How to boost metabolism?
djatk
Posts: 9
I've been researching different ways of increasing my metabolism so that my net calories are reduced. It definitely matters what you eat and drink. A calorie is not just a calorie! I'm a scientist by profession (although not in anything relevant to weight loss), so I've looked for info that is well justified by scientific experiment.
Here is what I've found. I hope that all of you will add to this list and/or ask good questions that lets us zero in on a great set of techniques for increasing our metabolic rate. For brevity, I've left out sources. If anything is unclear, please ask! Good luck to you!
-DJA
Boosting metabolism
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Exercise in morning increases metabolism for hours
Green or oolong tea (caffeine and catechins), two to four cups/day = 17% more calories for short period of time
Black coffee = short term boost of metabolic rate
Protein: requires almost 25% more energy to digest compared to fat. protein can up post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent. 1 gram per pound of body weight. Add a serving, like 3 ounces of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack
Chile pepper: 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chile pepper can boost metabolic rate by 20%. The effect lasts 1/2 hour. Recommend take 20 minutes before eating. The "hotter" the better. Chile pepper causes a thermobaric reaction — that's why you feel hot. It burns calories to make you hot!
Eat small meals every 3 to 4 hours keeps metabolism cranking so you burn more calories over the course of a day.
Ice cold drinks prompt body to burn more calories during digestion. five or six glasses of water on the rocks can use up to an extra 10 calories a day. drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that's 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily
Body needs water to process calories. Drink a glass of water before every meal and snack.Those who drank either eight or twelve 8-ounce glasses of water a day had higher metabolic rates than those who had four.
High intensity workouts gives bigger, longer increase in resting metabolic rate than low-= or moderate- intensity workouts. Short bursts of jogging while walking are great
Add muscle: each pound of muscle uses 6 calories a day just to sustain itself.
Fiber can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. Studies find that those who eat the most fiber gain the least weight over time. Aim for about 25 g a day—the amount in about three servings each of fruits and vegetables.
CALCIUM: consuming calcium in dairy foods such as fat-free milk and low-fat yogurt may also reduce fat absorption from other foods.
Watermelon: The amino acid arginine, abundant in watermelon, might promote weight loss, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition. Researchers supplemented the diets of obese mice with arginine over 3 months and found that it decreased body-fat gains by a whopping 64 percent. Adding this amino acid to the diet enhanced the oxidation of fat and glucose and increased lean muscle, which burns more calories than fat does. Snack on watermelon and other arginine sources, such as seafood, nuts, and seeds, year-round.
FISH OIL: EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil, may have the power to dramatically boost your metabolism -- by about 400 calories per day, researchers from the University of Western Ontario report. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total.
Here is what I've found. I hope that all of you will add to this list and/or ask good questions that lets us zero in on a great set of techniques for increasing our metabolic rate. For brevity, I've left out sources. If anything is unclear, please ask! Good luck to you!
-DJA
Boosting metabolism
==========
Exercise in morning increases metabolism for hours
Green or oolong tea (caffeine and catechins), two to four cups/day = 17% more calories for short period of time
Black coffee = short term boost of metabolic rate
Protein: requires almost 25% more energy to digest compared to fat. protein can up post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent. 1 gram per pound of body weight. Add a serving, like 3 ounces of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack
Chile pepper: 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chile pepper can boost metabolic rate by 20%. The effect lasts 1/2 hour. Recommend take 20 minutes before eating. The "hotter" the better. Chile pepper causes a thermobaric reaction — that's why you feel hot. It burns calories to make you hot!
Eat small meals every 3 to 4 hours keeps metabolism cranking so you burn more calories over the course of a day.
Ice cold drinks prompt body to burn more calories during digestion. five or six glasses of water on the rocks can use up to an extra 10 calories a day. drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that's 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily
Body needs water to process calories. Drink a glass of water before every meal and snack.Those who drank either eight or twelve 8-ounce glasses of water a day had higher metabolic rates than those who had four.
High intensity workouts gives bigger, longer increase in resting metabolic rate than low-= or moderate- intensity workouts. Short bursts of jogging while walking are great
Add muscle: each pound of muscle uses 6 calories a day just to sustain itself.
Fiber can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. Studies find that those who eat the most fiber gain the least weight over time. Aim for about 25 g a day—the amount in about three servings each of fruits and vegetables.
CALCIUM: consuming calcium in dairy foods such as fat-free milk and low-fat yogurt may also reduce fat absorption from other foods.
Watermelon: The amino acid arginine, abundant in watermelon, might promote weight loss, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition. Researchers supplemented the diets of obese mice with arginine over 3 months and found that it decreased body-fat gains by a whopping 64 percent. Adding this amino acid to the diet enhanced the oxidation of fat and glucose and increased lean muscle, which burns more calories than fat does. Snack on watermelon and other arginine sources, such as seafood, nuts, and seeds, year-round.
FISH OIL: EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil, may have the power to dramatically boost your metabolism -- by about 400 calories per day, researchers from the University of Western Ontario report. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total.
