How You Can Have Faster Metabolism

Understanding what metabolism is is important. However, it is also important to be able to control your metabolism. To do so we will need to discuss the benefit of increasing metabolism and how it can be done.

So let's begin!

Metabolism and Activity

Metabolism is how you can utilize energy for your everyday activity. Depending on your daily demand, your energy usage will be different. Therefore, if one have physically demanding lifestyle, their energy demand is equally high, hence, metabolic rate would be higher or many people say faster metabolism. On the other hand, if your lifestyle is not physically demanding, then the metabolic rate would be lower, or some say slow or sluggish. At the same time when your input of the energy or food consumption is too low, the body will take this as a sign of keeping there energy level or metabolism low.

When you look at professional athletes, they are typically fit and able to eat a lot and still look good. Thy are working out and practicing their sports on regular basis and the physical demand is higher than non athletes. Then after the season is over or when they retired, typically they get fat because they have less physical demand.

Think about it. If you are spending more money than making, eventually you will not be able to spend money on thing you like to spend on. This apply for higher metabolism. If you are making more money, then you can spend money on more things.

Benefit of Having Faster Metabolism

When metabolism is higher, you get to do more things and able to consume more food to keep up with energy output, provided that you are eating whole and nutrient dense food, the body will have more resources to keep your body functioning at higher rate.

The benefit of having higher metabolism, can be but not limited to, the body having more energy throughout the day, the body can recover from damage caused by physical activity faster, immunity can be stronger, and cognitive functioning can be improved.

How to Have Faster Metabolism

To increase metabolic rate or to have faster metabolism, you will have to have higher physical demand and supply with proper nutrients to meet the requirement.

Whether you have physically demanding work or sitting dominant work, exercising on regular basis will become critical to have higher metabolic rate.

Although, cardio workout does give higher physical demand, resistance training gives better outcome because you will be stimulating muscle more. Maintaining muscle mass and strength requires more energy. So if you have to choose between cardio and resistance training for increasing metabolic rate, resistance training should be the priority. Ideally, of course, working on both cardio and resistance training will give maximum benefit.

After increasing the physical demand, you will have to replenish. However, you cannot be eating whatever and expect the body to improve metabolism. Basic that you should be practicing is "to replenish what you have spent".

Let's say you have enough body fat (male >15%, female >25%) and have increased physical demand through exercise. Then what you may need to replenish is building block for the damaged muscle and nutrients to extract energy from body fat. Calorie counting will make no sense because the body already have stored form of energy or calorie.

To replenish muscle, nutrients that required is protein or amino acids. Meat, seafood, beans, leafy vegetables, seeds, nuts.

Nutrients to extract energy from fat need to be healthy fat and food source with nutrient dense with lower sugar to keep the insulin level low. Seafood, eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, seed, none starchy vegetables.

For someone who has less body fat and have increased physical demand may require carbohydrate to meet the metabolic demand. But not just any carbohydrate but carbohydrate with dense nutrients such as, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, rice, soba (buckwheat) noodles and so on. You do want to raise the insulin level but within the manageable range. You can monitor this by checking your body fat percentage, not the weight.

Reason why person with higher body fat does not need energy from carbohydrate is because the person already have stored energy that can be spent or wasted. If energy is provided from food then body will not utilize stored energy. So if the goal is fat loss, you will need to choose the food with nutrients dense and may need to minimize food consumption frequency.

It is a work to get your metabolism up but once you understand how metabolism work and practice to improve them, you will get to enjoy workout life more than just dieting.

Kota Shimada