How to boost metabolism?

Author: Valeria Meleshina - personal trainer and nutritionist.
2017-01-31

“Lera, how can I boost my metabolism?” – one of the most frequently asked questions directed at me. This question is common for a reason: there's a lot of contradictory information on the internet. What is metabolism and how to boost it? Read on below.

Let's start with the basics! Metabolism is the process of turning food into energy in the body. To put it simply. What do we need to digest more food? First, we need to eat more. Secondly, we should increase our physical activity. Thirdly, drink enough clean water. For balance. We'll discuss this in detail below.

“But how can I lose weight if I need to eat more?” you might ask. Remember the simple formula: we lose weight when we burn more calories than we consume. Therefore, to be able to eat and still lose weight, we need to train.

Modern marketing has introduced supplements to speed up metabolism. These include ginger, cinnamon, and even green coffee. The truth is that they don’t help. 100%. The most you will achieve is a slight increase in body temperature. And with an elevated temperature, processes occur faster. You may achieve better extraction of fatty acids from fat cells, but this has nothing to do with weight loss. If you want to learn more about this topic, read my separate article on fat burners.

Returning to boosting metabolism. Ideally, we need energy expenditure to be continuous, even during sleep. More energy should be expended than consumed from food. How can we achieve this?

1. First, we need to create conditions for the body that help it burn more calories on itself. In other words, we need to increase our basal metabolic rate (BMR). BMR considers your age, height, weight, and gender. It shows how much energy your body spends to maintain existence (internal organ function, maintaining optimal body temperature, respiratory function, etc., excluding your physical actions). To increase BMR, we need to increase muscle mass. Muscles consume more energy for their maintenance than fat does. Therefore, we need to increase our muscle mass (through which we may gain weight, which will directly affect the calculation of BMR).

2. Secondly, we need to eat more frequently. For example, every 2.5-3 hours. Frequent meals allow: first, to stabilize blood sugar levels and not depend on its spikes; second, they help the body continuously expend energy for digesting and absorbing food; and third, they assist the body in burning more fat. Let's pause here for a moment. How will the body burn more fat? It’s simple. Digestion consumes energy. If we nourish the body every 2.5-3 hours, energy expenditure will be constant. That’s what we aim for!

3. Thirdly, you need to start exercising. Workouts are an integral part of boosting metabolism. It’s during workouts that we strengthen our muscle framework and build new muscles. Our muscles consume more energy for their existence than our subcutaneous fat. Thus, the more muscle mass we have, the more we can eat without gaining weight! 😊 Besides that, workouts give the body a "hormonal shake-up." As a result, our body's metabolic rate increases. If we are talking about strength training, then even after such workouts, the body does not decrease its metabolic rate. This gives us a significant advantage.

4. Fourthly, we need to ensure an optimal amount of water for the body. Water helps our cells renew. It also helps us deal with constipation and headaches.

Thus, to boost metabolism, we need to exercise, eat small meals frequently, and drink enough water. That's the whole secret! 😊