7 Effective Ways to Boost Your Metabolism
Have you ever wondered how two people of the same gender, age, and height can eat the same food and be equally active, but have varying degrees of weight loss? This is the magic of metabolism. Your rate of metabolism is determined by how well your body can burn energy while sustaining basic functions such as breathing, thinking, and your heartbeat. Healthy metabolism improves blood circulation, elevates your mood, raises your natural immunity, makes you appear younger, boosts your energy levels, and clears your body of toxins. Your metabolic rate may be influenced by various aspects, including body size, age, gender, hormonal function, amount of physical activity, and muscle-fat ratio. Hormones such as growth, sex, leptin, and insulin influence your metabolism, appetite, and body mass distribution. Below are effective ways to boost your metabolism:
1. Get enough micronutrients
When you have a healthy metabolism, it means your body is also healthy. Failure to get enough nutrients lowers metabolism and causes diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain, but a healthy diet and exercise routine can help fix this. If you are busy enough not to pay close attention to your diet and exercises, consider supplementing with the right nutrients from a dietary supplement like Garcinia 1000 mg for a healthier metabolism. Increase your intake of vitamins E, C, and D to prevent metabolic syndrome.
2. Increase your protein intake
When your body digests proteins, it burns more calories than it does when digesting carbohydrates and fats. To balance your diet, consider replacing part of your carbs with lean, protein-rich foods at mealtimes to boost your metabolism. Some of the protein sources you can choose include chicken, lean beef, fish, turkey, nuts, and low-fat dairy products. Eating more proteins helps you feel fuller for longer, avoiding overeating. Since taking more protein lowers muscle loss, the metabolism associated with fat loss also drops.
3. Drink water
When you drink water instead of sugary drinks, your chances of losing weight and keeping it off are higher. This is because sugary drinks contain calories, and replacing them with water reduces your calorie intake. In addition, water is essential in the conversion of stored fat into energy, boosting metabolism. Water is also a natural appetite suppressant. When you drink water before your meals, food intake reduces, improving your metabolic rate and weight loss.
4. Be physically active
Cardiovascular exercises like aerobics, running, and swimming are effective ways to burn calories. Consider weight lifting and strength training to build muscles that burn more calories than fat. Aim to perform muscle-building activities at least twice a week and work on major muscle groups like your arms, shoulders, legs, hips, chest, back, and abdomen.
5. Drink green tea and coffee
Green tea and coffee both contain caffeine, a stimulant known for fat burning and improvement of exercise performance. It is also loaded with antioxidants, and drinking these beverages increases the amount of antioxidants in your bloodstream, improving your metabolism. In addition, caffeine stimulates the nervous system, signaling the fat cells to break down fats then releasing them into the bloodstream. When fatty acids are released into your blood, consider burning more calories than you consume to burn the fat and improve your metabolism.
6. Avoid crash diets
A crash diet expects you to reduce your calories from the beginning, mostly below the number of calories your body requires to perform basic functions. Crash diets involve eating less than 1200 calories a day for a woman and less than 1600 for a man. Such diets aren't ideal if you are looking to improve your metabolism. Although a crash diet may help you lose weight, it compromises good nutrition. You also risk losing muscle which will slow your metabolism, causing your body to burn fewer calories and increase the chances of weight gain. Besides lowering your metabolism, crash diets are bad for your heart, as they lead to prolonged hunger patterns and low energy levels.
7. Increase your fiber intake
Increasing your fiber intake will help burn calories and reduce weight. This is because when you eat foods rich in fiber, your metabolism increases as fiber is indigestible. As the body tries to digest fiber, it uses more calories than when digesting other foods. This helps burn more calories and improves metabolism. Fiber is made of soluble and insoluble fiber. Food rich in insoluble fiber includes cauliflower, wheat bran, beans, and apples, while those rich in insoluble fiber may include oat bran, and brown rice.
Endnote
Whether your body has low, fast, or moderate metabolism, there is always something you can do to change it to what good health practices dictate. Use these tips for an effective boost of your metabolism.