4 Steps on How to Improve Your Metabolism With Vegetarian Diet - Your Body Needs to Burn Calories-fitnessperch

Metabolism. For some, this word is their best friend, but for most of us that word is our worst enemy. In general, as you get older our metabolism starts to slow down, which means you can't get away with eating the same way you did when you were a teenager.

I know what you are thinking, why is this 26-year-old writing about a slow metabolism? Since graduating from college and playing competitive sports regularly, I've felt the effects of a slower metabolism in the past few years, and I'm often reminded by my parents and clients “just you wait until you are my age.

” Inspired by these warnings, I've spent that last year searching for a magic pill that will stop my metabolism from slowing down, but so far, the magic pill still eludes me. OK, so there's no magic pill, but there is a proven formula to help jump start your metabolism!

So, the question this week is what can we do (until I find the magic pill) to improve our metabolism?

1. Nutritional Balance: Make sure you aren't going more than 3 hours without eating… It slows your metabolism way down. Eating every 3 hours gives you more energy and helps control your blood sugar, which means you will burn more fat.

When preparing your snack or meal, make sure you have a ratio of 2:1 or 1:1 of carbohydrates:protein. A great in-between meals snack is an apple and about 15 raw almonds.

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2. Add Strength Training to your Exercise Regimen: Strength training is an important part of improving your metabolism. When you perform resistance exercises, you are expending additional calories, thereby increasing your caloric burn, or metabolism, for that given day.

After you complete your strength training workout, for the next 24 - 48 hours, your body will have to work harder than normal to repair the muscle tissues that have had stress imposed on them.

As your body is recovering from your most recent strength training workout, you are burning more calories than you would if you hadn't worked out.

3. Proper Recovery and Hydration: Sleep and hydration are also crucial to improving our metabolism. A lack of sleep increases blood sugar levels and interfere with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates. This leads to higher insulin levels and more fat storage. It is recommended that we get 6-8 hours of sleep every night.

You'll turn your body into a fat burning machine. That is, your body will burn more fat – even when it is at rest. Just imagine sleeping or sitting in a chair and your body is burning fat like crazy.

2. When you improve metabolism, you can cheat a little and not put on as much fat. Remember when you were a teenager which could eat whatever you wanted and still maintained a slim physique.

Drink 70 ounces of water per day.

Water has so much health and weight loss benefits, it's crazy. Drink more of it, and you will have more energy and a faster metabolism.

That's all there is to it. Research proves that drinking lots of water can speed up your metabolism up to 30%! 70 ounces of water may seem like a lot, but it's really not, especially when you break it up into small amounts and sip all day long.

Eat more protein.

Protein takes a lot of energy (calories) to digest and process. It's considered to be the “hottest burning” food, since it increases the metabolism much more than carbohydrates and fats. In fact, lean protein -- such as grilled skinless chicken breast -- may be the best fat-burning food of them all.

Eat more often.

Eat several small, protein-rich meals and snacks per day, spaced out about every 2-4 hours. This boosts your metabolism much more than eating the 2-3 “big” meals that most people eat every day.

Research has shown that people who eat more frequently throughout the day are usually leaner and fitter than people who eat a couple of large meals at irregular times.

Do interval-based cardio and full-body strength workouts.

The best exercise for boosting metabolism naturally is interval-based cardio exercise and full-body strength training. Interval cardio -- such as high-intensity interval training or “HIIT” -- is a proven fat burner.

Full-body strength training speeds up the metabolism, increases metabolism-boosting lean muscle tissue, and causes the body to produce powerful hormones that increase the metabolism 24 hours a day.

Sleep more - You need at a minimum 8 hours of sleep per night. Studies have been done that show people who sleep less than 8 hours per night have a slower metabolism than those who get in a good night's rest.

Also, those who do not get enough sleep tend to eat more during the day trying to keep their energy levels up, which is not good when your metabolism has slowed down.

2. Evening exercise—As the day progresses, our metabolic rate declines so that by the time late afternoon and early evening arrive we are no longer burning calories at the rate we were in the morning.

Take a quick walk or do some other form of exercise that revs up your metabolic engine. It doesn't have to be a full-blown workout, just get the heart pumping and the blood flowing.

3. Get moving - Getting your body moving is a great way to increase metabolism. Go for a walk at lunch instead of surfing the internet at work, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car in the space farthest away from the door where you work, things like this will go a long ways towards burning excess calories.

4. Eat some protein - Protein helps stabilize the amount of insulin in your bloodstream. Too much or too little insulin can play havoc with your metabolism.

5. Eat more meals—The key to increasing your metabolism is keeping a consistent flow of calories throughout the day. Instead of eating three big meals, eat 5 or 6 smaller meals during the day. This gives your body a consistent supply of energy all day long. And don't skip meals; this can actually slow down your metabolism.

6. The food you eat—Eat nutritious high fiber foods. By eating healthy, you give your body the nutrients it needs to run efficiently. In fact, it is believed that some foods require so much digestive processing that they actually burn more calories than they contain.

7. Lift some weights - Lean muscle mass burns many calories. Lifting weights not only shapes your body, but as your muscles rebuild and recover after a workout they continue to burn large amounts of calories. This means you can actually lose weight while you are resting.