Metabolism refers to all the chemical reactions in your body. The chemical reactions help keep your body alive and functioning. Metabolism is responsible for burning calories, regulate blood circulation, breathing, body temperature, and digestion. Having high metabolism makes you feel energized and feel better every time.
However, the speed of metabolism depends on different factors, including body fat, sex, muscle mass, activity level, age, and genetics. While it can be hard to control some factors that affect your metabolism, you can still boost your metabolism by living a healthy lifestyle.
In this article, learn easy ways that will increase your metabolism.
Contents
1. Eat Enough
People tend to lower calorie intake to lose weight fast. However, this does not work for everyone. Not consuming adequate calories causes muscle loss in the body. For your body to maintain metabolic balance, you have to eat at consistent times.
Furthermore, eating few calories causes your metabolism to slow down to help the body conserve energy. Women need between 1600 to 2400 calories a day and between 2000 and 3000 for men depending on their levels of physical activity.
2. Drink Enough Water
For your body to function at it’s best, you need to take plenty of water. Water plays a vital role in your and it can help a person lose weight. When you are dehydrated, the body’s metabolism slows down. So, drinking water will be helpful if you want to increase your metabolism.
Don’t just drink water, drink cold water. When you drink cold water, the body uses energy to heat it to optimum body temperature. Furthermore, drinking water helps your stomach stay full, and drinking water half an hour before you eat will make you eat less.
Consider drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water a day instead of drinking sweetened beverages. Therefore, drink plenty of water if you want to stay healthy and boost your metabolism.
3. Reduce Stress
Stress is not good for your health. It affects hormone levels and accelerates the production of cortisol. Cortisol is an essential hormone that controls appetite. Excess levels of cortisol affect your food intake and slow your metabolic. The best way to reduce or avoid stress is engaging in your favorite hobby, meditation, or taking a walk.
4. Do High Intensity Workouts
High intensity workouts help the body burn more calories and increase metabolism. These exercises increase your heart rate, help you burn more calories, nourish the skin, and improve blood circulation.
Furthermore, high intensity training is an alternative to steady cardio like cycling, swimming, or climbing to boost metabolism. To get maximum benefits, take intense classes at the gym. If you love jogging, you can sprint for one minute and walk for 2 minutes.
5. Build Muscle
The body burns fats and calories even when you are doing nothing. Doing strength training can help build muscles, which may increase metabolism. As we age, the body loses muscle naturally and resistance training can counteract the effect.
Resistance training can help the body build muscle as it involves lifting weights or the use of resistance bands. After your session, muscles are activated over the body, helping raise the average daily metabolic rate.
6. Get Adequate Sleep
Inadequate sleep leads to the release of ghrelin hormone, which makes you feel hungry. Still, not getting enough sleep can lead to less leptin release, a hormone that makes you feel full. So, getting enough sleep will help maintain hormonal balance and prevent you from overeating.
Try getting at least 7-8 hours of peaceful sleep per night to help increase your metabolism.
7. Drink Green Tea and Coffee
Green tea is a healthy alternative to sweetened drinks. Drinking it every day ensures you meet the required water intake in a day. The caffeine in coffee and green tea contains antioxidants that flush toxins from the body. Furthermore, antioxidants promote fat loss in obese individuals.
Regular intake of coffee and green tea can help you lose belly fat, but you have to drink in moderation and combine with some physical activity. In addition, caffeine can help you feel less tired and it can increase your endurance while you exercise.
8. Get Enough Vitamin B
B vitamins such as B6 pyridoxine, B2 riboflavin, and B1 thiamine play a vital role in metabolic rate. B vitamins are mostly found in foods such as:
- Eggs
- Bananas
- Baked potatoes
- Spinach
- Peanut butter
- Whole-grain foods
- Bananas
Taking these foods often will help improve your metabolism. If these foods are not effective enough, you can take B vitamin supplements to meet your daily requirement.
9. Spice Up Your Meals
Eating spicy foods can boost your metabolism. For instance, talk of peppers. Peppers contain a substance called capsaicin that can boost your metabolism. Most spicy foods contain natural chemicals that improve metabolism, but you have to eat them in moderation. You can start cooking your foods with a tablespoon of green chili pepper or red pepper to boost your metabolic rate.
The results will be temporary but eating spicy foods often will start giving permanent results. So, if you want a quick boost, spice up your foods.
10. Start Eating at Regular Intervals
Taking your meals at regular intervals helps the body maintain a balanced metabolic rate. You should start eating snacks or meals at intervals of 2-3 hours to increase your metabolism. Having long gaps between meals can slow your metabolism because of calories and nutrients deficit. So, make it a habit of eating at regular or fixed intervals to boost your metabolism.
Wrapping Up
For your body to function at it’s best, good metabolism is important. Having a slow metabolic rate can ruin your entire body system. The best way to boost or maintain your metabolism is by making helpful lifestyle changes. Some of the lifestyle changes require more determination, focus, patience, and some hard work.
Having high metabolism will help you live a better life and lose weight easily.