‘Work it’ – Top 3 ways to kick-start your metabolism

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Work It

Good morning! Happy Wednesday!

The Mister and I had a great workout this morning, focusing mostly on cardio — we went for more than 45 minutes on the elliptical – I’m sure my legs will be sore tomorrow morning! – good thing it’s an off day ;)

For today’s ‘Work it’ Wednesday feature, we all have the privilege of learning from one of the professionals, Marci Lall.

Marci has extensive experience in personal training and:

I’m so thrilled to be able to share Marci’s guest post and video he put together JUST FOR ALL OF YOU! How fantastic is that?

Thank you so much Marci, for sharing your expertise with The Daily Balance!

First and foremost my name is Marci Lall and I’m a weight loss and body sculpting specialist in Toronto Ontario, Canada and I’ve been active in the fitness industry for about 8 years.

Now that you know a little bit about me. Lets get right in to what I wanted to share with you today. Which is the Top 3 Ways to Kick-Start Your Metabolism Instantly.

But first let me simplify what your metabolism is how your body makes energy, and uses it for daily activities. Some reasons why you’d want to speed up your metabolism would be to:

1. Burn more fat.

2. Increase your lean muscle mass

3. Burn more calories at rest.

1. Don’t Skip Meals

One of the biggest mistakes people make is skipping meals. They think if they skip a meal they’ll decrease the of calories they put into their bodies and lose weight that way. This is totally wrong because once you skip meals your body goes into starvation mode and takes energy from your lean muscle. Lean muscle burns fat so if your body is getting energy from your muscles your metabolism will eventually slow down because your decreasing your lean muscle.

2. Use Weights.

Many experts agree that resistance training is the most effective way to increase your metabolism. Each pound of muscle can increase your resting metabolic rate up to 15 calories a day.

3. Do Interval Training.

If you want to increase your metabolism with cardio, then high intensity interval training (HIIT) might be your best bet. By doing short bursts of sprints you’ll increase your heart rate significantly and burn the most calories. But the effects won’t last long and your metabolism will probably go back to it’s resting level after several hours.

Those are your top 3 ways to kick-start your metabolism but there’s still one more question that is still unanswered. And that is “How do you know if your metabolism is speeding up?”

Your metabolic rate is directly related to your muscle. If you increase your lean muscle your metabolism will increase. In order to figure out if you’ve increased your lean muscle you’d have to do a simple body fat test to compare your lean muscle and fat mass within your body.

You can also get a test done in which a machine plots out your information and lets you know what your RMR is.



Thank you, Marci! I’d say that I do a pretty good job making sure that I don’t skip meals and the Mister and I always get in solid weight training workouts, but I could pump up my interval training a bit. Does anyone have some good interval training workouts to share? What about you? How do you measure up to Marci’s tips?

17 Responses to “‘Work it’ – Top 3 ways to kick-start your metabolism”

  1. Lori @ RecipeGirl said:

    Good to know… I seem to be doing everything right! I can tell my metabolism has sped up… eating more and maintaining. Love how that all works out!

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  2. Sagan said:

    Great guest post! Those are three of the best ways to keep healthy.

    One variation of “interval training” that I do is, when I’m out for a walk, I’ll do a quick jog/run for every street that I cross. It has the added benefit of avoiding being hit by oncoming vehicles.

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  3. kirwin said:

    I am like the little girl in the poem: “…When she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid.”

    When I was working out (last year) I stuck to all of these tips. Even though HIITs killed me, I knew how good they were for me. However…I need to return to the gym and my workout and all of these good ideas.

    {sigh}

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  4. Carolina John said:

    I did an interval run last night. i’m in the middle of a FIRST marathon training plan for a marathon on June 13th. it has me doing speedwork every tuesday, a tempo run every thursday, and a long run every saturday. i like them all.

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  5. Hallie said:

    I agree that weights and strength training works best for me. It’s much harder to maintain my weight when I slack off in that department.

    I also like the trick about spicy food speeding up your metabolism but that’s because I love spicy food! It’s probably a myth in reality, but it works for me ;-)

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  6. Run Sarah said:

    Great tips! I need to try doing more interval runs, and I agree skipping meals is one of the worst dieting mistakes!

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  7. Marion said:

    Intervals were sometimes the bane of my existence when I ran cross country and track in HS, but oh boy do they work!! I should start doing them again once I’m in good enough aerobic shape.

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  8. Marissa said:

    Great tips!

    (Dine Out, Fight AIDS. TOMORROW. 4-30. http://www.diningoutforlife.com)

    Posted on | Reply
  9. Marci Lall said:

    Holy Geeze! Some awesome comments!

    @Sagan – Love your motivation to not get hit by on coming cars lol…you can also use telephone poles as good markers for you to track your intervals (run to one post, jog to the next etc.)

    @Kiriwn – Everyone has their good days and bad days, its how you deal with them. I guarantee once you start to get back into your workouts your body will feel refreshed, you’ll have more energy and you’ll enjoy the natural high you get after a great workout…again. :D

    @Hallie – No myth there, it’s actually a fact that spicy foods increase your metabolism. It’s minimal but does the job.

    @Marion – Get it done. :D

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  10. K said:

    Great tips!! I love weight training already so the added bonuses are always nice :)

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  11. Anais said:

    Would spinning count as interval training? With jumps, sprints, etc.? Hope so :)

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  12. Twitted by DanceMassTV said:

    [...] This post was Twitted by DanceMassTV [...]

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  13. Marci Lall said:

    @Anais – Yup! Especially when you sit off the saddle and really go hard for like 20 – 30 seconds! The intervals in spinning can be considered the “hills” – really get that heart pumping and legs movin’

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  14. amanjo said:

    These are great tips! Marci has me thinking about metabolism a lot latelyy, and I’m starting to implement his suggestions. Thanks, Marci!

    ‘Scuse my typos; posting from my phone. :)

    Posted on | Reply
  15. Meg said:

    Love the tips! It frustrates me when people think that starving themselves is the answer to weight loss! It’s so ridiculous how many people go on these crazy diets like that. Hope your legs aren’t too sore from the elliptical – yikes!

    Love, Meg

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  16. Michelle @ Find Your Balance said:

    Oooh I definitely need to do more weights!

    Posted on | Reply
  17. Anais said:

    Thanks Marci! Glad to know it counts as interval training because it always kicks my ass lol!

    Posted on | Reply

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