Speeding Up Your Metabolism
Is a slow metabolism holding you back from reaching your weight loss goals? While it is true that people burn calories at different rates, there are several methods of speeding up your metabolism.
The rate at which you burn calories, or your resting metabolic rate, can be increased. Since losing weight is the result of burning more calories than you consume, you must do everything you can to burn as many calories as possible. By far, the most important step you can take in speeding up your metabolism is to exercise.
How To Speed Up Metabolism
One of the most productive ways to speed up metabolism is through resistance training. Resistance training burns a substantial amount of calories during the workout itself. More importantly, resistance training helps you build lean muscle. Building lean muscle means you burn more calories. The more muscle you add to your frame, the more calories you will burn. It requires more energy for your body to sustain lean muscle than it does to sustain fat. Therefore, if you have more lean muscle, you will burn more calories. Find a great workout here.
If you can add even a little lean muscle to your body, you will burn more calories than you did before. This benefit does not only apply to times of physical activity but also to times of rest, even sleep. The human body is burning calories 24 hours a day, but some bodies burn more calories than others. Building muscle through resistance training increases your metabolic rate. Increasing this rate will help you lose weight and reduce body fat.
Another efficient means of speeding up your metabolism is through cardiovascular exercise. A regular cardio routine will not only burn calories during your workout but has been shown to increase caloric expenditure for several hours afterword. This reduces body fat and makes you look more lean and defined.
Speeding Up Your Metabolism With Nutrition
Another important thing you can do to speed metabolism is to eat more often. Spreading out your daily nutrition to 5-6 smaller meals per day will keep it running in high gear. When you eat only 2 or 3 times per day, as do many adults today, the nutrients your body doesn’t need will be stored as, you guessed it, body fat.
Eating several smaller meals throughout the day forces your body to use most, or all, of each meal for immediate fuel. Digesting food requires energy. The body must burn calories to process the food you eat, so the more often it must process food the more calories it will have to burn.
Choose a lean protein source and a complex carbohydrate source, for each meal. Foods with protein and carbohydrates have a greater thermic effect than high fat foods (protein being the highest). The thermic effect is a term used to describe the energy used in the processing of ingested foods. That means that your body will burn more calories digesting foods with protein and carbs than those with fat.
Drink plenty of water. Water is needed by all major organs to function at their peak. Most of your body’s fat supply is converted into energy through the liver. Keep the liver running its best by staying hydrated at all times.
How to speed up metabolism? Following these simple rules will help you lose weight, reduce body fat, and build a lean and fit physique.