12 Proven Ways to Speed up your Metabolism

Metabolism allows us to grow and reproduce, maintain our structure, and respond to the environment. It helps us to absorb the nutrients from the food and maintain the living state of the cells and the organism. It also plays an important role in the process of losing weight. How to speed it up?

Metabolism can be both fast and slow. Of course, the faster the body is able to process food and benefit from it, the healthier one person is. Furthermore, from how fast your metabolism is, depends how fast you can lose weight. If your metabolism is not slowed down, then you will be able to lose weight more quickly.

Your basal metabolic rate depends both on objective factors – as the characteristics of your body and subjective factors, that can also have influence. Poor nutrition, stress, lack of exercise can significantly slow down your metabolism, which may lead to a variety of problems.

Here are 12 effective ways to help you speed up your metabolism and improve the work of your digestive system.

1. Don’t skip the breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Your body is just waking up, and how you wake it up is very important. The ideal breakfast should take place 30 minutes after waking up. But as soon as you climb out of the bed, you should drink a glass of water. This helps start the metabolism and improves the functioning of the digestive system.

2. Drink more water

A good drinking regime is not less important. Dehydration and lack of fluids in the body do not lead to anything good. If your body is not provided with enough fluids, this has also a negative effect on the digestive system, which slows down the metabolism. For an adult normal daily intake of liquids is about 1.5 – 2 liters of water. By the way, we are talking about clean drinking water, not other beverages.

3. Enjoy a massage

Speeding up your metabolism, you can do not only through a proper nutrition. Go for a massage. First, it is very helpful for your overall health. Second, any kind of massage perfectly stimulates the blood circulation and improves the lymphatic drainage. This has very positive effect on the metabolism. Even self-massage at home is good.

4. Exercise regularly

Physical activity is the key to good health and fast metabolism. If you are used to a sedentary way of living, and you have a sedentary job, you are at risk. To improve your metabolism and maintain it at good level, exercise regularly and move more. It is not necessary to run directly to the gym. Walking, dancing, yoga, any activity is good for speeding up your metabolism.

5. Enrich your diet with vitamins and minerals

The fact that your diet should be rich in vitamins and minerals, is quite obvious. A lack of vitamins in the body leads to disruption of processes occurring in it. This is also valid for your metabolism. Eat more vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts and dairy products.

If you want to have a fast metabolism, you should pay attention particularly to products, including the B vitamins, folic acid, chromium, calcium, iodine.

6. Get enough sleep

A good rest is crucial for the recovery of your organism. If you don’t sleep enough and you are in constant stress and exhaustion, don’t expect from your metabolism to be fast. An adult needs approximately 7-8 hours of sleep to restore his physical and mental strength. This is the optimal sleeping time, that allows us to have a proper rest and helps us to stay energized and alert throughout the day.

7. Eat little and more often

Sometimes people seem to eat very little, but their weight doesn’t go down or even contrary, it increases. This means that their diet is composed incorrectly. The deficiency of calories causes the body to enable the “energy saving” mode and to save these calories as reserves of fat. This process is very natural and embedded in our nature.

To avoid this, eat little amounts of food and more often. This means taking a small portion every 2-4 hours. This way you will always be satisfied and able to resist your cravings for sweets, and the body will distribute the energy correctly. Of course, this is will only happen if you eat healthy food.

8. Eat more protein

Protein is the building material of the human body. It must be present in your diet. In addition, the researchers found that the digestion of foods rich in protein costs the human body a lot more energy. This activates and stimulates the fat-burning processes in the body. But don’t get too carried away. Your diet still has to be balanced, and too much protein in it can also harm your body.

9. Combine carbohydrates with fiber

Carbohydrates should be combined with fiber. Cereals and vegetables, for example. The point is, that such a combination of substances is absorbed sufficiently long time, and the insulin levels in the blood does not jump for several hours. If it is not stable, the body begins accumulating fat reserves, perceiving such a situation as an alarming sign. When insulin levels are normal, the metabolism accelerates with 10%.

10. Include vegetarian food in your diet

It is a well-known fact, that vegetarians have quite fast metabolism. What is the reason? Their diet is dominated by plant foods, which have a positive effect on the digestive system and metabolism. Include plant foods in up to 80% of your diet. Useful fruits, vegetables, legumes and so on.

11. Do not exclude fats from your diet

With the rising of the popularity of healthy eating, some products have become superfoods, and some were banned. So, unreasonable attacks have undergone the fats. Fats are also very important and useful for the human body substances. There are in fact, different types of fats. The useful ones, which include foods containing omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids have to be included in our diet. Such foods are fish, nuts, avocado, vegetable oil and all kinds of cabbage.

These products also help to regulate the levels of leptin in the body – the satiety hormone.

12. Do not forget to add spices and herbs

The consumption of salt is better to be minimized as much as possible. But spices and herbs, contrary should be a welcome food on your table. Add them in the preparation of various dishes. They will not only improve their taste, but will also activate your metabolism. Especially effective in this are chilli peppers. They contain capsaicin – a substance, which, according to researchers can speed up the metabolism with about 25% and reduce the fat tissue.

Useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin