Ways to Increase Metabolism
Let's get real!
Are you looking for ways to increase
metabolism? Have you ever wondered what the heck metabolism
actually is? Let's take some of the mystery out
of metabolism first so that when we look at some honest-to-goodness
ways to boost metabolism, they'll make some sense!
Maybe you've heard that "you were
born with a slow metabolism and there's nothing you can
do to change it." Wrong! While genetics do play a part
in determining the rate of your metabolism, genetics
are not the only factor that affect metabolism.
In fact, the choices that you make regarding your
body and health have a considerable impact on the efficiency
of your metabolism.
The word "metabolism" derives
from the Greek word "metabole" which
means "to change." Metabolism changes
nutrients into energy and living cells.
Metabolism refers to all of the
actions that the body goes through in order to change the
nutrients in food and supplements into live cells and energy
(cells are the basic building block of the body;
tissues, organs, hormones, etc.)
Metabolism is the subject of how the body
survives! A simple measure of how well your metabolism
is working is to just take a look at how you feel physically.
If you're jumping around full of energy, you're good! If
you need to improve your health and energy levels, your
metabolism probably needs a tune-up.
Metabolism occurs within the cells of
the body. First, you eat food. The food passes into your
stomach where it's digested, meaning it's broken down into
tiny particles that can be absorbed into the body.
The digested food then moves to the small
intestine, where nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream.
Things the body can't use move on to the large intestine
to get eliminated.
Once in the bloodstream, the nutrients
travel to the cells of the body where some are changed into
energy and others are used for building and repairing the
cells of the body.
So you can see that there's more to metabolism
than just some mysterious bodily function that burns fat...
Metabolism is a complex set of processes that keeps
our bodies alive and we'll look at some very effective ways
to increase metabolism.
The basic
ingredients for health are the exact same things that affect
metabolism.
These health and metabolism basics
are:
- Proper nutrition
- Regular physical
activity
- Sufficient good
quality sleep
- Effective stress
management
- Efficient body
detoxification
If any of these factors in your
life need some attention and tender loving care, learning
about and improving them are the primary ways to increase
metabolism.
Unfortunately, there isn't a magic pill
or a particular food that will improve your metabolism all
by itself. That would be nice, but metabolism consists of
an amazing number of processes. It would be impossible for
just "one thing" to truly improve it. Each of
the above factors plays a major role in having a healthy
metabolism.
So the ultimate way to increase your metabolism is to improve
the factors above. Here are some specific things that you
can do to boost your metabolism.
Drink enough water
Metabolism depends on water
in the bloodstream to carry nutrients and oxygen to the
cells of the body, where they metabolize into energy
and build new cells. Over 80% of the bloodstream is water.
Over 2 liters, or 8 cups, of water is lost daily through
breathing, perspiration, digestion, elimination and other
bodily functions and needs to be replenished.
You will find information on the need
for water and its role in fat metabolism in the article
on the health benefit
of water. Drinking enough water regularly is one of
the key ways to increase metabolism!
Get sufficient sleep
When you are asleep, your
body goes to work repairing, rebuilding and recharging itself
(metabolizing!) Getting
enough good quality sleep is one of the key ways to
increase metabolism.
You could loosely compare this to a car.
If you drove it and drove it and drove it and never did
maintenance on it, how well would it run after a while?
Well, running your body constantly without providing it
with enough good sleep would have a similar effect - it
wouldn't run very well!
Engage in strength improvement exercises
Strength training/improvement
is one of the ways to increase metabolism. Strength
improvement is any type
of exercise that applies resistance to muscles.
Here's how it works in a nutshell. Energy
is continuously being created in the cells of your body
when glucose (blood sugar from the breakdown of carbohydrates
and fats) and oxygen combine. This happens in the part of
the cell known as the mitochondria. (Ring a bell from high
school biology?)
Muscle cells have more mitochondria than
fat cells. When you strengthen your muscles, more mitochondria
are created. More mitochondria = more energy production.
That is the same as saying "better metabolism"
or better fat burning!
I started using a Bowflex resistance
machine a couple of years ago, at a very low intensity.
I can tell you from personal experience that it really
gets the fat burning fires going because I lost inches
and pounds and that wasn't even the main reason I was
doing light strength training!
Of course, you don't need a weight machine
to do resistance exercise. Grabbing and using some hand
weights or using one of those giant rubber bands (a resistance
band) are just a couple of ways to increase your strength.
Water aerobics are excellent because you get cardiovascular
exercise in addition to resistance exercise!
And my favorite is mini
trampoline exercise, which I recently discovered...
you get strength improvement, cardiovascular, flexibility
AND balance/coordination improvement by using a mini trampoline...
it's easy to get started and stay motivated because it doesn't
take much time and it's enjoyable.
Breathe
Breathe deeply to get more oxygen into
your lungs and body. Metabolism requires oxygen,
so deep breathing (relaxed and natural, not forced) is definitely
one of the ways to increase metabolism. Practice taking
a deep breath or two often throughout the day; get outside
around some plants (they give off oxygen) and you'll really
be rolling!
With the levels of stress spiraling to
astronomical heights these days, breathing actually suffers
by becoming shallow and ineffective. Breathing deeply (or
should I say "normally") counteracts some of the
effects of stress on the body, and boosting metabolism is
a key benefit of better breathing.
Educate yourself on what nutrition your
body actually needs!
Educating yourself on the nutrition that
your body needs (and doesn't need) is rock bottom basic
to improving your metabolism. That is covered in depth on
this site. Metabolism changes the nutrients that you consume
into energy and live cells. If you aren't giving
your body the nutrients that it needs, say, you live on
fast food, your body can't function well. In other words,
there aren't enough "raw materials" to build cells
and create enough energy.
For more information on what metabolism
is and definitions of such things as basal metabolism, check
out the two-part article, "What
IS metabolism?"
I hope this information has helped your
understanding of metabolism better, and you now have some
real ways to increase metabolism - they are tools in your
health improvement toolkit!
Cheers!
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