Increase your metabolism! 7 tips

When you want to lose weight, it can help to give your metabolism an extra boost. The speed of your metabolism depends on factors such as age and heredity. According to nutrition expert Tim Church, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, you can increase your metabolism through food, but its speed mainly depends on two things: your genes and your size.

In this article we will go into more detail about this and give you 7 useful tips. Are you reading along?

What is Metabolism?

Your metabolism isn't just what keeps you slim, it's the constant process your body uses to convert food into energy. Your metabolism is always active, even when you are sleeping. It is the engine that ensures that your body gets enough fuel to continue functioning.

Some people can eat everything without gaining a single gram and for others it can be a real struggle to maintain weight. This difference may be related to your metabolism, i.e. how quickly your body breaks down food and converts it into energy. The speed of your metabolism depends on factors such as gender, age, height, hormone balance and genetics.

The older you get, the slower your metabolism gets and men generally burn more calories than women. Fortunately, you can do a few things yourself to kick your metabolism into high gear.

Eat enough protein

This is the main food source to boost your metabolism, as lean proteins help you build muscle. It is therefore advisable to always eat enough protein with a meal. It costs the body twice as much energy to break down proteins than, for example, carbohydrates. This gives your metabolism a boost. In addition to boosting your metabolism, proteins also maintain muscles. Muscles are very important for your metabolism because they also use energy and therefore burn calories.

Especially if you want to lose weight, you do not want to lose too much muscle. Examples of healthy proteins are: eggs, fish and shellfish, beans, cottage cheese, tofu, chicken and nuts.

Learn more about this subject? Then read our blog”why does your body need enough protein”.

Water!

It is very important to drink plenty of water. Even mild dehydration can slow your metabolism. Drink cold water, which forces your body to burn calories to heat it up. In addition to the fact that water is good for the metabolism, your skin also gets a better condition. Make sure you put a pitcher of water in plain sight, for example next to your desk, and that you always have a bottle of water in your bag. read here more about the importance of drinking enough water.

Get enough sleep

If you don't get enough sleep, your body's ability to burn carbohydrates is affected. This leads to increased hunger and a slowed metabolism. Your energy level throughout the day is also affected, so you probably want to move less and therefore also slow down the metabolism. If you are structurally sleep deprived, there is a greater chance that you will skip a visit to the gym. Try to get a good night's sleep for about eight hours to keep your metabolism up.

Eat foods with a high thermal value

Products with a lot of sugars in particular have a low thermal value and are therefore easy to digest by the body. So it costs your body little energy. Vegetables, but also foods with a lot of fiber or proteins have a high thermal value. Your body has more trouble digesting this food and will therefore speed up your metabolism.

Spice it up!

Spicy food is not only tasty, it also speeds up your metabolism. Add red (chili) peppers to your meal. The capsaicin substance in peppers increases your metabolism by about 20%, up to at least half an hour after eating them.

Drink green tea

Drinking green tea is also a way to increase your metabolism. Green tea contains caffeine and vegetable proteins that help it burn fats. Three to four cups a day is recommended, each cup boosts your metabolism for a few hours. Coffee and tea will not make you lose ten kilos, but are simply a boost for your metabolism.

move more

The more you exercise, the higher your metabolism will be, so take every opportunity in your daily life to exercise during the day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car further away when you go shopping and go to work by bike. In addition, it is of course an extra incentive to exercise.

An excellent way to speed up your metabolism is through strength training. Strength training is a very effective way to increase your resting metabolism, because muscle mass requires more energy than fat mass. Even the hours or days after the strength training, the metabolism will still be stimulated when the muscles are recovering.

Want to read more interesting articles like this one? Then look at our blog.