The rate at which your body metabolizes food determines how quickly energy becomes available to body systems. As Kids Health notes, metabolism is not a single act, but a process that begins after enzymes in your stomach break food down into their component amino acids, fatty acid and simple sugars and they enter body cells via your blood stream. Metabolism occurs as anabolism when it involves cell growth, tissue maintenance and energy storage and catabolism when it involves energy production. Both processes are under the control of hormones in your endocrine system, which determines how fast or slow metabolism occurs.
Exercise
According to Dr. Steven Dowshen, Chief Medical Editor for Kids Health, exercise helps you burn calories and increases the efficiency and speed of your basal metabolic rate, or the rate at which your body burns calories while at rest. BMR improves as your level of physical fitness increases because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue.
Eat Healthy Foods
Choose healthy foods that take longer to digest and keep your metabolism functioning at a steady rate. According to Laurie Hedlund, L.P.N., a writer for Consumer Affairs, good food choices include fish, dark green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, fruit and whole grains.
Use "Hot" Spices
Add spices, such as red or green chilies or red pepper flakes, which contain a compound called capsaicin, also known as CPS. According to the results of a study completed by Yassar A. Mahmmoud, Ph.D, published in the June, 2008 "Journal of Biological Chemistry," capsaicin works by raising your core body temperature, stimulating metabolism through a process called non-shivering thermogenesis.
Include Low-Fat Dairy Snacks
Increase dietary calcium to speed up your metabolism. According to a report published by Dr. Michael B. Zemel, Director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, dietary calcium both stimulates lypolysis, or the breakdown of fat tissue and inhibits lipogenesis, or the formation of new fat tissue.
Eat Smaller Meals More Frequently
Juliette Kellow, a registered dietician and health writer, recommends eating smaller meals more often, rather than larger but less frequent meals. Kellow states that digestion uses approximately 10 calories, so in addition to keeping your metabolism working, the more often you eat, the more calories you burn.
Drink Ice Water
Drinking 2 liters, or 68 oz., of cold water per day can raise your metabolic rate enough to burn an additional 400 kilojoules, or 95 calories. According to a report published in the December 2003 edition of the "Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism," for every 500 milliliters, or 16 oz. of water you drink, you increase your metabolic rate 30 percent for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, mainly due to the energy your body must use to warm the water to your core body temperature.
Drink Caffeinated Coffee
According to the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," drinking coffee containing 8 mg of caffeine can significantly increase your metabolic rate for a period of three hours. As Medline Plus notes, caffeine is a stimulant that affects metabolism by stimulating your central nervous system.
Eat a Big Breakfast
Skipping breakfast causes your metabolic rate to slow down as it enters starvation mode. In contrast, eating a large breakfast that includes lean protein and complex carbohydrates, which take longer to digest, satisfy your appetite and make it less likely you will overeat later in the day. Evidence of this exists in the results of a 2008 study published in the "American Journal of Epidemiology" showing less weight gain in participants who ate a larger portion of their daily calorie intake at breakfast.
Get Enough Sleep
Get at least eight hours of sleep each night. According to Patricia Prinz, a research professor at the University of Washington - Seattle, insufficient sleep causes a disturbance in the hormone levels of leptin and ghrelin, both responsible for energy use and controlling appetite.
Get a Thyroid Test
A medical condition called hypothyroidism can cause your thyroid to function slowly, or not at all. Because your thyroid is responsible for releasing thyroxine, a hormone essential to metabolism, medication in the form of an oral thyroid hormone may be necessary to get your thyroid functioning at acceptable and healthy levels, according to Kids Health.
References
- KidsHealth: Metabolism
- Consumer Affairs: Speed Up Your Metabolism
- American Journal of Epidemiology: Energy Intake at Breakfast and Weight Change: Prospective Study of 6,764 Middle-Ages Men and Women
- Women's Health Magazine: Boost Your Metabolism
- Weight Loss Resources: 8 Ways to Speed Up Your Metabolism
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