fat burning by 10–17%.
As they are low in calories, drinking these teas may be
good for both weight loss and weight maintenance.
It’s thought their metabolism-boosting properties may
help prevent the dreaded weight loss plateau that
occurs due to a decrease in metabolism.
Bottom Line: Drinking green tea or oolong tea can
increase your metabolism. These teas may also help you
lose weight and keep it off.
7. Eat Spicy Foods
Peppers contain capsaicin, a substance that can boost
your metabolism. However, many people can’t tolerate
these spices at the doses required to have a significant
effect. One study of capsaicin, at acceptable doses,
predicted that eating peppers would burn around 10
additional calories per meal. The effects of adding
spices to your food may be quite small, however it may
be useful when combined with other metabolism-
boosting strategies.
Bottom Line: Lack of sleep can decrease the amount of
calories you burn, change the way you process sugar and
disrupt your appetite-regulating hormones.
9. Drink Coffee
Studies have shown that the caffeine in coffee can boost
metabolism by 3–11%. Like green tea, it also promotes
fat burning and can contribute to maintaining a healthy
weight. However, this seems to affect lean people more.
In one study, coffee increased fat burning by 29% for
lean women, but only 10% for obese women.
Bottom Line: Drinking coffee can significantly increase
your metabolism and help you lose weight.
10. Use Coconut Oil for Cooking
Unlike other saturated fats, coconut oil contains a lot
of medium-chain fats. Medium-chain fats can increase
your metabolism more than the long-chain fats found
in foods like butter. In one study, researchers found
that medium-chain fats increased metabolism by 12%,
compared to long-chain fats, which raised it by just
4%. Due to the unique fatty acid profile of coconut oil,
replacing some of your other cooking fats with it may
have modest benefits for weight loss.
Bottom Line: Replacing other cooking fats with coconut
oil may help boost your metabolism slightly.