8 Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism

Get your metabolism going in full gear with these easy-to-do tips!

1. Drink more water, and make it iced. Good hydration is one of the biggest contributors to effective metabolism. Turn it up even more by adding ice. The body has to cool liquids down to body temperature in order to absorb and digest them. What does this mean for you? More work for the body, more calories burned!

2. Add some spice to your food. Consuming hot foods literally turns on your metabolism by turning on the sympathetic nervous system. Try jalapenos, red and green chili peppers and cayenne pepper!

3. Eat MORE! Yes, you read that right. It's all about eating the right foods and focusing on smaller meals, more often. Eating every couple of hours keeps our body from going into starvation mode and storing food as fat the next time we eat. Just don't eat every meal til you are completely full. You should be satisfied and filling up with nutrient dense, lower calorie foods such as fruits and veggies and lean proteins. 

4. Get moving. Even if you are just walking around your office building once every hour. The more you move, the more calories you burn. Fidget, walk around while your on the phone, park your car in the farther spot away from the grocery store door and take the stairs. Also- make a commitment to SCHEDULE time to move. Put your workout in your calendar and treat it like an appointment, don't stand yourself up. HIIT training is the best you can do for metabolism, but any movement will get it started.

5. Eat within one hour of waking up. We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day...blah blah blah. I know you've heard it before. But this is why! If you don't put anything into your body, it literally will not turn on. You gotta get the car moving, by adding the fuel!

6. Increase your fiber intake. We know all of the health benefits of fiber such as it's disease fighting effects and the fact that it helps decrease appetite. But it also helps us fight off fat storage which ultimately results in more lean muscle mass and therefor, higher metabolic rate. Fruits, veggies, beans and whole grains baby.

7. Go to bed earlier. Get your eight hours in. Studies have shown that those who sleep less, eat more and also store more visceral fat- the extremely dangerous fat located around your organs.

8. Eat more protein. The more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolic activity will be. Increase your lean muscle mass by consuming more protein. I suggest protein with every meal, and about .8g/kg of body weight per day. This would be equivalent to a little less than .4g protein per pound of body weight.