If you want to boost your metabolism, you have several options. Simple changes to your diet or lifestyle can boost your metabolism and increase your basal metabolic rate.
Both are effective for weight loss. We’re talking about changes that are simple to implement and easily integrated into your everyday routine. Here are 12 suggestions that we think will help you succeed:
1. Start Your Day with a Protein-Packed Breakfast
Among the nutrients your metabolism depends on most heavily is protein. Because protein digests slowly, it prolongs feelings of fullness more than carbs and fats can. Thus, if you eat protein first thing in the morning, you will remain full until lunchtime—possibly even longer!
Eating protein first thing in the morning sets your body’s metabolism into an anabolic state—that is, one that builds muscle. This increases your general metabolic rate, enabling more calorie burning during the day.
Starting a breakfast with plenty of proteins can be difficult if you need help making one. Therefore, if you are starting out in the cooking scene, you might want to order ready-made high-protein meals from a company like Green Chef. Their delicious and nutrient-dense choices will simplify your morning ritual and provide your metabolism with the boost it requires.
2. Boost Your Consumption of Proteins
If you are trying to lose weight, you could be tempted to believe that you have to cut calories and consume less protein. Only sometimes, though, is the case! You burn more calories and the better quality proteins you consume. Your body burns more calories since protein is more difficult to break down. About 25% more calories are burned daily from a diet high in proteins than from a low-protein diet.
Building muscle also requires protein; more muscle results in a faster metabolism. Tempeh, almonds, oats, broccoli, quinoa, lentils, and pumpkin seeds are among my preferred sources of healthy proteins.
3. Control Your Stress Level
By raising cortisol levels, which can lead to weight increase and metabolic imbalance, chronic stress can negatively affect metabolism. Stress-reducing techniques including yoga, deep breathing exercises, mindfulness meditation, or time in nature help metabolic health and promote relaxation.
4. Drink a Glass of Ice Water Before Each Meal
You can reduce your food intake by drinking a glass of iced water before each meal. There are two possible explanations for this:
- It makes you feel more satisfied. When you drink water, your body processes and absorbs it slower than when you eat solid food. This means that if you drink a glass of ice water before each meal, you’ll feel fuller faster and consume fewer calories throughout the day, accelerating your weight loss.
- It facilitates metabolism regulation. The second reason ice water consumption before meals can speed up metabolism is that studies at Johns Hopkins University have demonstrated that water controls hormone levels linked to hunger, fullness, and digestion.
5. Seek Treatment for Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroid individuals may also have slower metabolisms. The thyroid hormone causes the body to produce more chemicals that raise body temperature, respiration rate, and oxygen demand. This entails using energy at a higher rateTrusted Source. A person with low thyroid hormones (or hypothyroidism) has a slower rate of metabolism at rest and is more likely to gain weight.
6. Lift Weights
Starting weight lifting to build muscle is an excellent way to boost your metabolism. Increasing muscle mass will allow you to burn more calories at rest. Muscles are more metabolically active than fat, so this is true.Lifting weights can also help you preserve muscle and slow down the usually occurring reduction in metabolism if you are losing weight.
7. Increase Physical Activity in Your Daily Routine
Being more active daily is an excellent approach to increase circulation and maintain a healthy metabolism. Regular physical activity is a beautiful strategy to boost your metabolism over time. Working out only on weekends will have little influence on your metabolism the rest of the week, no matter how hard the session is.
Here are a few recommendations:
- Complete as many errands as possible by walking or riding your bike.
- Avoid taking elevators and escalators. Treat each set of steps as an opportunity to get some exercise.
- Convert everyday jobs into workout regimens. For example, you can stand on one leg while brushing your teeth, do a few squats, or stretch.
- Household tasks burn a lot of calories, especially if you exert yourself. You might set challenging goals for yourself and try to beat the time.
- Be athletic! Play ball games or team sports.
8. Sleep
A plethora of scholarly research has found that those who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be obese. Despite eating the same number of calories, well-rested persons remain slimmer. “So far, we haven’t been able to find any definitive explanation for why it’s like that,” says nutritional psychologist Iwer Diedrichsen. Scientists believe that a lack of sleep lowers the metabolism and that sleep-deprived persons have less energy to move around.
9. Make Sure to Eat Breakfast
Many believe skipping breakfast will result in fewer calories consumed over the day. For intermittent fasting, that can be true, but it might not always be the case. Those who mistakenly skip breakfast are more prone to overeat all day. Starting your day off by nourishing your body for the next one is crucial, even if you are not purposefully intermittent fasting. Your metabolism slows down at night; thus, waking it up in the morning with a breakfast high in fiber and protein is imperative.
My favorite recipes are fiber-rich Chickpea Breakfast Crepes, scrumptious Oatmeal, Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bites, and vegan chia seed pudding. These dishes are all loaded with fiber and protein, helping to rev up your metabolism first thing in the morning.
10. Eat Every Three to Four Hours, on Average
You may have heard that eating every few hours will help you lose weight, but eating high-quality calories will actually boost your metabolism more than eating a lot of them. To avoid overstressing your digestive system, eat balanced meals at regular intervals throughout the day (every 3-4 hours), including protein, rather than going all out with a large lunch or dinner in the hopes of burning more calories through increased activity.
11. Try High-Intensity Interval Training
The anti-aging life hack is High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT. HIIT has been shown in Cell Metabolism to increase mitochondrial capacity, enabling cells to generate more energy. Basically, HIIT allows you to reverse aging inside your cells and increase vitality!
HIIT can sound scary, particularly if you’re not used to vigorous cardio-based workouts. Trust me, though; if I learnt to appreciate it, so can you. Though I am much more of a yoga girl personally, I try to integrate HIIT training into my one to two-times-weekly fitness schedule due to its amazing results. Using a jump rope and jumping for twenty seconds, then two minutes of rest will yield the same results. Three times, that cycle will get you done!
12. Metabolic Health Supplements
These are among the easiest and best ways you could increase your metabolism. Besides adjusting your food and way of living, dietary supplements could also help you. Two well-researched extracts from Metabolic Health—bergamot and curcumin—have centuries-old use in botanical therapy. To help cardiometabolic health, these substances cooperate to enhance fat metabolism, control inflammatory response, boost glucose metabolism, and support good gut flora.
References:
https://lynnecohenfoundation.org/the-seam/stories/8-ways-to-boost-metabolism-as-you-age-naturally
https://egym.com/us/blog/boost-metabolism
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323328#eat-enough-calories