A great way to sustain muscle tissue and help to keep the metabolism high is to eat regularly throughout the day. Eating regularly tricks the mind into keeping the metabolic rate high. When a person feels hungry, their brain automatically knows this and releases a hormone called Grelin, which informs the person they are hungry. If a person has an extreme hunger, they may take in more calories than the body actually needs. When a person gets into the routine of eating smaller nutritional meals throughout the day, on average every three hours, i.e. oatcakes and peanut butter, a handful of mixed nuts, a milkshake, wholemeal pitta bread with mackerel, yoghurt, and fruit as snacks. Of course, it is important to consume a healthy dinner, such as lean chilli and jacket potato, or a healthy vegetable risotto. When the body consumes smaller meals throughout the day, the hormone, Grelin, does not secrete and the body stays in the fat burning zone all day long.
The body must gain satisfaction through food rather than feeling starved. Eating regularly throughout the day or every three hours is a fantastic way to keep the body at a sufficient level in order to burn fat. Regular meals of around 300 calories five-six times a day will help the body to burn more calories than if only three regular meals was consumed in a day. Obviously, according to your training pattern, you may require more calories, so adjust your intake accordingly.
What many people do not realise when they starve their body of food is the body starts to slow the body’s metabolic rate down. This is detrimental to any weight loss, and when food is consumed normally or in high quantities, it may actually cause a small weight gain. Whereas the person may think that starving the body is helping the body get rid of excess weight, it has the opposite effect. One of the best ways to trick the body to lose that excess weight is through regular eating. The metabolic rate is extremely important and must remain high throughout the day for optimum effect.
Ten percent of consumed calories are burnt in the body through dietary thermogenesis. Whenever food is consumed, the body begins to heat up through a raise in metabolism; the body gets ready to process the foods through digestion and absorption of the nutrients contained in the food. This is a wonderful natural occurrence, which takes place in the body every time food is consumed. Therefore, eating little and often pushes the body into dietary thermogenesis simply through having to digest and absorb nutrients in the food consumed. Although ten percent may not seem a high percentage of which to burn calories, over time it does count, especially with weight loss.
The Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or resting metabolic rate is the number of calories required by each person in order to stay alive. On average, sixty percent of daily calories are burnt by the body this way. Calories are also burnt through daily activities, even simple ones like washing up and showering, etc. This accounts for around thirty percent of the calories burnt by the body.
All these ways the body burns fat can be taken advantage of. Regular eating every six hours and engaging in training at home or at the gym can help to boost the metabolism over the long term. Another great way to boost the metabolic rate naturally is to add lean muscle tissue to the body. This can be through bodyweight training, machine weights, or free weight training. Two-three times per week is sufficient to fuel the muscle building process, but it is important to take regular rests in between training days. For those people do not enjoy training of any kind, eating regularly keeps the metabolic rate high.