Most of the recipe suggestions may be found in the Recipes section.
High Metabolism
Natural Snacks or Ingredients for Recipes to help you fulfill the needs of your high metabolism or help you gain weight.
Ingredient Meal Suggestion
Avocados Guacamole
Spicy Avocado and Zucchini Casserole
Bananas Make some caramelized bananas!
Dried Fruit
Smoothies/Juice Make a fresh fruit smoothie or juice
instead of having a piece of fruit.
Nuts/Nut Butters Peanut Noodles
Olive Oil Cook absolutely everything with olive oil!
Agave Nectar Sweet Rolls
Corn
Whole Grains
Rice Note: brown rice is much healthier than
white/jasmine rice, but it's also more
filling.
Hummus Homemade hummus is excellent if you're
on a budget!
Hummus veggie wrap
Artichoke Hearts They're soaked in olive oil which makes them very fattening.
Olives
Coconut Milk Make a banana-coconut smoothie or use it
instead of milk in your pancakes.
Flour Make your own thick and creamy
flour-based soup from scratch.
Potatoes Mashed potatoes of course!
Sweet Potatoes Sweet potato fries!
Avocados Guacamole
Spicy Avocado and Zucchini Casserole
Bananas Make some caramelized bananas!
Dried Fruit
Smoothies/Juice Make a fresh fruit smoothie or juice
instead of having a piece of fruit.
Nuts/Nut Butters Peanut Noodles
Olive Oil Cook absolutely everything with olive oil!
Agave Nectar Sweet Rolls
Corn
Whole Grains
Rice Note: brown rice is much healthier than
white/jasmine rice, but it's also more
filling.
Hummus Homemade hummus is excellent if you're
on a budget!
Hummus veggie wrap
Artichoke Hearts They're soaked in olive oil which makes them very fattening.
Olives
Coconut Milk Make a banana-coconut smoothie or use it
instead of milk in your pancakes.
Flour Make your own thick and creamy
flour-based soup from scratch.
Potatoes Mashed potatoes of course!
Sweet Potatoes Sweet potato fries!
Low Metabolism
Natural Snacks or Ingredients for Recipes to help you fulfill the needs of your low metabolism or help you lose weight.
But first, a bit of advice...
But first, a bit of advice...
Do the opposite of the above guidelines for people with high metabolisms (stay away from those calorie/fat/sugar dense foods!)Look out for processed foods! Protein is important to have in your diet, but too much protein gets stored in the human body as fat. So those low-calorie but high-protein foods like veggie burgers and soymilk will make you gain weight if you make them your diet staples. Processed foods in general have additives (e.g. sugar) that you wouldn't normally include in your main course. They can also be high in fat, so if you do decide to eat processed foods frequently out of convenience make sure you are reading the entirety of the Nutrition Facts list, not just the calorie content.
Warning: People often make the mistake of snacking on fruit to lose weight. Fruit is high in natural sugars: both natural and artificial sugar will make you gain weight! So fruit is a great healthy natural snack, but don't over-indulge if you are trying to lose weight.
To elevate your metabolism, you need to do two things:
1. Exercise is a must. The more muscle you build, the higher your metabolism will be. Your body builds most of its muscle on your off-days, meaning the day(s) after your workout. So don't work on muscle-training the same areas of your body ever day, rotate (e.g. Day 1 abs, Day 2 thighs, Day 3 triceps, and etc). But you need to do cardio to trim your fat in order for your muscle training to be effective. Look into a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout technique because it burns the most calories and builds muscles the fastest (HIIT can be used for your cardio and muscle training exercises).
2. Not eating lowers your metabolism. So small, frequent meals will raise your metabolism (ideally, 150-200 calories every 2 hours---but that isn't practical for most of our lifestyles so you can adjust that to e.g. a 400 calorie meal every 4 hours. Do the math to figure out how many calories you need per day to suit your body type and activity level.)
There are "quick tricks" to temporarily raising your metabolism like consuming caffeine and spicy foods, but they won't raise your metabolism for very long.
