Increasing Your Metabolism: What You Need to Know

Key Points

• Having a high level of metabolism enables one to maintain burn fat and lose weight fast with the least amount of activity.
• Metabolism is the rate by which the body produces and consumes energy and calories to support life.
• While working on increasing your metabolism it is important to do this slowly and with the advice of your doctor.

There are several factors that affect the metabolism of a person, such as the amount of muscle tissue, the frequency of the meals one consumes, genetics, stress levels, personal diet, and activity levels. Metabolism slows down due to any of the following: muscle loss, not enough food energy to sustain the body, and the decrease of physical activity that comes naturally with old age.

It is vital to increase your metabolism that is safe and healthy for your individual needs. It can be dangerous to lose weight too quickly. While working on increasing your metabolism it is important to do this slowly and with the advice of your doctor.

Increasing Your Metabolism Through Exercise

Build up on lean, mean body mass. It is only natural that metabolism decreases along with age, but it is possible to counter the effects. The amount of muscle a person has is a very strong determinant in the ability to burn calories and shed fat. So it goes without saying that exercise is essential.

Build strength and resistance by working out at least twice a week, preferably with weights. Do easy exercises in between workouts. Simple tasks such as walking the dog and using the stairs in place of the elevator can already take off calories. The key is to match the amount of eating to the amount of activity one has. Here are some guidelines for getting the right exercise:

For Strength Training

• Increase the amount of repetitions for a particular exercise of your choice.
• Add to the level of resistance for your workout.
• Utilize advance exercise techniques or discover a new technique, if possible.

For Cardiovascular Training

• Insert intervals between exercises.
• Perform cross-training and combine multiple exercises.
• Increase your resistance and speed in your exercise of choice.

Increasing Your Metabolism Through Diet

In addition to exercise, improving or changing your diet habits is another step toward increasing your metabolism. Eating breakfast is a great starting point. A lot of people are ignoring the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Surprisingly, the ones who eat breakfast are thinner than the ones who do not. Metabolism can slow down considerably if breakfast is taken during mid-morning or if one waits until the afternoon to eat.

It's also very important to avoid sugar. Sugar enables the body to store fat. It is recommended that a person consumes food that helps sustain an even level of blood sugar. Additionally, progressive exercise 2-3 times a week should be done in order to stabilize blood sugar. Eating spicy foods, increasing your water intake, and controlling your portions by eating smaller meals is helpful as well.

Increasing Your Metabolism Through Lifestyle Changes

By changing little details in your lifestyle, you can increase your metabolism. One huge help is sleeping more. According to research, it is riskier for people who do not get enough sleep to gain weight. Also, muscles are regenerated during the last couple of hours of slumber.

And last but not least, ditch the stress! Stress, be it physical or emotional, triggers the release of a steroid called cortisol, which decreases metabolism. Also, people tend to eat excessively when stressed. Achieving the desired body weight is never impossible if you have the determination and patience needed to increase metabolism, which plays an important role in weight loss.