This guide will help you learn to increase your metabolism naturally. The guide focuses on little daily habits that enable you to make gradual changes to your metabolism as opposed to relying on the instant results offered by supplements and/or exhausting workouts. It will help you manage your weight, increase your energy, and improve your overall health by modifying the way your body burns calories.
When you improve daily habits, eating right, exercising, sleeping and drinking enough water, you support a healthy metabolism. These changes will enable your body to function better without the stress and slowdowns that come from eating strict diets and exercising daily.
Your body needs energy to function that keeps you breathing, keeps your heart pumping and your blood circulating, and keeps you warm. Metabolism is the way your body converts the food and drinks you consume into energy. A balanced metabolism aids in energy, weight control, and digestion.
The nutrition choices you make play a role in how your body converts food into energy. When you practice good nutrition habits, it enables your metabolism to become more active, supports the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), and improves your insulin sensitivity. In the long run, you will support your metabolism better by sticking to regular, balanced meals than by following extreme diets.
Each meal should include protein. Eating protein at every meal helps the body burn calories. Multiples studies have shown that the body uses more energy to digest protein than fats and carbohydrates. Keeping muscles strong with protein helps steady the metabolism and controls healthy weight.
Drinking water helps with metabolism, and drinking cold water requires the body to use energy to warm the water to body temperature. This only burns a few calories, but drinking water throughout the day helps digestion and energy levels.
Skipping meals or eating a few calories can slow metabolism. When cells don’t get enough fuel, they lower energy output and metabolic rate. This can make losing weight even more difficult.
In moderation with other good foods, the natural stimulants coffee and green tea can help boost metabolism and fat burning.
Movement is the key to a healthy metabolism. It helps build muscle, which makes your body more efficient at burning calories. While cardio burns calories in the short term, building muscle increases your basal metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories just by being at rest.
Strength training is key to improving a naturally slow metabolism. Muscle burns more calories than fat, and even just two sessions a week of lifting can promote the growth of lean muscle mass, which is vital for metabolic health.
Short, intense bursts of exercise, like in a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout, have an afterburn effect thanks to EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). This means your body will continue to work harder, even after your workout is over, burning more calories in the process.
Everyday movements like walking, standing, and even fidgeting contribute to the calories you burn by increasing your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).
Post-meal walks help keep your blood sugar and insulin levels in check, making sure your body is using calories effectively.
While it may seem unimportant, recovery is key to an efficient metabolism. When it comes to recovery, hormones can be impacted by sleep, stress, and daily habits, and they directly influence appetite, energy, and fat storage. Without optimal recovery, even the best nutrition and exercise plans won't be effective.
Sleep is one of the most important pieces to the metabolic puzzle. When sleep is of low quality or is too short in duration, hormones involved in hunger and satiety (leptin and ghrelin) become more disordered. This means the body will start to make more high-calorie food. In addition, energy expenditure will decrease, meaning metabolism will slow.
When stress is continuous, the body keeps cortisol high. This hormone inadequately works around insulin, and tells the body to store more fat, especially around the midsection. Daily activities like deep breathing, meditation, calm stretching, or a solo stroll will reduce stress and enhance healthy metabolic functions.
Meal timing impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of your body’s metabolism. Having an eating schedule fosters better digestion, hormonal balance, and metabolic flexibility.
Extreme exercising and dieting are not effective ways to c?i thi?n metabolism. Rather habits and routines that help you achieve your goals are far more ciangoper that desire results. When aiming to improve metabolism, beginning with three essential principles sets the foundation. Keeping protein high helps with muscle maintenance, and increases the thermic effect of the food you eat (TEF). Strength training 3-5 times a week increases your active muscle which increases your metabolism. Restful nights are also esstential to proper hormone function which helps with energy balance, appetite, and fat loss.
After the age of 40 many people believe metabolism “breaks.” This is not entirely true. Metabolic slowdown is a product of poor lifestyle habits like reduced muscle mass, less movement or activity, bad sleep, and stress. These factors are often restable no matter the age.
Being consistent is better than striving for perfection. Instead of trying to change everything at once, pick one habit from this guide and commit to that one today. Simple things that can be done repeatedly can help build confidence, and over time, improve metabolism, increase energy, and support health.
Nutritionist and Dietician, Ruhi Rajput is a renown name, championing the integration of nutrition, lifestyle, and mindfulness She has over a decade of valuable experience, empowering health and nutrition through holistic approach.
Recognised as India's top Dietician and Nutritionist expert, with experience in Clinical Nutrition & Ayurvedic Dietetics. Ruhi has crafted a niche for herself with her excellence in gut health, natural Hormone balance with food and weight loss programs. She is popular for her holistic health approach and offers comprehensive solutions to gut health, weight management, autoimmune disorders and diet for Diabetes, Kidney and fatty liver.
Drawing from her expertise in nutrition and functional medicine Ruhi Rajput has made it easy for countless individuals to reach their optimal health goal with commitment to sustainable and holistic approach.