Speeding up your metabolism is one of the key factors in helping you lose weight faster. The more calories the body spends during the day (not only during sports, but also at rest) the faster the subcutaneous fat burns and the muscle definition appears.
Metabolism is a set of processes for ensuring the vital activity of the body. The first part of metabolism is the conversion of food into calories and nutrients. The second is physical expenditure during the day (including sports). The third is the maintenance of normal body functions like body temperature.
The metabolic rate (that is, the amount of energy expended) depends on the age, gender, height and weight of a person, and on external factors. However, poor metabolism is more often caused by a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, and not a genetic error.
The higher the body’s need for calories, the more efficiently the metabolism works. That is why athletes have the fastest metabolism – as a result of regular training, the body accelerates the expenditure of energy for exercise, and not for increasing fat reserves.
How can you speed up your metabolism? First of all, regular sports activities including both strength training for muscle growth and cardio for fat burning. Additionally, a diet rich in fiber and all the vital nutrients helps to achieve fast metabolic function.
Metabolism – in short:
- the amount of energy consumed by the body
- the more movement, the faster the metabolism
- depends on daily nutrition
Metabolism: what is it and how to speed it up?
Many people believe that their many unsuccessful attempts to lose weight are due to poor metabolism, and not due to the wrong approach to weight loss. It is on this delusion that unscrupulous entrepreneurs profit by selling “magic” pills for a lot of money to speed up metabolism.
Attention! It should be understood that not a single pill, exotic fruit or miracle tea can really start fat burning processes by accelerating metabolism.
What is metabolism?
Metabolism is a group of complex processes in the body that convert calories from food into energy that is useful for human life. It depends on:
- nutritional value of consumed products;
- regularity and intensity of physical activity;
- ambient temperature;
- psycho-emotional state;
- age;
- weight.
Various factors affect the rate of assimilation of food. For example, when under stress, the body begins to produce cortisol, which slows down digestive processes and stimulates the storage of body fat.
Attention! Metabolism means different processes – from digesting a hearty breakfast to breathing during sleep, when the body transports oxygen to the organs without the participation of the brain.
It should be understood that metabolism has no speed, which means that there is no classification for slow, normal and fast. This is due to the fact that its speed cannot be measured. But even if this were possible, there are no equivalent units of measurement that could describe this speed.
Poor metabolism: symptoms and consequences
Insulin is considered the main metabolic hormone. It is with the help of this hormone that the body forms both muscle mass and body fat. Most often, poor metabolism is associated with issues of insulin production – and this happens as a result of consumption of carbohydrates with a high glycemic index.
Chronically high blood sugar levels lead to insulin resistance – the inability of the body to understand that the calories consumed from food are too many. The result is a slowdown in metabolism and the conversion of excess calories into fat. Symptoms – a sharp weight gain against the background of an increase in appetite.
The rate of digestion and absorption of food depends on a combination of factors affecting a person over a certain period of time. Therefore, the rate of the metabolism – “fast” or “slow” – depends on the lifestyle and the body’s response to environmental stimuli.
Sometimes even a small error in interpretation of competent recommendations results in attempts at weight loss that do not achieve any practical result. For example, a person who has thoroughly taken up his excess weight sharply cuts the diet to a severe calorie deficit, consumes a large amount of pineapples every day (they contain enzymes that break down fat) and exercise intensively in the gym every day. At best, the arrow on the scales will not move, at worst it will show a few extra pounds.
This is easy to explain. Using such extreme measures, drives the body into a stressful state. The brain gives signals that energy reserves are running out, since during serious physical exertion, the energy that came from food was lost. The only option in this case is the intensive storage of new fat deposits in order to save the body from energy hunger.
What actually works
The only effective way to speed up metabolism is a combination of active training (cardio + strength training), decreasing the calorie content of the menu (on average up to 15%) and adhering to a diet that meets the norms of PFC’s (proteins, fats and carbohydrates). With this regime, the body will enter an effective rate of digestion and absorption of food and learn to store excess energy in muscles, and not in adipose tissue.
A simple way to speed up your metabolism is to combine regular (but moderate) exercise with adherence to the reduced daily calorie intake and switching to proper nutrition. As a result, the body learns to store calories in muscles as glycogen, rather than in adipose tissue.
By observing the following nutritional rules, you can achieve an acceleration of metabolism; however, only when combined with 30-40 minutes of physical activity 3-4 times a week:
- Limit fast carbohydrates as much as possible
The problem with sugar, baked goods and sweets is not only their high calorie content, but also the fact that fast carbohydrates disrupt the metabolism, causing a feeling similar to hunger. This, in turn, makes you overeat – which leads to weight gain.
- Eat more fiber
Studies show that eating fiber-rich foods (primarily various vegetables) boosts metabolism by normalizing blood sugar levels. In addition, fiber helps lower bad cholesterol and is essential for proper bowel function.
- Drink enough water
Remember that drinking sugar-containing beverages – soda, sweet tea, and even fruit juices – can lead to metabolic disorders. In addition, to speed up metabolism, you must consume at least 8 glasses of liquid per day – preferably in the form of pure water.
- Do not overeat before bed.
Making dinner your main meal is a common cause of poor metabolism. Remember that you need to go to bed not with a full stomach of food, but with a slight feeling of hunger – this will help the body spend energy reserves during sleep, and not put unnecessary calories in fat.
- Monitor the balance of fats in the body, take supplements with Omega 3.
Lack of Omega-3 fats disrupts metabolism, reduces immunity and provokes the development of inflammation. Omega-3 rich foods include fatty fish (primarily salmon), as well as some seeds and nuts. Chia seeds are the leader in plant Omega-3 content.
Benefits of fasting
Research suggests that intermittent fasting or the 16/8 diet can speed up your metabolism and allow your body to burn more fat. In this case, the effect is achieved not at all due to calorie restriction, but as a consequence of a decrease in blood sugar levels.
In addition, effective weight loss diets are always based on restricting carbohydrates. In the absence of carbohydrates in the diet, the body goes into ketone mode of operation, using free fatty acids for metabolic needs, literally, burning fat.
Workouts to speed up the metabolism
The metabolic paradox lies in the fact that excessive levels of physical activity do not speed up metabolism at all but slows it down – especially against the background of a low-calorie diet. The worst solution for losing weight would be to combine a sharp diet restriction with exhausting workouts.
To burn the maximum amount of fat during exercise, you need to train in the fat-burning heart rate zone – cardio is best suited for this since it accelerates the heart to 130-150 beats per minute. The duration of the workout should be at least 30-40 minutes.
In addition, short workouts with high efficiency help to burn fat quickly – for example, circuit and HIIT workouts. In this case, exercising leads to high oxygen consumption by the body, which speeds up metabolism.
Metabolism is a set of processes for ensuring the vital activity of the body. In order to speed up the metabolism (and increase the body’s energy needs), you need to exercise regularly, and also exclude fast carbohydrates from the diet as much as possible – giving preference to foods with fiber.
But any sharp restriction in the diet and constant changes in diets will lead to metabolic disorders and weight gain.
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