Tips To Help You Speed Up Your Metabolism

Some people who have difficulty losing weight or who tend to easily gain it even without significantly overeating, may find that they have a problem with their metabolism. Before we discuss ways to increase one’s metabolism, let’s first talk about what the metabolism is. The metabolism is pretty complex. Essentially, it determines how your body processes and converts the food that you eat into energy.  Individuals with faster metabolisms have a system that works more efficiently.   

 

The majority of the calories that you consume are used to support your body’s basic functions.  You would need these calories even if you sat around the house all day.  A small percentage, roughly 7% to 10% of calories that you take in, will be used to process the food that you eat.  About 25% of all of the calories that you consume goes towards supporting your physical activity.  

 

In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories then you take in. If you want to maintain your weight, than the calories that you take in must equal those that you burn off. Again, these calories go towards basic support of life, physical activity and the actual processing of food.  

 

Individuals with metabolic problems that are linked to their thyroid may gain weight even if they are eating the same amount of calories or even less calories, than someone who doesn’t have this problem.  In some of these cases, the basal metabolism is not functioning as effectively as a normal persons would. It’s likely lower.  The amount of calories that are used for food and goes towards physical activity is also lower. In order to overcome this, individuals must increase or boost their metabolism.  To determine if this is a problem that you are dealing with, it’s best to ask your doctor for a thyroid test. If you find that your basal metabolism is low, you will need to increase it.  There are several ways to do that.

 

Your basal metabolism is largely affected by heredity.  What you were born with is likely what you will have to deal with.  However, you can improve it.  The best way to do so is by building muscle. Muscle cells are metabolically much more active then fat cells.  Your muscles will also burn much more calories and fat. It is believed that one pound of muscle is able to burn 25 calories, while fat burns zero.  Therefore, lifting weights and exercising and increasing your muscle can go a long way in improving your basal metabolism.

 

Supplementation may also be an important part of improving your metabolism.  Make sure that you are getting all of your vitamins.  Vitamin B and C are vital. Drinking plenty of water can also boost your metabolism.  When you are not drinking enough water and become dehydrated, your body temperature will become lower and you will tend to store fat in order to raise the temperature.  You should look to consume about 8 glasses of water every day or a little over 60 ounces.

 

Aerobic exercise, such as jogging is also the important for increasing your metabolism. Make sure that do this consistently throughout the week.  Three or four times a week should be sufficient. You will also want to take care to eat plenty of lean protein and complex carbohydrates. Simple sugars won’t positively affect your metabolism. However, plenty of vegetables, some fruits and cereals low in sugar can help improve your metabolism, if they have a lot of fiber.

 

 

 

No related posts.