6 tips to boost your metabolism

1: Get moving

Up to two hours after vigorous exercise, you continue to burn calories faster than normal while your body replenishes its energy reserves and repairs muscle tissue. The longer and more intense your workout, the greater the ‘after-burn’.

2: Tone up

To increase your metabolic rate in the long term, you have to add muscle. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends two weight training sessions a week: the increased muscle tone you develop as a result will make your body burn more calories every day.

3: Eat small meals often through the day
Small, regular meals will keep your metabolism ticking over and are a much better way to burn off calories than, for example, one meal a day. Plan three meals and two or three snacks daily, spacing them out evenly. Your metabolism is boosted by about 10 per cent for two to three hours after you eat. Avoid skipping meals or leaving more than five hours between meals.

4: Eat enough protein
While eating in general raises your metabolic rate, protein boosts it the most: up to 20 per cent of a protein meal’s calories may be burned off as heat.

5: Eat a healthy breakfast
Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and allows you the whole day to burn off calories. A combination of carbohydrate and protein (for example, porridge made with semi-skimmed milk) will give you sustained energy.

6: Go for a walk after a meal
Moderate exercise, such as walking, after eating may increase your metabolic rate, turning more of the calories you have eaten into heat. Similarly, eating in the hour after vigorous exercise encourages food to be turned into energy rather than stored as fat, as the metabolic rate is also speeded up during this time.

Take it from Food For fitness magazine