Now on to the actual foods to incorporate into your diet. Note that this is not a list of the only foods that people with low metabolisms should eat; these are the snacks you should reach for between meals or ingredients you should add to your meals in order to help you stay full.
Ingredient Meal Suggestion
Apples Hot cinnamon apple slices
Homemade apple sauce
Steamed Vegetables Special shout-out to artichokes---which
are extremely low-cal and fun to eat (at
least, as much fun as can be had while
eating steamed vegetables.)
Broth Homemade vegetable stock
Soyrizo Soup
When consuming store-bought broth or
bouillon, try to get the low-sodium type
to stay on the healthier side. The extra
salt won't raise your metabolism, but it
can cause other health problems if there is too much salt in your diet.
Celery Your body burns more calories than it is consuming when you're snacking on
celery!
Whole Grains Whole grains will keep you full and give
you energy, which makes them great
meal-bases on days that you need an
extra boost. White grains such as white
rice are known as "empty calories", so
if you start craving pasta use whole grain
noodles and make a big salad to go with
a serving of pasta (keep in mind that a
serving is not the same thing as a bowl).
Oatmeal is a great breakfast before a
long hike, but make sure you're buying
rolled oats not instant oatmeal (probably
cheapest in the bin section of your local
health food store).
Antioxidants Fruits high in antioxidants keep your body
regular, check out the cranberry salad
recipe in the Recipes section! But don't
over-indulge, remember fruit still has a lot
of natural sugars. Moderation,
moderation, moderation.
Warning: People often make the mistake of snacking on fruit to lose weight. Fruit is high in natural sugars: both natural and artificial sugar will make you gain weight! So fruit is a great healthy natural snack, but don't over-indulge if you are trying to lose weight.
To elevate your metabolism, you need to do two things:
1. Exercise is a must. The more muscle you build, the higher your metabolism will be. Your body builds most of its muscle on your off-days, meaning the day(s) after your workout. So don't work on muscle-training the same areas of your body ever day, rotate (e.g. Day 1 abs, Day 2 thighs, Day 3 triceps, and etc). But you need to do cardio to trim your fat in order for your muscle training to be effective. Look into a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout technique because it burns the most calories and builds muscles the fastest (HIIT can be used for your cardio and muscle training exercises).
2. Not eating lowers your metabolism. So small, frequent meals will raise your metabolism (ideally, 150-200 calories every 2 hours---but that isn't practical for most of our lifestyles so you can adjust that to e.g. a 400 calorie meal every 4 hours. Do the math to figure out how many calories you need per day to suit your body type and activity level.)
There are "quick tricks" to temporarily raising your metabolism like consuming caffeine and spicy foods, but they won't raise your metabolism for very long.
Now on to the actual foods to incorporate into your diet. Note that this is not a list of the only foods that people with low metabolisms should eat; these are the snacks you should reach for between meals or ingredients you should add to your meals in order to help you stay full.
Ingredient Meal Suggestion
Apples Hot cinnamon apple slices
Homemade apple sauce
Steamed Vegetables Special shout-out to artichokes---which
are extremely low-cal and fun to eat (at
least, as much fun as can be had while
eating steamed vegetables.)
Broth Homemade vegetable stock
Soyrizo Soup
When consuming store-bought broth or
bouillon, try to get the low-sodium type
to stay on the healthier side. The extra
salt won't raise your metabolism, but it
can cause other health problems if there is too much salt in your diet.
Celery Your body burns more calories than it is consuming when you're snacking on
celery!
Whole Grains Whole grains will keep you full and give
you energy, which makes them great
meal-bases on days that you need an
extra boost. White grains such as white
rice are known as "empty calories", so
if you start craving pasta use whole grain
noodles and make a big salad to go with
a serving of pasta (keep in mind that a
serving is not the same thing as a bowl).
Oatmeal is a great breakfast before a
long hike, but make sure you're buying
rolled oats not instant oatmeal (probably
cheapest in the bin section of your local
health food store).
Antioxidants Fruits high in antioxidants keep your body
regular, check out the cranberry salad
recipe in the Recipes section! But don't
over-indulge, remember fruit still has a lot
of natural sugars. Moderation,
moderation, moderation.