Your metabolism plays an important role in keeping your body alive and functioning. In short, it determines how many calories you need each day to keep your body going. It converts nutrients from the foods you eat into fuel. This provides the necessary energy for you to breathe, move, digest food, circulate blood and more. But how can you speed up your metabolism?
First, why do you need to speed up your metabolism? Metabolism refers to the number of calories you burn at rest. The higher the rate, the more calories you burn at rest. The more calories you burn, the more you can keep the weight off. On the other hand, if you have a slow metabolism, you can’t burn excess calories. These excess calories are then stored as fat causing you to to gain weight.
But don’t blame your metabolism solely on genetics. There are many factors that affect your metabolism including age, diet, sex, body size and health status. Although, there isn’t a magic pill you can take, there are ways to increase your metabolism.
1. Drink More Water
Sugary drinks such as soda, contain a ton of calories. Since water has no calories, you can drink as much as you want without the extra calories. It’s one of the benefits if you are trying to lose weight. Another benefit is water is a natural filler. Drinking water before you eat will cause you to eat less. In fact, hydration is super important to help your body turn fat into energy. As previously stated, this energy helps to burn other calories you’ve consumed and keeps your body functioning. By replacing your drinks with water, you lower your calorie intake, prevent overeating and help your body burn fat. Additionally, it enhances your body’s detoxification process by flushing out toxins.
2. Eat Protein With Ever Mean
This may sound counterintuitive, but eating food temporarily increases your metabolism. It’s called the thermic effect of food or TEF. This is due to the extra calories needed to digest, absorb and process the nutrients of your meal. The highest contributor of TEF is protein. Since protein takes longer to digest, it uses a lot of energy to be expended on your metabolism. As well, it can reduce the amount of fat you create and prevents muscle loss. Another added benefit is that is creates a sense of fullness and prevents overeating.
3. Eat More Fruits & Vegetables
This may seem obvious, but it’s one that many people neglect. Your metabolism starts at the cellular level. If you aren’t getting the nutrients your body needs, your metabolism won’t perform well. Adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet helps to give your body the micronutrients it needs. Plus, they are a good fiber source. Fiber helps you stay fuller longer, prevents you from overeating and regulates your blood sugar levels.
4. Get A Good Night’s Sleep
Lack of sleep is one of the leading causes of obesity. For one thing, the negative affects of sleep deprivation slows the metabolism. Instead of burning fat, the energy is used to keep your body up and running. As a result, it affects the ghrelin (hunger hormone) and leptin (fullness hormone). You’ll feel more hungry and crave unhealthy foods. These unhealthy foods increase blood sugar levels and insulin resistance. These are linked to type 2 diabetes.
5. Do HIIT
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It involves quick, intensive bursts of activity. This causes an after burn affect. These quick bouts makes you breathe harder and expend more calories during the rest period. During the process, it increases the number proteins in skeletal muscle essential for energy metabolism and muscle contraction. This chemically alters key metabolic proteins for the better. It can even increase your metabolic rate long after you’ve worked out. To get started, do quick bursts of biking or running. Then you can move into a more advanced class. Weight lifting and resistance training can also help preserve lean body mass and maintain your metabolism.
6. Bonus: Drink Green Tea
Although research is mixed, it’s still worth noting. Green tea and oolong tea have shown to increase fat burning and your metabolism. By converting fat into free fatty acids, when combined with exercise they can increase fat burning. Just like water, they are low in calories.
