Weight loss is a combination of how much you eat and how many calories your body burns each day. One way to increase your weight loss is to increase the rate of your metabolism, or the rate at which you burn calories. As you age, metabolism slows down naturally because you lose muscle and reduce nutritional needs. You can naturally speed up your metabolism with a few changes to your daily routine. Before incorporating any new activities, consult with your primary care physician to ensure that they will not interfere with any medication or underlying medical condition.
Interval Training
Interval training involves several bursts of high-intensity work alternated with rest or lower activity. Depending upon the length of the exercise and the length of the rest period, this may be anaerobic or aerobic training. Dr. Len Kravitz from the University of New Mexico recommends a natural way of increasing calorie expenditure by varying and progressively increasing the intensity of exercise.
Weight Training
Weight training is also called resistance training because muscles are being activated against resistance. According to Illinois State University, one way of increasing your metabolism is by adding more metabolically active muscle tissue. This is one reason why men consistently burned more calories per day than women. In a study published in the "European Journal of Applied Physiology," researchers found that post-exercise measurements of oxygen consumption and metabolism were statistically higher up to 38 hours post resistance exercising. This means that your muscles continue to burn more calories up to 38 hours after doing any resistance weight training.
Frequent Small Meals
Your body responds well to being fed throughout the day. Illinois State University recommends their students eat frequent small meals during the day and supply their body with an intermittent amount of calories so they can burn more calories, increase their energy and improve their concentration. In an effort to improve performance of their college students, Illinois State University recommends their students not reduce the amount of calories they eat because it can actually slow the metabolic rate and make it easier to gain weight.
Exercise
Consistent cardiovascular exercise can help your body to increase the amount of calories it burns on a daily basis, without necessarily increasing overall metabolic rate. However, after consistent cardiovascular exercise, your body increases the amount of muscle it develops while improving performance. MayoClinic.com recommends interval training to burn more calories and reduce boredom. Researchers from Canada evaluated 352 adult males after high intensity physical activity to determine oxygen consumption and fat metabolism. They found individuals who perform high-intensity exercise, and not necessarily interval training, had less overall body fat likely related to an increase in post-exercise metabolism, as published in the "International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders" in 2001.
References
- University of New Mexico: Calorie Burning: It's Time to Think Outside the Box
- Illinois State University: Maximize Your Metabolism
- European Journal of Applied Physiology; "Effective in Acute Period of Resistance Exercise on Excess Postexercise Oxygen Consumption"; MD Schuenke, RP Mikat, JM BcBride; March 2002
- MayoClinic.com: Interval Training: Can it Boost your Calorie Burning Power
- International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders; "Impact of High Intensity Exercise on Energy Expenditure, Lipid Oxidation and Body Fatness"; M Yoshioka, E Doucet, S St-Pierre et. al.; March 2001
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