How Women Master Their Metabolism: 7 Steps To A Leaner Body

Every day I hear from women just like you who are struggling to lose weight and solve the mystery of their metabolism.

Have you ever struggled to get weight off no matter how hard you work! In fact sometimes the harder you work you find that you actually gain weight!

Do you eat healthy and workout 5-7 times a week just to always feel tired and get nowhere.

My message to you is please don’t give up.

Below are seven simple truths to boosting your metabolism and burning more body fat – no matter what your age, body type or fitness level.

Believe me, YOU CAN DO THIS!

It’s tempting to try fad diets or calorie deprivation when trying to lose weight. But this causes your metabolism to adapt and slow down. Eventually you’ll reach a plateau and be at risk of rebound weight gain.
It’s always better to eat a wide range of healthy, nutrient dense foods in moderate portion sizes (The 21 day fix eating plan is ideal for this). This way you can lose weight and keep it off long term.

Some foods burn more calories than others. Protein requires the most energy to digest so eat plenty of protein-rich foods. It’s also the most satisfying food type so helps to prevent overeating and post-meal cravings.
Adding spices to your cooking (capsaicin, black pepper, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cumin and cinnamon) will help boost your digestive metabolism.
It’s always good to kick-start your morning metabolism with a small fat burning breakfast of protein, healthy Omega-3 fats and complex carbohydrates.

Hydration increases cell metabolism to aid fat burning. Did you know that our sense of thirst declines with age? Don’t just depend on how thirsty you are; try to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
To calculate your minimum water needs each day take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2. That is the number of ounces you should drink each day (8 ounces is a cup)
Drinking water before eating helps us to feel more satisfied with less food. Drinking cooler water causes our metabolism to work harder and faster.

Alcohol slows down our digestion and metabolism. It makes us more prone to storing excess calories as body fat, especially when eating high carb and high fat foods.
Alcohol also raises cortisol levels, which increases weight gain especially around the tummy.
Our ability to metabolize alcohol declines with age, which means the adverse effects increase.

Exercise makes us breath faster to get more oxygen and remove carbon dioxide (CO2). Because respiration is the primary way fat is removed this also helps to facilitate fat burning.
You need to do workouts that elevate your heart rate, increase core temperature (make you sweat) and get you breathing faster. (see some different workout options here)

When you have strong muscles your resting metabolic rate goes up. You also burn more calories in the hours and days post-exercise.
The best workouts for women are those that create strong, lean muscles. Running or steady state cardio (same-slow-pace), gym machines or old school weight training are not ideal and can be counter productive.

Working out harder doesn’t always mean you’ll lose more weight. Pushing your body too hard increases cortisol levels making your body to go into fat storing mode. Over-training can lead to increased water retention, digestive issues and inflammation that slows down recovery and increases the risk of injury.
Especially into our late 30’s and beyond we need to train smarter. Our workouts should be shorter but more intense. Instead of heavy weight training or long cardio sessions which stress the joints, ligaments and tendons we need to use specialized exercise techniques. These techniques stimulate muscle density so you can firm trouble zones like the inner and outer thigh, butt, lower tummy and back of the arms.

Sleep can also impact weight loss and your metabolism, check out my post here on how sleep affects your weight loss.