Easy steps you can take
Everyone's metabolism naturally slows down with age. At 40, you
could be burning 100 to 300 fewer calories a day than you did at 30, says
Pamela M. Peeke, M.D., author of Body
for Life for Women and
assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.
That can translate into a 10-25-pound weight gain in a year. But you can
counteract that slowdown and boost your body's fat-burning capabilities by
making just a few tweaks to your daily routine. The following strategies will
help you bust out of a weight-loss plateau and burn even more fat.
Take five
Do five minutes of exercise each morning. We all have a metabolic thermostat,
called the metastat, that can be turned up or down, and morning is the best
time to activate it. Each day, your metastat is waiting for signals to rev up,
so the more signals you can send it, the better. Your best bet is a light,
full-body activity like walking or push-ups.
Fuel up in the morning
Numerous studies have found that regular breakfast eaters are often leaner than
breakfast skippers. "Your metabolism naturally slows at night, but you can
jump-start it in the morning by eating breakfast," says Tammy Lakatos
Shames, R.D., C.D.N., co-author of Fire
Up Your Metabolism. And because both your activity level and
metabolism decrease later in the day, it's a good idea to make breakfast or
lunch your largest meal.
Fill up on good grains
Whole grains such as brown rice, wheat germ, dark bread, whole-grain cereal,
oatmeal and bran leave you feeling full because they take longer to digest than
simple carbohydrates. In a study from The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical
School evaluated the dietary intake of more than 74,000 women for 12 years.
Overall, women who regularly ate the most whole-grain foods — about 1.5
servings a day — gained less weight than women who ate the least.
Pump yourself up
Muscle burns more calories than fat does, and decreased muscle mass can be one
of the main reasons metabolism slows. Disuse can cause women to drop as much as
10 pounds of muscle between the ages of 30 and 50. Losing that much muscle
means you'll burn 350 to 500 fewer calories a day. To build and maintain muscle
mass, aim for two to three strength-training
workouts a week. If
you don't belong to a gym, try push-ups, squats, abdominal crunches and tricep
dips off a chair.
Power on with protein
Add a little high-quality, lowfat protein, such as chicken, fish and egg
whites, to your meals, and you'll help your body burn fat faster. "Because
protein requires more energy to digest, it speeds up your metabolism, and
protein is necessary to ensure against loss of muscle tissue," says
Michael Thurmond, author of 6
Day Body Makeover.
Get your vitamin "I"
That's "I" for intensity. You love to walk, but if that usually means
strolling along at a snail's pace, your waistline will pay little attention.
Instead, put intensity, or "vitamin I," into your stride. Pick up
your pace so you're walking at 4 mph, or one mile per 15 minutes. Once you
build up your cardiovascular fitness level, you can even alternate between
walking and jogging. The key is to get
your heart rate up and
keep your workouts challenging.
Say yes to yogurt
In a recent study from the International Journal of Obesity, women who ate
three daily servings of lowfat yogurt lost 60 percent more fat than women who
didn't. In another study, participants who ate three daily servings of dairy
lost more than twice as much fat as those who ate less than that.
"Calcium-rich diets reduce fat-producing enzymes and increase enzymes that
break down fat," says Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., lead author of both studies
and director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee in
Knoxville. Eat three servings of lowfat dairy a day, like milk, yogurt and hard
cheeses (Gouda, Cheddar and Monterey Jack).
Get active after eating
Your body's metabolic rate increases 10 percent after eating, and just a few
minutes of activity could double that boost for up to three hours. Within 15 to
30 minutes of eating a snack or meal, do five or 10 minutes of light activity.
Take the dog for a walk, climb stairs in your house or do some basic strength
exercises.
Sip green tea
You might love your lattes, but if you switch to green tea, not only will you
get a healthy dose of disease-fighting compounds, you'll also cut body fat. In
a study from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who drank a
bottle of tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lost
more body fat than people who drank black tea. Researchers at a health care lab
in Tokyo believe disease-fighting antioxidants called catechins in green tea
may help decrease body fat.