1. BMR: The Calories You Use at Rest
The BMR (basal metabolic rate), is the amount of calories that you need just to just stay alive. Your body uses a certain number of calories if you don't move and haven't eaten for 12 to 14 hours. The body has completed most of the processes of digestion after that long of a fast. Your heart needs energy to pump; your nervous system still sends messages to other parts of the body. Breathing is an energy consumer. All the vital organs require some energy, but not as much as if you were up and moving. Just keeping the body running requires about 60 percent of the normal daily caloric intake.
2. Lean Body Mass Burns Better
You can raise your BMR by exercise. The miracle of exercise not only burns additional calories while you participate and continues for several hours after, but also creates muscle tissue. Muscle tissue burns eight times more calories when you're resting than fat does. Once you tone your body, you lose more weight even during sleep. Exercise is the gift that keeps giving.
3. Get Better Parents or Eat More Frequently
Some factors in BMR can't be changed. Genetics plays an important part in the rate at which you burn calories when you rest. It's one factor over which you don't have a lot of control. That's OK because you can easily change those learned eating patterns. Eating more frequently can actually raise your BMR. If you're female, going more than three hours without food starts to slow the rate down. Males can go as long as five hours before this happens. Breaking your meals down to more frequent, smaller meals can keep your BMR clicking at a higher rate.
4. Keep the Engine Fueled Properly
Proper nutrition plays a significant role in keeping your BMR higher. Just like a vehicle needs the proper fuel, the body has certain nutritional requirements to keep it going. Your body's chemical reactions require a continuous supply of various vitamins and minerals. If you don't have the proper mix, your metabolism begins to get slow and performs poorly. You would never consider putting water in the gas tank or soda in the oil reserve, so why treat your body with less respect than your car? Eat balanced nutritional meals for a higher BMR.
5. Are Pills the Answer?
Some diet pills claim to raise the BMR and offer convincing scientific data to prove it. Even if there's no question about how well they work, you should still ask yourself whether it's worth the risk when minor changes in your lifestyle can bring about the same effect. Not all dietary supplements that claim to be fat burners work, and some of those that do are dangers and stress the body.
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