If your New Year's resolution is still intact, congratulations!
More than just eating the right food and working out at the gym, improving metabolism is also one of the primary concerns of weight watchers everywhere. Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to produce energy. And while your body is always burning fat, sometimes it needs a little boost. Some people inherit a speedy metabolism (which makes eating Krispy Kreme for breakfast not a big deal), while some complain of a slow one.
As part of the Irish Independent New You campaign, consultant nutritionist Gaye Godkin developed a four-part tutorial on making better food choices to improve one's health. One part of that is this partial list of simple food rules to jumpstart your way to a better (and faster) metabolism.
1. Cutting out fats is the cardinal sin - There are two kinds of fat: the good and bad. Good ones come from avocado, olive oil, nuts, fatty fish and seeds, and are essential to your over-all health. Trans-fat, on the other hand, are found in processed food and they slow down your body's ability to burn fat. Consuming trans-fat can also result to insulin resistance and inflammation, both of which disrupt metabolism and cause weight gain.
2. Fad diets don't work - Fad diets are especially popular this time of the year, but don't pay them any mind. According to Godkin, crash diets are bad for anyone hoping to increase their metabolism. They may help you drop the pounds in the beginning, but that comes in the expense of good nutrition. You lose muscle as an effect of fast weight loss, which, in turn, slows down your metabolism. The final result? Your body burns fewer calories and gains weight faster than it did before your crash diet.
3. Sugar creates fat cells - By now, you would have already known that sugar causes weight gain. Recent studies determined that sugar was "metabolically harmful, not because of its calories", but because it places a particular strain on the body. The research said that frequent consumption of refined carbohydrate foods high in available sugars and starches (like pasta, cakes, breads, and processed foods) wreak havoc on the body, as the body is designed to work for its calories. Godkin adds that switching to foods in their natural state and eliminating processed food will stimulate digestion and increase the rate at which foods are metabolized.
4. Going green - Long hailed as a health elixir, green tea contains antioxidant-rich polyphenols which help crank up metabolism, mainly through catechin, its active ingredient. Researchers found that those who drank green tea lost more weight than those who didn't, eventually suggesting that catechins may improve fat oxidation and thermogenesis, your body's production of energy, or heat, from digestion. According to a certain study, if you drink five eight-ounce cups of green tea a day, you can increase your energy expenditure by 90 calories a day.
5. Fill up on nutrient-dense eggs - Contrary to popular belief, eggs have no link to heart disease whatsoever. Eggs are one of the most nutrient-filled foods on the planet, containing a variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as protein and good fats. Wary about cholesterol? Eggs do contain them, as with every cell in your body.