5 Best Tips to Increase Your Metabolism
You may have noticed that your waistband is a little tighter each time you blow out the birthday candles. How is it that you can’t eat like you did when you were younger? This is frustrating for many women as we approach middle age.
That’s because your metabolism tends to slow down as we get older and we are all desperate to increase our Metabolism. The great news is there are steps we can take to increase our metabolism and lose weight in the process. This post may explain why your metabolism slows down and how to combat that slowing. By following the tips below, I have been able to amp up my metabolism and shed some unwanted pounds.
What is a Slowing Metabolism
Our metabolism is the way our bodies convert food into energy. The process of conversion deals with more than what you eat and how much you hit the gym. The speed of your metabolism varies due to many factors such as age, weight, sex, and thyroid function.
The metabolism is all of the chemical reactions that help keep your body functioning and how many calories you burn. The faster your metabolism, the more calories you burn. Our goal is to be at the prime calorie-burning capacity.
Why Does Your Metabolism Slow Down?
Activity Levels Decrease With Age-Both exercise and natural exercise affect the speed of your metabolism. This makes up approximately 10-30% of your calories burned daily. This number can increase to 50% for very active people. Natural exercise includes things like housework, yardwork, and standing. People tend to be less active as they get older, but by being active, you can increase your metabolism.
Metabolism Slows With Age– The amount of calories that you burn at rest (RMR) is determined by chemical reactions inside your body. One’s muscle and heart contractions, as well as nerve impulses, are generated by the sodium-potassium pumps. The mitochondria create energy for your cells. Both of these functions lose efficiency with age and therefore slow down your metabolism.
Loss of Muscle With Age– Sarcopenia is the fancy name for loss of muscle with age. This can cause weakness and fractures as well as slowing down your metabolism. Having more muscle increases your resting metabolism which is critical for burning calories and losing weight.
5 Best Tips to Increase Your Metabolism
1 Get Moving
Try High-intensity interval training, (HIIT). High-intensity interval training is short, intense bursts of exercise with short periods of rest. HIIT keeps the metabolic rate high for hours afterward. HIIT can burn up to 190 calories over 14 hours AFTER exercising. Integrating HIIT into your workout program provides a fast way to drop pounds and inches.
Add Resistance Training which increases lean muscle mass and revs up resting energy expenditure. The more muscles you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest. Women tend to shy away from resistance training, but we are working for lean muscle, not bulk. It takes time to take off the weight. The first 2-3 weeks of a resistance program will be a muscle-building phase and then you will start to see the fat melt off. Your body burns more calories maintaining muscle than it does maintaining fat. The more lean muscle you build, the more calories your body will naturally burn throughout the day.
2 Drink Tea
Green Tea contains antioxidants called catechins that break down fat. It is shown that drinking green tea can increase your resting metabolism by 4-5%
Oolong Tea– contains polyphenols molecules that help reduce fat by blocking the enzymes that actually build fat. Drinking a cup boosts for 2 hours after consumption.
3 Look at What You are Eating
Gluten, unsaturated vegetable oils, and sugar are attributed to the three biggest foods to slow down your metabolism. Balance your nutrients and improve the quality of foods you are eating. One common mistake people make is by eating too few calories. This then causes the metabolism to go into starvation mode causing it to slow down even more!
By eating more protein-rich foods, you can help fight a lethargic metabolism. Your body burns more calories while you are eating and digesting foods and also helps preserve muscle.
It is said that eating spicy food can boost calorie expenditure for a short time. Capsaicin is the compound in hot peppers that have a thermogenic effect. This means that your body creates more heat as it digests and results in more calories burned.
4 Drink Coffee
Coffee contains caffeine which is a stimulant that works by blocking a neurotransmitter called adenosine.
By blocking adenosine, caffeine then increases the release of dopamine and norepinephrine. This increases a person’s energy and resting metabolic rate. Although short-lived, drinking coffee can temporarily raise your metabolism.
Drink coffee before exercising for an energy boost and allowing you to make your workout more robust.
5 Sleep and Reduce Stress
Lack of sleep and high stress can slow down your metabolism. Not having enough sleep also contributes to muscle loss. As stated previously, muscle mass is critical to increasing your metabolism.
Hormones related to elevated stress levels wreak havoc on your metabolism which will halt weight loss. Try to reduce your stress levels and get enough sleep to increase your metabolism.
The Last Thing You Need to Know About Increasing Your Metabolism
Approaching middle age has a host of challenges we all face. The great news is your metabolism is one aspect that you can change. By implementing some or all of the tips above, you can increase your metabolism and feel better about yourself.
