I FINALLY boosted my metabolism!!

When I first started working out, I was very passionate, but very soon I found out that I was not losing my body fat at the pace the people around me were. No matter what I did, I was always a step behind. I found it was very difficult for me to lose weight, and I was very quick to blame it on my slow metabolism.

I did my research and found out that there is an ongoing debate if there is actually a thing as slow metabolism, and if it can really hinder your progress. And so I embarked on my own journey, a journey to find out what was going on with my body and how to overcome it, but yes, I did start with figuring out what role was metabolism playing in all of it.

So what exactly is metabolism?

In simple words, Metabolism is the process by which the food you intake gets converted into energy which is further used by your body and to burn calories. It’s a non-stop process going on day in and day out, even when you’re resting or even sleeping. The intensity at which metabolism takes place varies from person to person. Some people have a fast metabolism, whereas the other can have pretty slow metabolism having a fast or a slow metabolism basically means how much of your food is being converted into energy and how much is being stored as fat. For instance, a person with a fast metabolism will burn more calories, whereas someone with a slow metabolism will burn fewer calories while the rest will be stored as fat in the body.

The intensity of your metabolism depends on various factors like sex, each body, size and age. Even the people with a fast metabolism can go on to have a slow metabolism as the age.

Talking about the people with a slow metabolism as their body is able to burn fewer calories and Store, the rest as fat in their body. It does get difficult for them to lose weight by just cutting calories while people with Fast metabolism will find it difficult to gain weight by eating some extra calories.

So is it appropriate to blame your weight loss or weight gain onto metabolism?

The answer is “not entirely” Experts say that even though there is a thing like fast and slow metabolism, you cannot entirely blame your metabolism for your weight loss or gain because in reality, the effect that metabolism has in all of it is really small. However, if you find it to be unfair for you to not have a fast metabolism, there are certain ways in which I fixed my metabolism, and so can you.

Increasing your metabolism can help with weight management and overall energy levels. Here are four ways to boost your metabolism:

1. Exercise Regularly

- Strength Training- Building muscle through resistance exercises like weightlifting increases your resting metabolic rate (RMR) that is because muscles are more metabolically active, and when you work on your muscles you will automatically burn more calories as it takes more energy to maintain a muscle.

- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)- HIIT involves short bursts of intense activity followed by rest or low-intensity exercise. This type of workout increases your heart rate, which means more calories are burned during that period does increasing the metabolic rate even after you've finished exercising.

2. Eat Enough Protein

- Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)- Stupid Digesting protein requires more energy compared to fats and carbohydrates. Eating protein-rich foods can increase your TEF by 15-30%, compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% for fats.

- Muscle Maintenance- Protein helps build and maintain muscle mass, which can enhance your metabolism.

3. Stay Hydrated

- Water Intake- Drinking enough water can temporarily boost metabolism. Some studies suggest that drinking cold water may increase your metabolic rate because your body uses energy to heat the water to body temperature.

4. Get Enough Sleep

- Hormonal Balance- Lack of sleep can disrupt the balance of hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism, such as ghrelin and leptin. Thus, it’s extremely important that you take enough amount of sleep. Also, poor amount of sleep can lead to you feeling lethargic throughout the day, in return ,making you less physically active.

Incorporating these strategies into My daily life really helped me get to a normal metabolic rate. Try these out for yourself as these are really simple things to incorporate, and I am positive that you will see really good results.