How to Increase Your Metabolism

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By Lawrence N
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Increase Your Metabolism

The word metabolism is frequently associated with the topic of weight loss. When we speak about our metabolism, what we're really referring to is our basal or resting metabolic rate. Stated in plain terms, this is the rate at which our body burns calories when we are doing absolutely nothing. If your body burns calories at a faster rate overall, then you will have an easier time losing weight, since it will be easier for you to attain a calorie deficit. This article shows you some steps for increasing your metabolism.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Step 1

The biggest step of all for increasing your metabolism is to partake in a strength building program. Muscle burns more calories than fat. What that means is that if you are more muscular, your body will simply burn more calories each day than someone who is less muscular. It is ideal to work with a personal trainer in a fully-stocked gym, but even working out on your own can be beneficial. Even if you only have two 30-minute supervised workouts per week, you will make huge gains in muscle quite quickly.
Step 2

Another easy way to increase your metabolism is to eat smaller, more frequent meals. When you eat more frequently, you force your body to work at a more constant rate. This will increase your overall metabolism. If you only eat 2 or 3 times per day, you essentially give your body the chance to go to sleep in between meals. This slows down your overall metabolism. It is ideal to eat 5-6 times each day, but ensure that each meal is comprised of a small portion of healthy foods. Keep in mind that a typical restaurant meal could easily have 10 times the food that you should be eating for one of your small meals.
Step 3

Drink lots of water. Your body needs water to just "do its thing." If you deprive your body of water, you encourage it to shut itself down, in a sense. This is a just a biological evolutionary reaction. Just like you should give your body a steady intake of small healthy meals, you should do the same with water. Drink no less than 64 oz. of water each day, ideally more.
Step 4

Engage in aerobic exercise to give your body a temporary boost in metabolism. If you exercise at a heart-pumping pace for at least 30 minutes, not only will your metabolism greatly increase during that time, but it will be elevated for some time after. There is some debate as to how long the increase in metabolism will last, but it truly doesn't matter. Aerobic exercise is so beneficial that there is no need to nitpick over details. At the very minimum, try to do at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day, in addition to partaking in a strength training program at least twice per week.
Step 5

Understand that you will read and hear many other tips about increasing metabolism. Some are pure hoaxes, some may have some validity but are largely insignificant, and some involve aspects of human physiology that are not yet fully understood or tested. However, doing the above steps are basically guaranteed to be successful for the majority of the population. Use your own judgment before spending your time or money on any other solutions.