Increase your metabolism: the ultimate weight loss buzzword. However, there is no solid evidence that humans can permanently alter how our bodies process food for energy or heat.
70% of your metabolism is based on your BMR. It’s the amount of energy your body uses to function at rest. (Consider maintaining body temperature, heartbeat, and digestive process.) This is what people mean by speeding up their metabolism.
What doesn’t raise the rate of Metabolism?
There are so many alleged quick fixes to improve your metabolism it’s dizzying. Here are a few popular ones that, according to a study, fail to affect long-term metabolism or weight reduction.
1. Maintain muscle mass – Metabolism
“Muscle mass increases metabolism,” says Douglas White, Ph.D., Associate Professor of nutrition, dietetics, and hotel management at Auburn University. It requires more energy to maintain muscle mass than fat.
“When people lose weight, they lose not simply fat, but also muscular mass,” adds White. Reducing weight by burning calories is challenging if you lose muscle.”
2. Avoid eating late at night
It doesn’t matter when you eat in terms of metabolism. TEF keeps you burning calories even when you consume. “It’s not because the calories are more potent at night – they give you the same energy,” adds Cheskin.
3. Some foods – Metabolism
Diet-induced thermogenesis (DET) is a term used to describe TEF. Aside from thermic effects, Metos claims there aren’t any foods that significantly improve metabolism.
So, do meals like grapefruit burn more fat than others? “Nope, none,” Metos says. “Improving metabolisms would burn carbs, protein, and fat. It’s difficult to distinguish between the two.”
Simple, says Cheskin, is why grapefruit and other citrus fruits are mythical. “It makes you eat less since it is sour.”
4. Gluten-free diets
Gluten raises metabolism in Celiacs, adds Cheskin. Gluten, a protein present in wheat and other cereals, causes Celiac disease. “Only 1% of those who think they have it do,” he claims. “It slows metabolisms and causes weight loss if you have it. You’ll get diarrhea and other issues from gluten.
5. Fasting
Fasting or starving yourself reduces metabolisms. You lose the thermic effect of eating, and your body goes into survival mode, explains Metos.
“Your body will burn everything it finds. “If it has nothing to burn, it will burn your muscles and the glucose in your blood or glycogen, glucose in your liver,” adds Metos.
Intermittent fasting may help lose weight, but it doesn’t speed your metabolism, says Cheskin. It’s not a recipe for long-term weight loss since it’s not sustainable.
6. Not sleeping
Sleep is the time of day when your metabolism slows down the most. But don’t stay up all night. If you stay up late thinking you’ll burn more calories; you’re probably staying up late eating to compensate.
While lack of sleep slows metabolisms, it causes more harm than good regarding weight loss or maintenance, says Cheskin, founder and head of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center.
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