Metabolism is the process of breaking down food to turn it into nutrients that the body can use. The speed of a person's metabolism is influenced by many variables: genetics, age, gender, lifestyle and physique. While most of these factors are out of a person's control, there are steps that you can take to speed up your metabolism.
Exercise
The importance of exercise cannot be stressed enough. There are two types of exercise: aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic, both of which speed up your metabolism. During aerobic exercise (running, swimming, biking), your body speeds up its breakdown of foods to supply your body with energy. Anaerobic exercise (weightlifting, push-ups) builds muscle mass, and the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body has to burn to sustain that muscle. A person with more muscle mass also burns more calories using their muscles than a person with less muscle mass.
Diet
Another way to speed up your metabolism is to stick to a proper diet. A proper diet must include a decent amount of protein consumption; 100-200 grams of protein is required daily to speed up your metabolism. Replacing the coffee in your diet with green tea is another way of speeding up the rate at which you digest. Avoiding overeating is also very important. Eat often but in small portions to prevent your body from craving food and eating more calories than you need. Another way to avoid overeating is to eat breakfast. Having breakfast is very important to speeding up your metabolism. By skipping breakfast, you start the day hungry and your body begins to crave food leading to overeating during your next meal. Protein, green tea, spices and low-fat dairy will all help you speed up your metabolism. Alcohol and coffee will hinder your metabolism. Alcohol is disruptive of your digestive process. A build up of alcohol is not only toxic to your liver, but it also hinders digestion of other foods.
Stress Reduction
Stress slows down your metabolism. When stress hormones are introduced into your system, your body is in set into panic mode, which causes you to overeat.
Sleep
Getting a decent amount of sleep is vital in speeding up your metabolism. Losing sleep slows down your metabolism. An average adult needs at least eight hours of sleep. During sleep, your body rids itself of all the waste products in your system, and lack of sleep causes those toxic substance to not be filtered out.
References
- MyFit: Food That Speed Metabolism
- Weightloss for All: Speed up Metabolism
- "Physiology"; 5th edition; Robert M. Berne, Mathew Levy; 2004
- "Principles of Pharmacology"; David Golan, Armen Tashjian; 2005
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