Rocket fire your metabolism

By Cian Minihane

Have you found yourself saying that “I’m not losing weight or seeing progress because of my age”?

I hear that from many of my clients, male and female, before they start a programme. Today I am going to coach you three steps you can implement throughout the rest of 2021 to organically speed up your metabolism, whether you are 30 or 80!

There is a furnace smouldering inside all of us, and it simply needs to be stoked to burn away excess pounds.

Step 1. Resistance training: Any time you have to make an effort to move something, it’s resistance training. Begin lifting weights and incorporating resistance training into your weekly schedule at least twice a week. Building lean muscle and boosting lean tissue mass, leads to more calories burnt per pound than fat. The leaner muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn daily. This alone has been proven to have a 9 per cent increase in resting metabolism for people.

Step 2. Any movement is better than none. Increase the level of non-exercise related activity each day. Move more, people! The less you move every day, the slower your metabolic rate is going to get. Take the stairs a few times. If you work at a sedentary job or drive a lot, make a point of getting up for a walk around every hour or so. Even a quick vacuum around the house will get your metabolism fired up, so grab that Dyson, guys.

Step 3. Protein is a catalyst: Increased protein in your diet fires up your metabolic rate. Protein causes the largest rise in TEF (thermic effect of food). It increases your metabolic rate by 15–30 per cent, compared to 5–10 per cent for carbs and 0–3 per cent for fats. In fact, studies have shown that consuming 25–30 per cent of your calories from protein can boost your metabolism by up to 80–100 calories per day, compared to lower protein diets. It’s a game changer in boosting your metabolism.

Speeding up your metabolic rate won’t happen overnight; it demands consistency and a healthy change in habits. By implementing each of these steps every day and week, you can successfully increase your metabolic rate no matter what age you are and allow you to naturally burn more fat every day.

Cian Minihane is the owner and head coach at CM Fitness And Personal Training.