I’m sure you, like me, keep hearing all this stuff about boosting your metabolism as a way to hasten your weight loss. That sounds like a good thing but how does a body go about that? In this series of short posts, I’m going to discuss a bit about this.

Your metabolism is simply the amount of energy, or calories, your body needs to do what it needs to do. And the higher your metabolic rate is, the less likely you are to have excess body fat. In fact, increasing your body’s metabolism is one very effective way to lose weight.

Your body uses calories for everything. It uses calories to process and digest foods you eat. It uses calories to maintain your body’s muscles, keep your heart pumping, keep your organs functioning properly, and even to make your hair and nails grow. And when your body uses more calories than it consumes, you can lose weight.

Now, there are many ways to boost your body’s metabolism. In general, the healthier your body is, the better it will utilize the calories you consume. In fact, with proper nutrition and exercise, your body’s metabolism rates can actually be increased enough to allow you to be able to eat almost anything you want, within reason of course.

People who restrict their calorie intake severely actually lower the body’s metabolism though, and this is a phenomenon many people have a difficult time understanding or believing. When you severely restrict your caloric intake, the body automatically decreases its energy expenditures to the bare minimum, because it thinks you’re starving. That’s why you don’t see very fast weight loss after the first couple of weeks on those very low calorie diets. You’re miserable, you’re not healthy and yu’re not losing weight hardly at all after a while. That’s why we don’t recommend them at all.

One easy way to start boosting your metabolism, is to continuously feed your body.

When we say continuously feed your body, we don’t mean that you should nibble on piles of junk food all day long. You should eat a small meal every three to four hours, but it should be more healthy foods which force your body to work harder when processing them.

Protein for instance, takes more work for your body to digest and process. Many raw fruits and vegetables are the same. And when the foods you eat force your body to work harder at processing them, you automatically boost your metabolism just with that one small change.

Exercise is another way to boost your metabolism, particularly if you build and tone your body’s muscles. Muscles take more energy for the body to maintain, so you automatically burn more calories, and have a higher metabolism, when you have more toned muscle on your body. To keep your metabolic rate high, and thus burn more calories, it’s good to do something active, something that brings your temperature up, frequently. Every hour or so, for instance, you could take a brisk walk or do some lunges or some “executive pushups” on your desk.

Boosting your metabolism not only helps you lose weight though, it also helps give you more energy. Essentially, when you start working to increase your body’s metabolism, you are teaching it that you need more energy throughout the day. And since it’s using more energy to keep you maintained, it will step up the process and actually provide you with more energy too. And that’s a great feeling!   –Di

boosting metabolism, frequent exercise, frequent meals, lose weight, metabolism, Weight Loss

Doesn’t that sound like a great weight loss tip?

What to do when you feel that craving for a huge bowl of ice cream, preferably with chocolate syrup and pecans and whipped cream and a cherry on top, comes into your mind? Or perhaps it’s a “works” pizza that is beckoning to you. Just site there for a moment and imagine how good that would taste. Imagine the cool sweetness of the ice cream with the crunchy counterplay of the nuts, and the tart sweet flavor of the cherry. Really think about the interplay of flavors from the hot rich pizza. The crust and the cheese and the sauce and the meats. Imagine how wonderful it will taste. Imagine that slightly full satisfied feeling in your belly. Use all your senses.

Then imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning feeling full of energy. Imagine that all your clotes are loose on your body and the most stylish designs look really good on you. Imagine looking into a mirror before your bath and seeing a trim figure. Imagine feeling lightness in your step. Imagine seats and seatbelts in airplanes having lots of extra room. Imagine admiring glances coming your way. Imagine all the possibilities of your trim healthy body. Imagine in great detail how that would be. How would you feel about that?

Which craving do you want more? Go for it! –Di

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Chocolate is a favorite of many, many people. The popular idea is that it has mood-enhancing compounds in it that make us enjoy it so much. But researchers at the University of Bristol asked people to take capsules with either cocoa or starch in them without telling them which was which. Guess what. No big difference, although the cocoa group did report feeling a bit more alert. That was possibly from the little bit of caffeine in it.

Come to think of it, if the reason we crave chocolate is the natural substances in cocoa beans, then the most undiluted, darkest chocolate would be the most popular. Actually, it’s the chocolate made by the alkalai process that removes more constituents that is then diluted with lots of sugar and milk or just coats some other nice thing, like nuts or caramel, or whatever, that people like most in Europe and most of the U.S. So another favorite idea bites the dust.

The researchers say it’s the total sensuous experience that counts. I’ll go along with that. I believe you can eat anything on a healthy diet. Just not very much.

Take heart, though, researchers at Queen Mary, University of London, has found that flavinoids in dark chocolate at good for the heart. You need about an ounce of 75-85% chocolate a day. They will be running clinical tests to prove this and I would definitely volunteer for that, even at roughly 165 calories. –Di

You can check out the BBC’s article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6991289.stm

chocolate, dark chocolate, Weight Loss