9 Foods To Instantly Increase Your Metabolism

December 31, 2009

You may say “Wait Mitch, I want to build muscle and gain weight. Why do I need to boost my metabolism?”

Well I’m glad you asked.

A slow metabolism is good for building fat, but horrible for building muscle. Your body would rather store fat if you’re starving it because it doesn’t know when the next time you’re going to feed it. The last thing it wants to do is build muscle which requires A LOT much energy. In a slow environment, your body releases all sorts of nasty catabolic (muscle destructive) hormones. But that’s for another article.

In a bulking phase, your body is demanding energy all the time for the heavy amounts of stress you’re putting on it by lifting heavy weight and doing intense interval cardio.

Your body needs a lot of energy to rebuild those muscles. Your body needs a lot of energy to maintain those muscles. To do this, you have to eat more. But we all know that if you eat more and do the same, you’ll get fat.

The best way to minimize the fat you build is to increase you metabolism. This creates an environment in your body to feed the muscle and starve the fat. Your activity alone such as lifting heavy weights and interval training will shoot your metabolism through the roof.

You’ll also needed dietary boosts in your metabolism. The following foods also help in your muscle building efforts.

1. High Omega-3 Fish

* Mackerel – 2.5g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish
* Bluefin Tuna – 1.6g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish
* Salmon – 1.5g O3 per 3.5 oz of fish

Omega 3 is a protein which can increase your metabolism by up to 400 calories per day. Talk about a burn.

Eating fish is better than taking vitamins because of the added nutritional benefits.

2. High Fiber Veggies

* Avocado
* Beans
* Broccoli

Fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate, but your body tries to digest it anyway. It uses up tons of energy in the process of trying to do so. Side note: Broccoli is also high in calcium.

3. High Protein Meat

* Venison – 34g per 100 grams of meat
* Chicken – 25g per 100 grams of meat
* Lean beef – 25g per 100 grams of meat

Protein takes twice as much energy to burn as carbs. This will increase your metabolism right away.

Eat these foods along with lifting weights and intense cardio, and you’ll benefit from a higher metabolism around the clock.

Thanks to webmd for some of the information.

Want to find out more about how to increase your metabolism for muscle gain, then visit Mitch’s site on how to build muscle.