How To Raise Your Metabolism Naturally

Raising your metabolism if you want to lose weight is not that difficult if you don’t buy into the tall tales about it and keep things simple and natural.

It’s Not Your Genetics!

Very often I hear people say that the reason they’re overweight is due to their genetics and having a “slow metabolism.” But is it?

I personally believe that your genetics have nothing to do with your weight and I am a living proof of that. Many people in my family have weight problems and that, years ago, led me to believe that if I ate a little more than I should it will immediately end up on my thighs. I sat around thinking how unfair it was that some people can eat whatever they want and not gain a pound and others eat a super clean diet and every apple apparently goes straight to their butt.

I began a quest on raising my metabolism, but a visit to a doctor changed my views. We ended up having a conversation about genetics, and he told me something very important: “Forget your genes, it’s much more important what you do with your diet and lifestyle.”

That hit me over the head, because I strongly believed that everything about how I was was pretty much set and all I could do was try to steer against it and hope for the best. Now, years later, my metabolism (and my life in general) are completely different – I’ve become one of those people who can eat whatever I want and not gain any weight. In fact, in order for me to gain weight, I have to really stuff my face. And it really had nothing to do with my genes, because in my family there aren’t many thin people with muscle. Practically I am the only person in my family with muscle.

What if I told you that I now eat when I’m hungry and as much as I need and that I also eat what I crave?

Constant Dieting Is Not The Solution!

So, how did I “speed up my metabolism naturally”? First of all, I believe that the number one problem is too much dieting. Most people believe that in order for them to be thin, they have to eat very little or not at all. The belief itself is the number two problem, because, as we all know, your physical existence is exactly where your thoughts and beliefs are. The third problem is that most people believe that if they diet, they don’t need to exercise. Under one of my videos someone posted a comment saying, “OMG, you eat way too much, maybe if you ate less you wouldn’t need to exercise so much to burn fat!” With this way of thinking we created an unhealthy, always dieting and struggling with weight attitude.

Now, it’s true, you are what you eat, and you crave what you eat most. So if you’ve lived all of your life eating junk food, you’ll be craving mainly junk food with loads of calories, and that won’t work. In order to get it to work for me, I taught myself good eating habits. That took several months, because I slowly started adding healthy foods such as raw veggies and fruits to all of my meals. The key really is to do it slowly; trying to change everything around in a day will be too much. With time you can teach your body to crave healthy foods, because it’s not really about the portions sizes of your meals, it’s about the quality of the foods you consume. Teach yourself to consume the right foods and you can stop starving yourself with tiny portions.

5-6 Small Meals or 1-2 Large Meals?

This one comes up very often in articles about raising your metabolism, but it really is just a huge and annoying myth:  eat 5-6 small meals a day to speed up your metabolism. I am first to admit that I used to believe myself, but after years of struggling with the 5-6 small meals concept I had to realize that for me it never worked. I always felt hungry and irritated. Researching this, I also found that there is also absolutely no evidence proving that 5-6 meals a day speed up your metabolism.

It of course may work for some people, but not for everybody and if you like your 1-2 big meals a day then that’s better than trying to stick with something that is torment to you. One way or the other, it will have absolutely no impact on your metabolism.

Exercise And Be Active

If you eat healthy but don’t exercise, at the age of 30+ you will hit a point where your metabolism slows down, because at that age you start losing muscle mass if it isn’t exercised and muscles are responsible for a good bit of your metabolism. You can prevent at least some of that with a daily activity. This doesn’t mean that you absolutely need to lift weights and do HIIT workouts, but you do need to be active.

Find an activity that suits you.

Find an activity or exercise that you enjoy doing, because it’s the only one you will keep doing. Again, like with the meal habits above, it has to fit you as a person. Not all forms of exercise fit everyone equally, you have to find what works for you the best. I for example need intensive exercises such as HIIT, pull-ups, push-ups and, but these are not everyone what is able or likes to do. Yours may be power yoga or Pilates works best.

Change Your Perspective

Let me put the last bit like this: If you think you have a fast or slow metabolism, either way you’re right. If you think you have terrible genetics and a slow metabolism, that’s exactly what you’ll have. If you think you can eat anything and not gain weight, that’s also exactly what you’ll have. All the things I above encourage you to do are just half of the equation; the other is how much you are willing to believe that you have the power to change things.

Stop dieting and instead learn good eating habits, exercise with an activity that fits your body the most and don’t set yourself up for failure by thinking negatively.

Pictures courtesy of “USAG-Humphreys” and Robert Bejil.