5 Surprising Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Without Exercising
Want to boost your metabolism while barely moving a muscle?
Ben Greenfield
Listen
5 Surprising Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Without Exercising
I recently read the results of a brand new study in the journal Obesity that shows eating slowly and chewing your food carefully actually increases your postprandial (“after a meal”) energy expenditure, metabolism, and fat oxidation in both men and women.
In an even more surprising study, the same researchers, found that chewing gum post-prandially also resulted in an increase in something called “dietary-induced thermogenesis” (DIT), which is basically how many calories your body naturally burns while consuming a meal that you’ve eaten.
This is one reason why: 1.) I chew each bite of food 20-25 times, especially when eating dense foods like steaks or big salads, and 2.) constantly chomp on gum (preferably natural gum without lots of sugar or artificial sweeteners, instead flavored with things like stevia or xylitol).
In addition to chewing each bite of food carefully and chomping on gum after a meal, what are some other ways, besides exercise, that you can boost your metabolism? Here are five quick and dirty tips that can boost your metabolism while barely moving a muscle:
1.) Consume Minerals
Minerals initiate, regulate, and control vital bodily functions like enzyme activity, digestion, cell electrical impulse, and metabolism. For example, the mineral copper reduces free radical damage and enhances recovery from exercise, helps maintain bone and connective tissue health, and preserves normal thyroid gland function. Copper also helps develop the proteins and enzymes essential to iron utilization, which directly influences the amount of oxygen available to working tissues. This is important since every molecule of oxygen you utilize burns a significant number of calories!
So what are the top sources of copper? Try crimini mushrooms in your omelet, turnip greens with your spinach salad, and blackstrap molasses in your oatmeal.
2.) Twitch
Studies have found that individuals who are constantly moving burn more calories. This seems obvious but many people don’t realize that “constantly moving” includes activities like tapping your feet, drumming your fingers, standing up, sitting down, moving your head in circles, shrugging your shoulders, clinching your butt, and even rolling your eyes! These movements may seem to incorporate only small and insignificant muscle contractions but every time a muscle fiber moves, it uses energy and increases your body’s temperature and metabolism.
It’s true that larger muscle fibers burn more calories but when you’re attempting to elevate the metabolism, even the tiny boosts from smaller muscle fibers will help. If you’re trying to lose or maintain weight or just keep your metabolism elevated, make sure that you’re twitching and fidgeting as much as possible. Employing even these small movements while you’re riding on the bus, watching television, or even eating breakfast will make a big difference in your metabolism. And yes, chewing gum counts.
3.) Park Poorly
How many of us get all dressed up for a fancy evening meal then cruise around a busy restaurant ten times waiting for a prime parking spot? In reality, walking four or five blocks, even if it’s in a suit or dress, isn’t really that bad. You’ll not only burn calories and get a little exercise on your way to the meal, but research has proven you store less fat from a large meal if you go for a brief jaunt afterwards. If you’re really shooting for a higher metabolism, you should never be looking for the best parking spot. Instead, find the most undesirable parking spot imaginable—up a hill, down an alley, and through the bushes. Huff and puff your way to and from dinner using all that extra oxygen to burn calories and watch the pounds melt away.
Find the most undesirable parking spot imaginable—up a hill, down an alley, and through the bushes.
4.) Mmmint
Chalk another one up to peppermint gum. While peppermint is well-known as an excellent tummy soothing herb and even an appetite suppressant, it is also an ideal source of many nutrients that are essential to a smooth-running metabolism. This includes manganese, dietary ber, folate, iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B2, omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, and copper. Although bubble gum may only offer a miniscule source of peppermint oil, if you’re lucky enough to try the kind with a natural peppermint flavoring, there are better choices. For instance, try fresh mint tea, chopped mint leaves over soup or salad, or simply a small bag of mint leaves in your refrigerator to chew on when you need a little appetite self-control. Here’s some of the ways I personally use mint.
5.) Sleep
In may seem counterintuitive that sleep helps your metabolism, since it may be one of the easiest activities in the world. Unfortunately, most people seem to place more importance on a favorite TV show, extra tasks at work, surfing the web, or an unhealthy obsession with excessive exercise which, by the way, can actually disrupt sleep and lead to insomnia. Undercutting your necessary sleep by even one hour per night can decrease insulin sensitivity, decrease leptin levels which lessens appetite control, and increase ghrelin levels which boosts cravings. Any of these can severely affect your metabolism thus increasing your propensity towards overeating, fat storage, diabetes, and obesity, as well as other chronic metabolism-related diseases. Furthermore, lack of sleep can increase cortisol levels, decrease key neurotransmitter levels and give your body inadequate rest and recovery for muscle tissue and organ repair. Not giving your body the required 7-9 hours of sleep a night is the equivalent of parking your car in a hailstorm every night. The long-term effect is a battered, broken down body and a sluggish metabolism.
So there you have it: chew food carefully, chomp on gum, get minerals, twitch, use peppermint, park poorly and sleep your way to more calorie burning .Do you have questions about these ways to boost your metabolism, or your own boosters to add? Join the conversation at Facebook.com/getfitguy.