6 Important Tips To Boost Your Metabolism

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he eats more than what I eat, but she still remains lean!!…this is one tearful complaint that young women likely make. What is the meaning of this? Two people eat the same quantity of food, but one manages to remain slim while the other puts on weight? Is it because the other woman who is being referred to is blessed with a magical figure? Or is it because her metabolism rates are high? You've never thought of it, I guess?

What Is Metabolism?

You often hear this term in television ads, they say consuming certain products boost metabolism and connect it to weight loss. That’s how you may know this term…isn’t it people? Let’s learn what exactly this term means.

Metabolism is defined as the whole range of biochemical processes that occur throughout the body (within each cell) to convert what we eat and drink into energy needed to sustain life. If you didn’t understand that, here is a much simpler way to understand what metabolism means. Metabolism is the number of calories your body burns to maintain your organs functioning normally, such as breathing, digesting food, repairing cells. Metabolism is an important aspect of energy formation that is related to nutrition as nutrients are required to produce energy. The metabolic process is of two types:  anabolism and catabolism

Anabolism involves synthesizing or building compounds from simpler substances such as glucose, amino acids, glycerol, and fatty acids. This metabolic process involves storing energy.

Catabolism involves breaking down larger organic molecules into smaller molecules. This process releases energy.

Here you have also got to know what basal metabolic rate means. It is the minimum amount of energy expended by the body to carry on the basic life functions when the subject is on a complete mental and physical rest.

While metabolism is largely hereditary and can slow down with age, research suggests that some habits or activities can raise or lower metabolism.

Here in today’s blog, you’ll learn how to boost your metabolism by following 6 important tips…

WORK ON REDUCING STRESS

All you knew was that stress causes headaches and takes away your valuable sleep…time to think a little further…Higher levels of stress can impact metabolism and can cause the buildup of fat in your abdomen region. Wondering how?  I’ll give the explanation…stress responses in the body include activation of the sympathetic nervous system and stimulation of epinephrine and cortisol release. The stress response causes enhanced blood pressure, insulin resistance, mobilizes the body’s energy stores in order to respond to the threat. The metabolic changes that occur in response to stress can create a surge of energy storage in the body, which is accompanied by an increase in appetite. Elevated stress levels cause you to eat more comforting foods like salty, sweet, and fatty foods, the resultant effect of which is weight gain and not weight loss. Stress can also lead to the production of less testosterone, which directly impacts muscle mass, low muscle mass means slow calorie burn.

Practice relaxation through meditation, yoga, deep breathing that can bring stress levels to normal.

Related article: Deep Breathing Exercise For Effective Stress Relief

DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST/MEALS

Most people who are in an attempt to reduce weight or in a hurry, make the mistake of skipping meals. Did you know? Skipping breakfast is a peril to weight loss. Skipping meals will cause you to reduce the number of calories you consume, make you miss out on essential nutrients, and can make you do unhealthy food choices. Skipping breakfast causes a decrease in blood sugar levels, which causes physical and mental fatigue, and irritability which causes increased production of cortisol, leaving you stressed. You just learnt about the ill effects of stress, should I say that again to you? Stress slows down metabolism and makes it harder to lose weight. Skipping meals will cause your body to lower its metabolism as your body goes into survival mode, this causes you to burn less energy and eat more.

Eat smaller, frequent meals throughout the day instead of skipping meals. Snack on protein and fiber which will keep you fuller.

Related article: Low-Carb Diet For Weight loss – How Does It Work?

AIM FOR PROPER HYDRATION

Water is a calorie-free liquid that can promote satiety and suppress your appetite. As per research, drinking a cup of water before breakfast, lunch and dinner help you to eat less, reduce calorie intake and increase calorie expenditure. Every time you drink water (particularly cold water), your body has to expend energy to warm the fluid to body temperature, the more energy expended by your body, the faster your metabolism. Cellular hydration is necessary for optimal metabolism. Adequate hydration allows cells to restore glucose transport across the cell membrane as well as aid in insulin-induced glucose uptake. Dehydration should have the opposite effect and will slow down the process of metabolism, which means low-calorie burn.

Apart from drinking water at regular intervals, you can improve your hydration by eating fruits and vegetables with high water content, such as watermelon, cucumber.

Related article: Top 4 Ways How Proper Hydration Can Facilitate Immunity

PERFORM STRENGTH TRAINING TO INCREASE MUSCLE MASS

You’ll now know why made you acquainted with the term ‘basal metabolic rate’. The biggest contributor to your metabolism is your basal metabolic rate, which can be increased by muscle mass. Even if you are someone who genetically has a slow metabolism, increasing your muscle mass will increase your metabolic rate and help you burn more calories. This happens so because the muscle tissue is metabolically active and burns more calories than fat. In fact, loss of muscle mass with aging is one of the reasons why our metabolism slows down. Strength training/body weight training can help increase metabolism by making you expend additional calories which increases your calorie burn, after your training, your body works on repairing muscles which means you’ll burn more calories. A strength training workout will provide a stimulus for the muscles to adapt and get stronger, this will ultimately help burn more calories through increased lean muscle mass.

The best way to add and preserve muscle mass is by strength training. It consists of lifting weights or bodyweight training.

Related article: Top 5 Strength Training Workout For Women

GET A GOOD AMOUNT OF PROTEIN IN MEALS

Adequate protein intake can improve satiety and decrease fat mass. A protein diet increases the secretion of satiety hormones, ghrelin. Increased satiety leads to decreased energy intake. A high-protein diet is associated with increased energy expenditure due to its thermic effect. Our body burns more energy processing protein than it does carbs or fats. The act of digesting protein boosts your metabolism and leads to reduced subsequent energy intake. Moreover, eating protein gives your body more of amino acids, which when coupled with strength training can build muscles. A high protein diet offers a metabolic advantage through diet-induced thermogenesis and a rise in resting energy expenditure associated with food ingestion.

Include protein in every meal to aim for satiety and increased diet-induced thermogenesis.

Related article: Soy Protein Isolate – A Perfect Protein Solution For Vegans

GET GOOD SLEEP

Were you of the opinion that sleep just rests the tired body and brain? Did you know? Curtailment of the bedtime period can cause metabolic irregularities. You may be surprised how sleep will impact metabolism. While the body naturally regulates the secretion of neurotransmitters throughout the day, lack of sleep cause dysregulation in the neurotransmitter secretion, it causes an increase in ghrelin (which causes hunger) and a decrease in leptin (which contributes to satiety). As per studies, sleep deprivation will also affect your eating preferences, people who are deprived of sleep/those who are awake till late night will tend to choose foods high in calories. So, you understand how improper sleep can take a toss on metabolism and lead to metabolic irregularities.

Be an early bird, hit your sack early or the metabolic dysfunction will hit your belly.

Related article: 7 Relaxing Bedtime Exercises That Help Promote Better Sleep

More often than not, the reason you are putting on weight could be because of slow metabolism… work on the suggested tips to give a boost to your metabolism and stay toned…

Stay tuned to asitisnutrition.com/blogs/health for more interesting information on health and fitness…

Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444051/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14671205/    

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2929498/

Also read: 10 Ways To Boost Energy Naturally

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