Foods That Speed Up Your Metabolism

By David Grisaffi

First things first. To get a clear understanding of what natural remedies are available to help one speed up their metabolism, one has to first understand the meaning of the word metabolism. Simply put, metabolism is the complete process whereby the body changes nutrients that are partaken via what we eat as food into energy. The energy is what one operates on to carry on day to day activities.
A faster working metabolism therefore means that food is converted into energy much faster and hence a less probable chance of being sluggish.
That said, anything ranging from growing older to having a medical condition to lack of exercise can contribute to one having a slow and sluggish metabolism.
Here then are some natural ways one can embrace to speed up their metabolism and have a fuller and more energetic life as a result.
To start off, be wary of what you eat. Ordinarily, the body uses fats and carbohydrates as its primary sources of energy. It is important to mention that the body breaks up fats into energy much faster than it does for carbohydrates. That said, it is important to stay clear of foods that have excess carbs. Picture this, garbage in equals garbage out. What you give your body is what it will give you in terms of energy. If you find that you are running low on energy it simply means you need to change something in your diet.
Right along those lines, it is a fantastic idea to drink enough water. The proverbial eight glasses of water a day is a wonderful way to start. You can never go wrong with that.
If you are the kind of person that leaves their house in a mad hurried dash only to get to the office and begin a mental countdown to when the day will come to an end, you need to re evaluate. In terms of your body, it's murder to skip the most important meal of the day which is your breakfast. Ensure that you have a kings breakfast if you want to speed up your metabolism. Having a good breakfast has a ripple effect of ensuring that you do not binge through the day. It actually makes more sense to have small and light meals spaced out throughout your day as opposed to having one gigantic serving. It will be much more easier for your body to break up the mini meals as opposed to a mega meal all ingested at one go. You stand to benefit more in terms of having more energy if you eat in bits since it means therefore that all that you eat during a mini mean will be broken down into energy. The body cannot do the same for one huge serving. It will only break down what it needs to operate at that time and the rest is deposited as fat to be used at a later time when necessary.
Another sure way of speeding up your metabolism is to stay clear of diets that promise instant results. There is no magic and instant way to lose excess weight. Something else, starving yourself does no good for your metabolism. Ensure that you eat healthy even when you are trying to shed off some extra weight.
In the same spirit, exercise. Cardio exercises are a great and fun way to improve your metabolism. Not to mention the immense health benefits that come with exercising. If you can sign up at a gym the better for you since you can get expert advise from a trainer. If it is not possible for you to sign up with a gym for any reason, find ways that you can work out in your day to day schedule. Walk to work if you can. Take the flight of stairs to your office as opposed to using the elevator. Walk the dog when you get home. If you do not have one, volunteer to walk the neighbors dog. Work towards a goal that you can set for yourself for instance, running a local marathon. Your body will be glad you did. You will tell this from the new sense of rejuvenation you will feel.

You Have Abs, You Just Can't See Them!

By Craig S Savino

The most common mistake that most people continue to make when working on developing six-pack abs, is to concentrate and spend the entire time working out on their abs. It sounds strange, right? But the thing is, this is surprisingly true. People have the misconception that you have to do abs-specific exercises in order to build that rock-hard, flat tummy. In order for you to achieve that, you have to focus your time in stimulating a fat-loss/burn in your body and increase your metabolic rate.
However, that will not happen when you concentrate too much on training smaller muscle groups, such as your abs. The right thing to do at this specific point is to focus the majority of your time working out on your major muscle groups, such as the chest, back, and legs. In this way, you stimulate your metabolism as well as the fat-burning hormones, which are essential in effectively developing six-pack abs.
Top Exercises to Get That Maximum Midsection Six-Pack Definition
As mentioned, defining your midsection starts with losing or reducing body fat percentage. Therefore, the most ideal exercises that will work here are those that include focus on full body movement with or without resistance weight. Some of the top exercises recommended include the following:
Concentrate on mixing up exercises into Compound Movements:
Higher the Intensity the Better
Squats/Overhead Press
Lunges/Bicep Curls
Dead Lifts/Low Row
Presses and Cleans
Interval Sprints
Mountain Climbers/Jump Burpee's
Step-ups/Front and Lateral Dumb Bell Raises
Hanging Low Leg Raises/ Press Ups
Now don't get me wrong. Having a six pack and actually getting the size and sculpted definition will certainly require doing specific isolation ab exercises. Another big mistake and misconception is that most people treat the ab muscle differently than the rest of the muscles in the body. I speak with so many people in the gym that never work on their abs, but have a huge chest and arms and even legs and lats.
The ab muscle, although being a bit more stubborn than other muscles because of the body fat issue, is just like any other muscle in the body. Any core and ab exercises with weight resistance, especially with a left to right movement, or weighted crunches will break the fibers and rebuild just like any other muscle in the body.
So the simple truth is this. Getting that fab six-pack is a multi task everyday pursuit. Your mental state and believing you can attain a six-pack is as important as good quality nutrition, compound movements, consistent action everyday toward their attainment and finishing off with weighted isolation exercises to give the size needed to really get that shrink wrapped six-pack look to your physique.