10 Foods That Speed Up Your Metabolism – Research-Based

Ways to boost metabolism, and one of the ways is – foods that speed up your metabolism, and also play a vital role in weight loss.

Metabolism is a process, in which our body converts food and drinks into energy.

When the body uses food slowly, then this condition is called slow metabolism, but how to find that your metabolism is slow. these include:

• Eat less food, but still gain weight
• Brittle nails
• Even after eating anything, dry skin remains
• Hair falls a lot
• Hemoglobin always remains low
• There is lethargy
• Difficulity in sleeping
• Feel tired

The Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF) is a hormone that improves pathways of metabolism, energy expenditure, and insulin sensitivity in muscle.

However, there are many reasons for slow metabolism such as:

• Hormones changes in such condition – diabetes, overactive thyroid or underactive.
• Stress
• Lack of vitamins D and calcium
• Age
• Lack of sleep
• Skipping meal
• Medications

Here are the top 10 foods that help to speed up your metabolism.

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Consume Rich Vitamin D foods

Many people in today’s time are deficient in vitamin D, and it is one of the most common reasons for slow metabolism.

Even, vitamin D deficiency is allied with younger age, females, and greater stomach obesity, Also associated with Metabolic Syndrome (1).

Vitamin D plays a vital role in calcium metabolism, maintenance of the skeleton, control of cell proliferation and differentiation, and immunity (2).

One of the best sources of vitamin D is sun exposure, but 10 to 30 minutes of sunlight, several times per week are good enough to prevent sunburn.

Vitamin D rich food that is easily available in the Indian market are:

• Spinach
• Orange banana
• Milk (one glass of milk contain 30% of our daily requirement)
• Mushrooms
• Yogurt (contain 10-20% of daily requirement of vitamin D)
• Eggs
• Soy milk and other soy products has about 25% of daily need)

NOTE: You can also take its supplement, but first consult your doctor, because it may interact with some medicinal condition or medication.

Vitamin D has many health benefits – keeping bone, teeth, and muscles healthy and helping absorb the calcium and phosphate amount in the body.

However, excessive vitamin D can lead to, hypercalcemia, increased blood levels, Kidney issues, and may face toxicity.

Water

Huggins, It is possible that drinking water stimulates your body’s metabolism and energy expense, and also helps with weight management.

A 2013 study, where 50 girls with excess weight drank about 2 cups of water half an hour before the day’s meal without any additional dietary changes.

Result: they lost weight and saw a cut in Body mass index (BMI) and body composition scores (3).

A 2013 study showed that drinking two cups of 71°F water led to a 30% average increase in the metabolic rates of 14 healthy adults (4).

In addition, there are other increasing studies showing that drinking water may also briefly boost metabolism by 24–30% (5).

NOTE: Apart from boosting metabolism, drinking enough water has many other benefits such as:

• Keep you hydrate
• Help in constipation, especially warm water is more effective
• Prevent or help in get rid of kideny stone
• Flush out toxic substances
• Regulate body temperature, so drink plenty of water during exercise
• Good in during pregnancy, and pregnant lady should drink 2.5
• and 3 liters of water a day.

Check out – Can Drink Enough Water And Doing Exercise Prevent The Diseases?

Eggs

The egg is a high-protein food, which could help increase your metabolism for some period of time.

Egg white is healthier than egg yolk, which is high in protein around 67% of a whole egg, and low in calories, which makes it an excellent food for weight loss.

The high egg diet has a beneficial effect in reducing inflammation in the population with metabolic syndrome (6)

It can also bring some other health benefits including:

• Egg white contains negligible cholesterol, which is good for heart patients.
• Reduce blood pressure
• Good in period pain, but avoid eating raw egg
• Build brain
• Good for healthy hair or skin

Some research found that people who consumed 29% of the total daily calories in the form of protein had a higher metabolism.

Compared to those who consumed a total of 11% calories from protein (7).

Eggs contain a normal amount of Carbohydrates that have been successfully used to improve metabolic parameters (8).

Spicy foods

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Consumption of a chili and mustard sauce showed a 25% higher increase in metabolic rate compared to the control food devoid of spices (9) (10).

It founds that on average a meal containing a spicy dish, can temporarily boost metabolism by about 8% over a person’s normal rate (11)

Yasser Mahmoud (an Egyptian fencer) found that capsaicin intake can increase metabolism and body temperature.

