Weight loss depends on the simple formula of burning more calories than you consume, but the reality of losing weight is often quite difficult. It's no wonder dieters look for ways to make the process easier and faster. Consider healthy ways to boost your metabolism--the rate at which your body burns calories--to help you reach your weight-loss goals and get healthier at the same time.
Spice it Up
Eating spicy foods may boost your metabolism. Hot red chili peppers raise your body temperature, causing increased calorie burn. Ginger and black pepper have the same effect but to a lesser extent. After eating a bowl of spicy chili, metabolism goes up to about 8 percent over normal. As an added weight-loss bonus, spicy food acts as an appetite suppressant. After men in a Canadian study ate appetizers spiced up with hot sauce, they ate 200 fewer calories for lunch.
Go Green
Sip green tea to give your metabolism a boost. In a Swiss study, caffeinated green tea extract was found to speed up metabolism and increase fat burning, too. Both the antioxidants and caffeine were given credit for the effect. Green tea may also prevent heart disease, tumors and arthritis.
Raise Your Glass
Stay hydrated to maximize your metabolism. Even slight dehydration slows the metabolism as the body attempts to conserve fluids. Adults who only drank four glasses of water per day burned less calories than those who drank eight glasses in a study cited by RxList.
Build Up to Burn More
People with more muscle burn more calories, so build your muscles to get stronger and give your metabolism an around-the-clock boost. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue that burns six calories per day per pound, while fat burns only two calories. It's a small difference, but it can add up to lost pounds over time.
Eat All Day
Eat more often, not less, to increase weight loss. Eating a small meal or snack every three to four hours keeps your metabolism at a steady pace, while long stretches between meals causes metabolism to slow down to prevent possible starvation. Be sure to include a source of protein in your snacks and meals--it satisfies hunger longer and requires more energy to digest. Whole grains also provide sustained energy to keep your metabolism cranking.
Rev Up Your Workouts
Boost your calorie burn with an aerobic workout. You'll not only burn calories while you're exercising, but for a few hours afterward, too. The trick is to increase the intensity of your workouts to get a larger and longer calorie-burning boost than low to moderate activity can provide.
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