Are you trying to lose weight, build muscle, become more active and ultimately live a healthier lifestyle? Well, these are a few well-known benefits of speeding up your metabolism. When it comes to your health and lifestyle, a good metabolism rate can be advantageous as it;
- Converts food into energy and transports it to your entire body, improving cellular performance.
- Allows the extraction of building blocks such as proteins, nucleic acid and lipids from food.
- Cleanses our body and helps remove nitrogenous waste.
The Unknown Benefits of Improved Metabolism
Metabolism is an important part of losing weight, however there are various other unknown benefits of a strong metabolism. These are:
- It helps prevent fatal diseases such as cancer and auto immune disorders.
- Keeps your body healthy and in shape, boosting your overall performance.
- An improved metabolism boosts your confidence and social appeal.
- A strong metabolism is necessary for efficient cognitive function.
- When your metabolism speeds up, your digestive and reproductive functioning improves.
Our metabolism is influenced by several factors–our posture, the foods we eat, the number of hours we sleep and the amount of physical activity we do, etc.
Here’s a list of our recommended lifestyle changes to help speed up your metabolism;
1. Eat Right
When wanting to speed up your metabolism, the quantity and quality of the food you eat is a key factor to consider. You need to be eating foods that are rich in fibre, healthy fats, proteins, calcium, minerals and complex carbohydrates. Also, eat small portions of food throughout the day and never skip meals.
When you don’t eat enough food, your body becomes deprived of nutrients. This slows down your metabolism and can result in you failing to achieve your weight loss goals. It is ideal to eat at least six small meals in 24 hours.
2. Use Metabolism-Boosting Weight Loss Pills
Contrary to popular belief, not all weight loss pills are dangerous for your health. Metabolism-boosting weight loss pills are designed to help you lose weight, get glowing skin, improve your digestive, reproductive and hormonal health, regain confidence and get all the benefits related to a strong metabolism.
After researching the most successful weight loss pills that help to burn stored fats and reduce cravings, I found PhenQ to be one of the most popular brands with over 190,000 satisfied customers and several clear studies showing positive results. These pills reduce fat production and absorption in the body which then improves energy, mood and cognitive performance.
Metabolism-boosting weight loss pills are a fantastic way to reduce your weight in a quick and healthy way.
3. Drink Green Tea
Green tea is known for its effective metabolism-boosting properties. Green tea leaves (fresh or dry) are made up of catechins, the natural antioxidant that improves metabolism. Ideally, three cups of freshly brewed green tea in a day can help you burn at least 100 calories. It is extremely effective for cleansing your body of toxins and increasing your liver’s capacity of converting fats into energy, reducing fat deposition.
4. Exercise More
If you want to shed extra pounds, strength training, weight training and cardio alone cannot help you to achieve your ideal weight. When wanting to boost your metabolism, you need to focus on exercises that have the following three benefits:
- Improved insulin sensitivity
- Improved cholesterol profile
- Reduced weight gain
Interval training is the best solution for this. You can join HIIT classes or use an instructor to help reap more benefits from your workout routine.
Another great technique is to convert regular gym training, walking, swimming, etc into interval trainings. For example, if you run 3 miles in the morning, you can shift your routine by running for 30 seconds, jogging for 20 seconds and then running for 30 seconds again. Intense interval training boosts your metabolism and its effects are clearly evident.
5. Consume More Proteins for Increased Muscle Mass
Two types of metabolic reactions take place in your cells: catabolism and anabolism.
In catabolism, the cells break down nutrients and in anabolism, the cells convert broken down nutrients into consumable energy. There are two types of metabolism: active and resting. In simple terms, active metabolism is the number of calories burnt when you are awake or active. Resting metabolism refers to the number of calories burnt whilst sleeping or resting.
Fitness experts claim that muscles burn 30 times more calories than fats, which means that each pound of muscle in your body burns at least 6 calories a day. Our muscles are the powerhouse of anabolic and catabolic activities in our body. The resting metabolism of muscles is also higher compared to fats. Weight training is useful for building lean muscle mass and to increase it you need to be eating more protein-rich foods such as eggs, lean meats, etc. However, avoid refined salts to reduce water retention and build lean muscle mass.
6. Eat Complex Carbohydrates at Night
Our body burns carbohydrates and converts them into energy. Technically, if you eat carbohydrates at night/before bedtime, the energy converted from the carbohydrates will be stored in your body.
Foods you should eat that are rich in complex carbohydrates include: oatmeal, oats, butternut squash, brown rice, quinoa, rye, split peas, millet, black-eyed peas, black beans, barley, sweat potato, whole grains, wheat berries and whole wheat bread.
7. Increase Omega-3 Consumption
Omega-3 is one of the healthiest nutrients. It balances your blood sugar, reduces sugar cravings and heals bone inflammation, joints and veins. Along with improving metabolism, Omega-3 is highly useful for improving the function of the leptin hormone, which helps burn fats and removes toxins from your body.
Nutritionists recommend that a healthy human should consume 1,000–2,000 milligrams of Omega-3 a day. The richest natural source of Omega-3 is fish oil. It is ideal to consume salmon, sardines or tuna at least twice a week to boost your metabolism.
8. Get Enough Sleep
Circadian rhythm is a term rarely known to people. It is the body’s natural clock which regulates all our body functions. If the circadian rhythm of your body is irregular, it can lead to negative changes in metabolism and hormone production. Exposure to sunlight, food, exercise and sleep are the four factors that influence your circadian rhythm. You need at least 8 hours of sleep at night to keep your circadian rhythm regulated and balanced.
9. Stay active
It is important to stay active while at the workplace, home or outside in general. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Instead of sending an email to your colleagues for trivial things, simply walk up to them. Go to the market on foot, instead of taking the car. Regular movement and staying active can lead to a faster metabolism.
To improve your metabolism, you need to bring certain changes to your lifestyle. A combination of metabolism-boosting weight loss pills and a healthy diet will have you achieving your ideal weight in no time at all.
