How can you maintain a healthy metabolism?
Metabolism refers to the specific process that lets your body convert fuel coming from all the foods you eat to energy. It plays a role in whether your body will use the converted fuel right away or store it first in your liver or muscle tissues as glycogen or any other body part as fat.
If you have a healthy metabolism, then it means that your body is capable of burning more calories, allowing you to lose excess weight easily and maintain a healthy weight. With that in mind, a healthy metabolism plays a huge role in your physical fitness.
Aside from helping you maintain a healthy weight and fit body, a healthy metabolism is also important as it can improve your mood and elevate your energy. If you are wondering how you can improve your metabolism and gain the benefits of a healthy one, then here are some tips:
Stay active
This means that even as you age, you still have to get yourself engaged in regular exercises or physical activities. Note that regular exercises can help keep your engine running. Every time you run, walk, or do other activities, you are also increasing the energy needs of your body, thereby increasing your metabolism.
Apart from the recommended 30-minute exercise every day, incorporate even slight movements and activities into your daily habits. These include walking more, using the stairs, or gardening. It is because even minor activities can contribute a lot to raising your metabolism or maintaining a healthy metabolic rate.
Limit portions when eating
This means you have to adhere to portion control. By doing that, you can prevent your metabolism from getting overly loaded with excess energy. Make sure that you are fully aware of portion eating.
A wise tip is to use a measuring cup and food scale to give you an idea of healthy meal portions. You may also use your hand as your guide in making proper portions. For instance, you can use your closed fist in measuring foods. It is because it is equivalent to one serving of fruit.
Another guideline is a cupped hand, which is equivalent to one serving of grains or cereal. An open palm, on the other hand, means one serving of meat. Using this as your guide will surely make you practice portion eating more effectively.
Drink green tea
Another way to raise your metabolism is to consume green tea regularly. This drink can promote healthy fat metabolism. It is also a healthy substitute for sugar-rich beverages. Drinking green tea regularly also promotes proper hydration. To maximize its positive effects on your metabolism, consider including around one to two cups of it into your daily diet.
Healthy Sleep
You can also maintain a healthy metabolism or improve it by getting enough sleep. It is because adequate sleep can maintain the proper balance of your hormones, thereby preventing overeating. Make it a point to lessen your stress level, too. Remember that disordered eating is just one of the most common effects of stress.
Stress Management
Unhealthy eating patterns caused by stress can hamper your metabolism. With that, practice some stress management techniques, like yoga, meditation, and proper breathing exercises, to gain relief from it and ensure that your metabolism at a healthy rate.
Conclusion
There are many benefits of taking care of keeping your metabolism healthy. Above you find a list of practical advises where to start and what to consider to support your health and your metabolism in the best possible way.
FAQ: Metabolism
What is metabolism?
Simply put, metabolism is a natural process wherein your body uses up energy by burning calories. It is actually a non-stop process. Your body is still metabolizing the foods and nutrients you consumed during the day even while you are resting or asleep. Metabolism provides your body the energy that it needs to function.
People have different metabolic rates. Some work better than others. Contrary to what most people believe, your body’s metabolism rate is determined primarily by your genes.
What affects your metabolism?
There are many things that can affect the rate through which your body metabolizes food into energy. Among them are certain medications that can affect your metabolism. Some medications can speed up your metabolism to a dangerous level. Those may also slow it down to a crawl.
Eating a good-portioned breakfast can jumpstart your body’s metabolism, too. If you lose weight too rapidly, then it is highly likely that it can reduce your metabolic rate. The reason is that your body does not use as much energy to function the lower your weight. Therefore, the more weight you lose, the fewer calories you need to consume. You may also need to get more exercise so you can keep losing weight.
Can you speed up metabolism?
Although you cannot control the speed of your base metabolism, you can increase the number of calories you burn by exercising. The more physically active you are, the more calories your body burns. The people whom you thought had an incredibly efficient metabolism may in fact just be more active than other people. In other words, you cannot speed up your base metabolism permanently. However, you can boost the number of calories you burn for a couple of hours through exercise.
How big of a role does metabolism have on weight loss?
Do not be too quick to blame your metabolism for why you cannot lose weight. Metabolism is a natural process and your body regulates it so that it can provide your energy needs.
There are rare cases when the metabolism is to blame for excessive weight gain, but they are medical in nature, such as hypothyroidism and Cushing’s disease. If you are perfectly healthy, then you cannot blame your metabolism for your weight problem.
Weight gain is, unfortunately, a complicated process. The reason why you are overweight may be a combination of your genetics, hormone production, and your diet. There may be a couple of environmental factors as well, like sleep, the amount of physical activities you get, and your stress levels.
