10 Simple Strategies to Effortlessly Accelerate the Fat Burning Power of Your Body - All Day Long. Part 2

Karen Van Ness - Jan 2011. Article first published as 10 Simple Strategies to Effortlessly Accelerate the Fat Burning Power of Your Body - All Day Long. Part 2 on Technorati.

In Part 1 of this two-part article, we discussed the importance of burning more calories than you take in. Getting on the right side of your body’s energy equation is one of the keys to dramatic and impressive weight loss.   

While exercise and diet play important roles in this effort, there are also some simple, easy things you can do during the course of each day to automatically increase your metabolism and the rate at which you burn calories. They don’t require much time, planning or effort. But they give you an extra advantage – make that 10 extra advantages – to help you lose (and keep off) the weight.  

Here are strategies six through 10: 

Strategy #6 : Take Cold Showers, or Alternate Hot and Cold Water 

Regularly taking cold showers provides tremendous health benefits, and used to be a key component of physical culture and healing practices through the early 20^th century. From a weight loss perspective, a cold shower forces your body to increase heat in reaction to the water’s effects on body temperature. This thermogenic effect naturally increases your body’s ability to burn fat.  

If you’re not used to cold showers, you can transition gradually. For example, begin your shower at a comfortable temperature and slowly change over to colder water. Turn it to completely cold at the end and stand under the frigid water for 20 to 30 seconds. Build up your time under the cold water.  

Another method I really like is to alternate hot and cold showers. This is great for recuperation from hard training, a stressful day, or when you are ill. Simply stand under the hot water – as hot as you can stand it – for two to three minutes. Then change to completely cold water and stand under for one to two minutes. Repeat several ti mes. Very invigorating! 

After you shower, towel off vigorously with a clean, fresh towel. This helps activate your lymph system and move more toxins out of your body. 

Strategy #7 : Get 15 to 20 Minutes of Sun Each Day

A number of studies have shown that sun exposure helps to normalize insulin and blood glucose levels. It also helps control appetite in many people. And it improves your mood.  

If you live in a cold weather region, you may find it difficult to get out in the sun every day. In the winter, it seems like it’s dark when you leave for work in the morning, and dark by the time you leave the office in the evening. Do what you can to get outside, even if it’s a short walk on your lunch break. You may also wish to invest in a full spectrum lamp which offers the same benefits as sunlight.  

During the summer, the safest times to sun are in the mornings before 10am and in the afternoon after 2 or 3pm.

Strategy #8: Fidget a Lot 

If you live or work with someone who fidgets a lot, you know how crazy their constant movement, bouncing and tapping can make you.  

But the fidgety people are on to something. They burn up to 40 percent more calories each day than non-fidgeters.  

At age 35, most people are more sedentary than they were at 25. For most of the day, they sit at their desk or in their car commuting. They come home, take care of dinner and family responsibilities, then sit on the couch watching TV.  

Obese people spend an average of 2.5 hours more each day sitting compared with their skinnier peers. This translates into burning 350 fewer calories each day.  

When you are sitting at your desk working, or sitting on the couch watching TV, remember to fidget. Change your sitting position frequently, bounce your leg, tap the desk, get up and pace around the room when you need a break from your work to think.  

Hundreds of such small movements over the course of the day can add up to substantially more physical activity – and burn more calories – without your even trying.  

Strategy #9 : Stop Eating AtLeast Two Hours before Bedtime  

If you eat at night, your body works to digest the food you consume while you are sleepin g. This requires a lot of energy that could be used for detoxification, repair and rejuvenation – processes that are supposed to be happening when you sleep.  

Eating large meals and snacking in the evenings, often right up until bedtime, is pretty common. This is the time of day when you are tired and your guard is down. It’s natural to overeat at this time of day. It’s so easy to crack open a box of cookies and pig out.  

Consuming a lot of calories right before bed is a killer in terms of any effort to lose weight. You’re adding those calories at the same time your metabolism is naturally starting to ebb. 

Your body just can’t handle food well at this time. This affects the quality of your sleep. When you eat late at night, you probably wake up feeling tired and lethargic in the morning – even if you get eight hours of sleep. That’s because the need to digest the food hinders your body’s natural overnight processes that are so important to health and energy. 

To avoid this, establish a cutoff time at least two hours before your regular bed time. After this time, you will not eat. Not only does this support your body’s processes at night. It also helps you avoid the temptation to pig out at night. As a rule, you simply don’t eat after 8pm, so pigging out is not an option.  

Strategy #10 : Get 8 Hours – or  More – of Quality Sleep Each Night  

I know I know…this may be one of the most difficult of these tips to achieve (with the exception of the cold showers, perhaps). Probably 85 percent of people feel like – or know – they don’t get enough sleep. All the demands on our time, work and family responsibilities, as well as leisure pursuits, often push sleep lower on the list of priorities.

But you need to make the effort. Not only will eight hours of sleep provide you with more energy, stamina, and patience. It’s also critical to any weight loss program.  

When you sleep, your levels of growth hormone increase and levels of cortisol decrease. Growth hormone is good. It helps build muscle and keep you younger. Cortisol is bad from a weight loss perspective. When you don’t get enough quality sleep, secretion of growth hormone declines.  Levels of cortisol and other stress hormones actually build up over several nights or weeks. This buildup promotes fat deposition, especially around the waist.  

Make the commitment to go to bed earlier. Move up your bedtime gradually, by 10 or 15 minutes per night. A n hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after midnight.  

You’ll be amazed at how much better you will feel after just two or three nights of eight to nine hours of sleep. Over time, getting at least eight hours on a regular basis will accelerate your weight loss program, and make it easier to maintain your ideal weight, once you reach it. 

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Copyright Karen Van Ness. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this article is strictly prohibited without the express written consent of Karen Van Ness and KVN Enterprises.

Source: Visit www.BestBreathingExercises.com for more information.

 
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