Another 2015, study found that eating capsaicin speeds up the metabolic rate marginally.

The result of a study conducted on 200 people showed that consuming at least 2 mg capsaicin before each meal, especially carbs, reduces calories

Spicy food can bring some other health benefits such as:

• keeping the heart healthy
• Promoting weight loss by kecking metabolism, but keep it in limit amount

Chia seeds

The study showed that a diet rich in chia seeds can affect metabolic rates of tissue renewal, and modify processes associated with aging (12).

The study showed it on obese people with type II diabetes, the result showed that those who included chia seeds in their diet are faster-reduced weight.

Even, increased proof suggests that the intake of PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) affects bone metabolism (13) (14)

It can reduce inflammation and improve blood flow to your muscles to kick your metabolism into high gear.

In addition, flaxseeds can also play a vital role in speeding up metabolism (15).

Many studies and research suggest that chia seeds’ healthy nutrients can help in treating illnesses such as:

• Help in get rid of constipation
• Keep teeth, skin healthy
• Prevent heart attack
• Help in lowering high blood pressure, because is high in fiber
• Enhance immunity

Check Out – 8 Healthiest Seeds In The World.

Avocado

Avocado consumption is allied with increased overall diet quality, nutrient intake, and reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome (16).

It includes plenty of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to help boost your metabolism and keep hunger at bay.

Green leafy vegetables

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There are some green leafy vegetables that are excellent in boosting metabolic rate like

• Kale
• Spinach
• Broccoli, contain glucoraphanin, so it can speed up metabolism
• Cabbage
• Microgreens

All these contain iron, and iron is an important mineral to regulate, boost metabolism.

To increase iron observation, you need to add vitamin C to your diet, such as – tomatoes, lentils, orange juice, amla, mango, papaya, etc.

Green vegetables contain lots of different vitamins and minerals like magnesium, which is the best choice for speeding up metabolism.

Research has shown that green leafy vegetables, rather than fruit, were suggested to have a bold protective effect against lung cancer (17)

NOTE: The research found that, overnight, basal metabolic rate was reached at 8 h after dinner consumption.

Ginger

Evidence has shown that ginger has been used to treat metabolic ailments in ancient civilizations (18) (19).

Another study saw that taking 2g of ginger powder mixed with hot water and drinking it with a meal may help burn 43% more calories than drinking hot water alone.

The animal study supports, ginger as a dietary agent for weight management and prevention of metabolic disorders, but research in humans is limited (20) (21) (22).

It also significantly reduces body weight, waist-to-hip ratio, fasting glucose, insulin resistance index, and increased HDL-cholesterol levels (23).

Ginger has an anti-inflammatory effect that may reduce inflammation in the throat, and give relax the muscles of the airways (24)

Its anti-inflammatory properties may reduce nausea after chemotherapy treatment, and during pregnancy (25).

Caffeine

Research has shown that caffeine and allied methylxanthines in tea and coffee could also have a profound effect on the metabolic rate (26).

Caffeine is found in coffee can increase the metabolism rate in individuals.

It stimulates the metabolic rate in both control and obese people, however, it is accompanied by greater oxidation of fat in normal-weight (27).

The consumption of alcohol was also shown to increase metabolic rate.

The research saw that, After caffeine is taken, the metabolic rate increased immediately with 0.2 +/- 0.2 kJ/min and remained elevated for 3 h.

Also suggests that Caffeine can increase RMR (rest metabolic rate) by 3–11%, and larger doses have a greater effect (28).

Tea

Research suggests that tea can help to speed up your metabolism and help break the excess fat and increase the amount of body energy.

Lemongrass and green tea is a great way to lose weight because it fires up your metabolism, which speeds up the digestion process.

Several studies suggest that taking green tea extract can make you burn more calories even at rest (29).

A 2013 study showed, drinking 4 cups of green tea led to a significantly reduce body weight, BMI, and systolic blood pressure.

Check Out- Herbal Tea: FAQ (Frequent Question Answer)

BOTTOM LINE

These foods are best to speed up your metabolism, however, there are also some foods that do different or opposite for metabolic.

Try to consume these foods with regular exercise at least 1 hour daily, which is an excellent combination for overall health.

If you are in medication or medical condition, even these food are absolutely fine, if for any reason you notice any discomfort, so talk to your doctor.