March 7, 2011
Increasing Your Metabolism
Metabolism is the amount of calories or energy your body requires to sustain itself. The lower your metabolism, the more likely you are to have excess body fat. One of the most effective methods of losing weight is by increasing your metabolism.
Our bodies use calories for everything, from maintaining body muscle, to keeping our organs functioning properly, to even making our nails and hair grow. It uses calories to digest and process the foods we eat. When we take in more calories than our bodies need, we gain weight.
Exercise and nutrition are (by far) the best ways to increase your metabolism. In general, the healthier our bodies are, the more efficient they become at utilizing the calories we consume. It's possible, in fact, to increase your metabolism enough through proper diet and exercise, to be able to eat nearly anything you want (within reason).
Most people have a hard time understanding that dieting, by itself, can actually lower your metabolism. By severely restricting your calorie intake, your body automatically decreases the amount of energy it expends, because it thinks you are trying to starve yourself. The best way to increase your metabolism is to feed your body continuously.
This doesn't mean eating junk food all day long. But eating nutritious foods every 3 or 4 hours, will make your body work harder to process them.
Protein, raw vegetables and fruit, are examples of the kinds of foods that your body has to work harder to process.
Combining these foods with an exercise program will boost your metabolism, while also helping to tone and build your muscles. Muscles require more energy to maintain, so you you automatically burn more calories and boost your metabolism by having strong, toned muscles.
Increasing your metabolism will not only help you to lose weight, but also boost your energy level. By boosting your metabolism, you are telling your body that it needs to use more energy. Your body will react by stepping up the process, and providing you with more energy as well.
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