How To Boost Your Metabolism
This is a really common question.
Before we dive into giving you all the answers, let’s understand what this concept is all about.
What is metabolism and how does it work?
Metabolism is the rate that your body converts nutrients from food into fuel (energy). This energy is used to breathe, move, digest, and recover from your training sessions.
Energy is known best as calories. Your calorie intake vs. expenditure rate plays a huge role in your body weight: if you consume more calories than you use in your daily activities, your weight will increase. The same goes the other way round.
That being said, the higher your metabolic rate (the speed at which your metabolism works), the more calories (energy) you burn while resting, and therefore the higher amount of food you need to ingest during your day.
This explains why some people’s bodies are naturally leaner and others seem to gain weight without great effort.
Your metabolic rate is dependent on age, diet, body composition, activity levels, genetics, and other factors, but it can still be adjusted.
How can I boost my metabolism?
- Eat enough calories
Highly calorie restricted diets can cause your metabolism to slow down to conserve energy. This is a survival mechanism to prevent starvation.
This is known as starvation mode or metabolic adaptation. Our bodies are smarter than we give them credit for.
If you want to boost and preserve your metabolism, avoid these drastic diets and big periods of great restriction.
- Eat plenty of protein
We need energy to digest, absorb and process the nutrients we get from food. This is called the thermic effect of food (TEF).
This means that when we eat, food can temporarily increase our metabolism for a few hours.
This effect is much stronger after eating protein compared to carbs or fat. Protein may increase metabolic rate by 20-30%, while carbs and fat cause only a 5-10% and 0-3% increase, respectively.
Protein also stimulates muscle production and muscle is known to require a lot of energy to maintain, which can also help speed up your metabolism.
- High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Resistance Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves quick and very intense bursts of activity. This is a good way to give your metabolism a boost. This type of training can help you take in more oxygen and allow mitochondria (a small organelle that helps give cells energy) to work harder and burn more energy.
Resistance/Strength Training is fundamental to build muscle, which, as we’ve shared before,muscle is more metabolically active than fat - meaning it will require more energy just to exist.
Combining these types of workouts in your routine can be a great way to increase your metabolism.
- Move your body
All body movements require energy so, the more active you are the higher your metabolic rate. Standing up regularly, and walking around, makes a major difference in the long run. This boost, that comes from activities that are not classified as exercise, is called non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and it actually makes up most of our caloric expenditure.
Here are some ways you can improve your NEAT and consequently your metabolic rate:
- Take the stairs when possible
- Use a standing desk to work
- Stand up regularly and walk around
- Do household chores
These light activities, although simple, can bring you great benefits in the long run.
- Get a good night of sleep
A lack of sleep will lower your metabolic rate. This is because our bodies will opt to conserve energy to compensate for poor night's sleep.
Sleep duration and quality are critical for your body goals - regulating your metabolism, appetite and hunger.
Food, exercise and sleep are a few of the variables that we can control in boosting our metabolism.
Your metabolism is easy to damage and hard to recover, so make sure that you have the right help of certified professionals to help you get to your goals. We’d love to be with you in this process - book your free call with your certified coach here!
