Improve Your Metabolism Round the Clock

Metabolism is a complex process and refers to the chemical reaction that is the life-sustaining force of our body. It is the rate at which your body burns calories to carry out the day-to-day activities. Metabolism involves two processes; anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the process of building up tissues and that requires energy, while catabolism is breakdown of the built-up reserves to generate energy. The speed of metabolism, the basal metabolic rate, determines the requirement of food by a person and the way it controls the hunger and appetite.

Some Facts About Metabolism

• The metabolism of a 20-year-old is quite different from a 50-year-old. The ability of our body to burn calories declines with age. The reason for this could be the reduction in our activity levels as we age and loss of muscle mass resulting from that.
• Our metabolic rate dips by about 25 to 30% as we age. This results in the body storing the excess calories as fat.
• Two things influence the metabolic rate; fat percentage and muscle percentage. The more the amount of fat in the body, the slower will be the metabolism. Similarly, more the amount of active muscles in the body, the faster will be the metabolism.

Tips to Boost your Metabolism Round the Clock

1. Be an Early Bird: Early morning sun rays are good for your health. Apart from lifting your spirits, transitioning you from the sleep to wake mode, it also strengthens your bones. Vitamin D in the sun rays helps with better absorption of calcium. This will not only strengthen your bone, but also give a boost to your metabolism.
2. Move It: Strength training can boost women's metabolism by 10% in 12 weeks by rebuilding muscles, which means more fat burn. So women, wake up, and move it. However, if you don't have time to go the gym, do yoga, surya-namaskars, etc., at home itself. Other than that, doing spot jogging or stretching are also good to keep you active and to rev up your metabolic rate. You should exercise for at least 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Break Your Fast: Every day you read about the importance of breakfast. Still, many youngsters rush to office without having anything in the morning. When your body's energy reserves go down, your body switches to the starvation mode, wherein it will conserve all the energy by not burning any calories. Mornings are such times, because you have not eaten for about 8 to 10 hours, and your energy stores are depleted by 80%. Eating a healthy, nutritious breakfast is very important to kick-start your metabolism. Include complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, whole wheat products, etc. in your breakfast. Vitamin C, being an antioxidant will further boost your metabolic rate. Therefore, include fruits like strawberry or gooseberry or some lime or lemon juice.
4. Don't Glue Yourself to Your Chair: When you are working, avoid sitting in the same position on the chair for long periods. Long periods of inactivity will again lower your metabolic rate. Therefore, get up from your chair and move around. Go and talk to your colleague across the hall, go up and down the stairs, anything to bring your heart rate up and to refresh your metabolism again.
5. Enjoy a Mid-Morning Snack: Have a healthy mid-morning snack. There are more than one benefits of having frequent small meals. One is that small meals will not be too heavy on the system and it will also prevent you from eating a heavy meal during lunch. The other benefit is that it will increase your metabolic rate. The ideal choices would be unsalted popcorn, oatmeal cookies, steamed corn, multigrain biscuits, roasted nuts, etc.
6. Pack in Some Protein for Lunch: Choose more proteins and less carbs for lunch. Heavy fatty and spicy foods tend to bring down your metabolic rate and you will also feel lethargic post-lunch. Proteins being difficult to breakdown as compared to carbs, will bring up your metabolic rate as well as you will burn more calories.
7. Get Energized With Green Tea: Green tea has polyphenol compounds in it and 2 to 4 cups of it will help raise the metabolic rate by as much as 35% and will help burn fat more efficiently. Green tea has other benefits as well. It will revitalize you and keep you energized and stress free, by which you will be able to do your work more efficiently.
8. Stretch It Out: When you continuously sit and work in one position, the muscles become sore, which will slow your metabolism. Ease the tension out by stretching out. While you do so, take in few deep breaths. This will not only ease out the upper body tension, but also energize you with fresh burst of oxygen which will burn fat more efficiently.
9. Have an Ear for Music: When you are listening to relaxing music, there is a reduction in the hormone cortisol, which is believed to lower your metabolic rate. Once you feel relaxed, you can put on more energizing music which will increase your heart rate, respiratory rate, and metabolic rate.
10. Lighten Up Your Dinner: Avoid the intake of heavy and late dinners. Leave a gap of at least 3 hours between dinner and bedtime, so that there is no partially digested food in your stomach when you go to sleep. Also eat in a relaxed atmosphere. All these factors play important roles in streamlining your metabolism.
11. Finally a Beauty Sleep: Lack of proper sleep (disturbed or less than required sleep) disturbs your metabolism too. Therefore, ensure that you get at least 6 to 7 hours of undisturbed sleep, and you maintain sleep-wake timings.

Human body can be compared to a machine in its functioning. A well-oiled machine works smoothly and efficiently. Similarly, when you take care of these aspects in looking after your body, the various functions of your body will also be carried out smoothly and efficiently, which includes your metabolism.