People have different rates of metabolism and your lifestyle, gender, genetics and dietary choices play a role in your metabolism level. Your metabolism is how quickly your body uses energy or burns through the calories you consume. Therefore, having a higher resting metabolism can help you maintain and/or reach a healthy weight.
Sleep
Getting at least eight hours of sleep every night can help increase your metabolism. The Family Education website reports that lack of sleep can cause a decrease in your metabolism.
Take steps to improve your chances of getting enough sleep by going to bed at the same time every night, getting ready for bed at least one hour before bedtime, eliminating televisions and computers from your bedroom and avoiding caffeine in the late afternoon and evening hours.
Fitness
Becoming more fit and reducing the amount of fat on your body will help increase you basal metabolic rate, notes Kids Health. Incorporating a regular exercise routine into your daily schedule will help you achieve a higher level of fitness. Also, engaging in muscle-building exercises will increase your muscle tone and reduce your overall fat. The more muscles you have the more calories you body will burn throughout each day. Get at least 45 minutes of physical activity at least five days out of each week.
Eating Regularly
Eating throughout the day can help keep your metabolism up. Having a healthy meal or snack every three to four hours will keep your metabolism from dipping because you will be constantly supplying your body with new energy to digest.
Healthy Snacks
There are some foods that take more energy for your body to digest. While these foods are being digested your metabolism will increasing slightly causing more calories to be burned. Nuts and foods high in fiber, such as beans and vegetables, all require slightly increased amounts of energy to digest.
Hydration
When you become dehydrated your metabolic rate decreases, according to Family Education. Therefore, maintaining adequate water intake throughout the day can keep your metabolism up.
Also, as you drink water you can raise your metabolism slightly more by drinking cold water instead of room temperature water. When you drink cold water your body expends more energy to warm up the water to the temperature of your body.
Meals
Skipping meals or significantly reducing your calorie intake to unhealthy levels can reduce your metabolism. The lack of steady food intake will send your body into starvation-protection mode, which means that your body will decrease your calories burned to save more calories for later to prevent you from starving.
Stress
According to Family Education, having constant high levels of stress can decrease your metabolic rate. Therefore, to keep your metabolism up it is important to manage your stress properly by engaging in activities such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing and exercise.
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