Being on a strict diet for any period of time only increases your cravings for the food you loved in the first place. It increasing your cravings to a point where you overeat so much that you gain weight.
To eat the foods you like and still lose weight you simply have to increase your metabolism. Your metabolism is your body’s fireplace. This fireplace will burn all that ugly body fat off you if operate it correctly. Here are some (6) simple ways to increase your metabolism:
1. Eat More!
That’s right. Instead of eating 1-3 big meals a day try eating 5-7 smaller meals a day. Remember your body’s metabolism is like a fireplace. Think about this way: when you eat 1-3 big meals you are basically putting a real big log on your fireplace and anytime you put too much on a fire it goes out.
When you feed yourself small meals spaced about 2-3 hours apart during the day you are putting small pieces of wood on your fat-burning fireplace. These small meals keep your fireplace burning throughout the day.
What happens when you don’t put any wood on a fireplace? It goes out right? The same thing happens when you eat less than 3 meals a day. Waiting 4-6 hours between meals is too long, to keep your fireplace going remember to eat SMALL meals every 2-3 hours.
Just eat enough in each meal to satisfy you and not so much that you fell full.
2. Build Muscle
Did you know…
- That just 1lb of muscle burns off a pound of fat every 70 days!
- 3lbs of muscle will burn off a pond of fat every 23 days
- 5lbs of muscle will burn a pound of fat every 2 weeks.
Building muscle doesn’t mean you have to start Bench pressing, squatting, or buying fancy equipment. To build muscle you can do simple bodyweight exercises like pushups, crunches, and bodyweight squats.
Walking up steep hills at a moderate to fast pace will build muscle in your legs. All it takes is 10-20min a day 2-3 times a week with weights or your own bodyweight. Don’t worry about what the scale says when you put a few pounds of muscle.
Good-looking muscle weights more and is more dense than ugly body fat. If you put on five pounds of muscle it will seem like you lost 5-10lbs.
3. Become a lil’ active
Notice that I said become a lil’ active. By adding just a little bit of physical activity to your regular daily routine can increase your metabolism. Getting more active doesn’t mean you have to sign up at a gym and take tae-bo or start participating in marathons regularly! There are many ways that you can easily become a little more active to lose weight.
For example:
- When you go to a store-instead of trying to get the best parking spot take the worst one all the way at the back of the parking lot so you have to walk more.
- Throw away your TV remote & get up to change the channels.
- Stop using the elevator. Take the stairs or at least take the stairs half way up.
These are just a few examples of ways that you can start adding a little physical activity to your daily routine. It may not seem like much in the beginning but all the extra calories you burn by doing these little activities adds up to you losing more weight.
Could you save gas by walking to certain locations or is it possible that you can ride a bike to certain locations instead of driving? Just be creative and start thinking about how you can gradually add some extra physical activity your daily routine.