One of the safest and most effective ways to lose weight is to boost (increase) your metabolism so that your body burns more fat as it works to support your normal daily activities. A fast metabolism burns calories whether you are riding an exercise bike, sitting in your office chair or sleeping.
The best ways to speed up your metabolism? Eat healthy foods, drink coffee and green tea, eat breakfast, and exercise regularly. Many exercises increase metabolism, not just cardio, try these:
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1. Resistance training
Weight training (or bodyweight training) burns moderate calories as you are exercising, but also keeps your body burning calories after you finish your workout. After intense exercise, it takes several hours for your metabolism to return to “normal” as your heart rate, circulation and breathing adjust and recover. You burn more calories during this recovery phase.
Learn More: 9 Reasons Why Women Should Do Resistance Training
2. Cardio training
Cardio, or aerobics training requires oxygen and moving large muscle groups which increase your metabolism. Much like resistance training, your body will burn calories during exercise and also during that post workout recovery phase.
Learn More: Top 5 Cardio Workouts For Women
3. Plyometrics training
Plyometrics training like box jumps are designed to increase power and agility, they are by nature high intensity and increase metabolism. Plyometrics also promotes that “afterburn effect” as you workout and will continue to boost your metabolism for as much as 24-48 hours after training!
4. Interval or HIIT training
HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods. This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time. HIIT is that it increases your metabolism, enabling your body to burn more fat as you rest. This happens because HIIT triggers a reaction called Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).
Learn More: The Best Full Body HIIT Workouts For A Total-Body Transformation
5. Metabolic conditioning
The short definition of metabolic training is completing structural and compound exercises with little rest in between exercises in an effort to maximize calorie burn and increase metabolic rate during and after the workout. FYI, your metabolism (aka metabolic rate) is how many calories your body burns at rest.
Perform difficult and challenging exercises, or perform them faster and with less rest or no rest between sets. Doing so will increase the intensity and calorie burning effect and will raise your metabolism during and after training. For bodyweight exercises, focus on mountain climbers, lunges, squat jumps and burpees, the most challenging exercise.
