5 Habits That Are Messing With Your Metabolism

Three weeks into your new lifestyle of eating healthy food and getting plenty of exercise, you realize you've only lost one and a half pounds, and that's just not acceptable. But you can't really cut out any more calories and still call them healthy eating habits, and while you could run a few extra laps at the gym, you really don't want to. But no need to fret! What you need is some metabolism TLC, and these are the top five things you've got to stop doing if you want to rev that baby up.

1. Starving yourself: All starving yourself will do is make you even crankier than normal when you don't lose weight. That's because calories equal energy, and your body needs energy to burn energy. When your body doesn't get the calories it needs, it conserves energy by slowing down your metabolism. Then, when you reach the end of your rope and take it out on a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, all those calories turn to fat, and fast! So, maintain a healthy caloric intake and hit the gym a little more often.
2. Avoiding strength training: Fat is a little like your teenager: kinda lazy and really stubborn. Muscle, though, is like your twenty-something who's putting herself through medical school by holding down three jobs. Muscle burns far more calories than fat, so in addition to your usual cardio, hit the weight room twice a week to build muscle, which will keep on burning through those calories just to maintain its mass.
3. Failing to eat enough protein: Protein helps build muscle, and it also takes a lot more calories to digest protein than it does to digest fat and carbs. Getting enough protein in your diet is critical for losing weight effectively. Lean meat, low-fat dairy, beans, nuts, and eggs are great sources of protein.
4. Eating two or three large meals: Stuffing yourself full of food a couple of times a day is bad news for your metabolism, because your body learns that it has to conserve energy between meals. It also causes your blood sugar to spike and then plummet, which leaves you drained and craving that king-size Kit Kat sitting in your desk drawer. Instead, eat a small meal every 3-4 hours throughout the day. Include a healthy fat, a lean protein, and a carbohydrate. Your blood sugar will remain stable, you'll fend off hunger pangs, and your metabolism will get a little pick-me-up each time you eat and stay stable the rest of the time.
5. Letting yourself get thirsty: Water keeps things moving right along in your body, including your metabolism. Dehydration makes your body's processes — also including your metabolism — sluggish and tired. Drink at least 9 cups of water every day. If water bores you to tears, squish up some tasty fruit to infuse your water with flavor, or better yet, substitute green tea for your water. Green tea is a potent metabolism booster, and in fact, studies show that regularly consuming green tea can increase the number of calories you burn by around 20% each day.