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Replies
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Thanks for the post. Very good info0
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Bump! I have to do all this!0
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sounds good dont think i can do them all but deffo can drink more and i do have green tea but run out until Friday x
thanks for the post x0 -
Hey thanks for sharing that, very informative and helpful to me who wonders if I have ruined my metabolism for life! I will try all those things you've suggested.0
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Good info here. Not sure I can handle doing the chile peppers though :-)0
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Bump....0
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You have to give us your sources0
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Thank you for the information. :-)0
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great info0
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this!! 0 -
great post thanks for the research! :flowerforyou:0
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I am skeptical to most of these.
I'm still a believer that your total calories in must be less than the calories you expend. That seems to be the plan that's working for me.
My doctor wrote me a prescription to Phentermine. It's an amphetimine that supresses appetite and allegedly boosts metabolism. I took it for a couple of months, but the side effects weren't worth it to me.
Best wishes to all on your health and wellness journey,0 -
Exercise in the morning has been the theme in what I've been reading the past few days. I don't start my exercise until I finish working at around 3:00 every day. I do a home video workout or one from a magazine. Then we hit the gym before supper every night. I may try getting up a little earlier and moving some in the mornings too. I don't usually crawl out until time to make breakfast and start my work. Hmmmm.0
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thanks, bump so I can read later0
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none of these are out there...in order to have improved fitness and lose weight there must be lifestyle changes. Thanks again..great post
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bump0
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@toasterlisa I agree totally that total calorie intake must be less than you expend. The goal is to have net calories not exceed your BMR. I count all of the metabolic hints as "bonus points" since it is not easy at all to compute. So I eat at the target calorie intake set for my by MFP (and compared to some other similar sites for sanity check).0
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FISH OIL: EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil, may have the power to dramatically boost your metabolism -- by about 400 calories per day, researchers from the University of Western Ontario report. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total.
I take this for depression. I have, uh, oily stools. I don't know if my body isn't absorbing the pills or other fats I'm eating.0 -
I don't care for ingesting the capsule form for the chili peppers because they usually cause too much burn in my stomach but I sure do enjoy hot peppers in food and salsas. For me, the good thing about eating hot peppers is the more I eat the more I crave. I think it has something to do with the endorphin release because my body thinks it's 'on fire'.
As for the fish oil, what are your thoughts on any fish oil coming from the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima nuclear incident? I refuse to take in any fish from the Pacific, now, since there is still news about floating debris from Fukushima making its way to far away coastal beaches. One thing I did right after the incident was to stock up on canned pacific deep sea wild salmon from Costco but that will only last until 2015. Any thoughts on this matter and what to use for fish and fish oil sources other than from the Pacific and antibiotic fed farm raised?
Also, I've been wondering about the safety of Krill oil recently since it is suppose to be a superior source.0 -
Question for OP scientist: Can a person's metabolism be damaged permanently? Is the damage irreversible?0
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FISH OIL: EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found only in fish oil, may have the power to dramatically boost your metabolism -- by about 400 calories per day, researchers from the University of Western Ontario report. Fish oil increases levels of fat-burning enzymes and decreases levels of fat-storage enzymes in your body. For the best metabolism boosting benefit, choose capsules containing at least 300 milligrams of EPA and DHA total.
I take this for depression. I have, uh, oily stools. I don't know if my body isn't absorbing the pills or other fats I'm eating.
You might want to look up info for the enzyme Lipase.
My youngest son was having this problem for awhile. The lipase helped him greatly.0 -
Thanks for all the ideas eveyone, your all stars.0
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bump! This is great!0
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A lot of these are tried and true methods. Decently reliable information!0
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Bump. Interesting stuff.0
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Good to have all of those in one place!!!0
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Thanks for some great info!0
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Don't get me started on Fukushima. I was living in Tokyo during the great earthquake and managed to get my family out quickly after the meltdowns. As for food from the Pacific, contamination is a worry today mostly for people eating fish caught near Japan. The farther out the more dilution has occurred. However, prudence dictates avoiding species at the top of the food chain since they act as bio-concentrators: all the contaminants eaten by whatever they eat (smaller fish on down to the lowest level) are mostly retained. The good news is that most fish oil supplements are derived from sources very low on the food chain so there should be very little if any contamination of this type.0
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Thanks djatk. I knew about all of them apart from melon and fish oils. Its good to know that they can boost metabolism as well. Its great to have all this info in one place for reference purpose.
A few points about chillies. They not only increase metabolic rate but also cause early satiety so that you do not eat more. Bland food does not cause satiety and you have to eat more of it to feel full. I normally use jalepenos in almost everything that I eat (apart from cereals).
I am surprised to read that one of the posters has said that they have been prescribed phentermine for weight loss. Over here in UK it is not recommended at all. So I wonder what is the rationale for it being prescribed in US.0 -
I am surprised to read that one of the posters has said that they have been prescribed phentermine for weight loss. Over here in UK it is not recommended at all. So I wonder what is the rationale for it being prescribed in US.
I have family members who have been prescribed it as well. It is supposed to be for people who can't lose weight even though they have tried everything including exercise.
I admit I tried a couple from one of my family members before I found MFP. I ended up with heat stroke symptoms even with downing close to 8 cups of water one day while taking it and felt like I was going to die. I still believe that it was a side effect from one of those pills because I have been out in the sun for longer with the same or less amount of water and only got a nasty sunburn. I didn't have a sunburn from this time at all.0
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