Your metabolic rate can dwindle when digestion slows or your red blood cell count drops. Red blood cells carry oxygen to your cells to burn for energy. These metabolism boosters require adequate protein, iron and vitamin B from a good diet. Among the tricks to speed up the process of oxidation is actively using up more calories from the foods you eat. If your slow metabolism has resulted from a sedentary lifestyle, you can use both diet and exercise to regain fitness.
Reduce Fat
The first step you can take to speed up a slow metabolism is to remove from your diet the food nutrients that drag it down. In some cases, reducing the fat content of your meals alone will act as a metabolism booster. Two quick tricks to cut dietary fat are to stop eating fried foods and to always choose fat-free dairy products. Fried foods add fat to a food's natural content, making fried meats, such as chicken, even more caloric and detrimental to blood flow. If you drink whole milk every day, switching to fat-free will save you 8 g of fat per cup, as the USDA Nutrient Database reports.
Eat Nutritious Foods
When you remove fat from your diet, you have more room for nutritious foods that alleviate rather than cause a slow metabolism. For digestive health, choose high-fiber foods such as wheat bran cereal, pinto beans and berries. These metabolism boosters are also low in fat.
To speed up oxygen transport, add iron, protein and B vitamins to meals by eating fish, beef round steak, potatoes, whole grains and spinach. Even if your digestive rate is normal and your nutrient levels are adequate to prevent anemia, improving your diet can help restore poor physical fitness and promote a greater basal metabolic rate, your personal tempo for burning calories.
Exercise More
To speed up a slow metabolism enough to achieve physical fitness requires an interaction between healthy food and daily exercise. The USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans defines fitness as the ability to perform physical activity. If you aren't active, you can't become fit. So, once you've established a more nutritious diet, you'll get the daily metabolism boosters from foods that provide fuel for workouts. The USDA recommends 30 to 60 minutes of vigorous exercise -- such as walking, cycling and sports play -- on most days of the week.
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