Most of the calories that your body uses up every day come from your metabolism (i.e. all of your body’s functions that keep you alive). 70% of the energy you burn comes from your metabolism, with 15% from exercise and 15% from thermogenesis (thermic effect of your body digesting and processing food). So you can see that if you have a higher metabolism, you burn significantly more calories than someone who does not have a high metabolism.
So here are my top 5 tips to help you speed up your metabolism.
1. Eat Breakfast
Breakfast is so important because usually you have been asleep for the past 8 hours or so and haven’t eaten for at least 8-10 hours. So if you skip breakfast, you are putting your body in a semi-starvation mode which means it will slow down your metabolism to conserve energy, and this means storing fat. DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST. If you don’t get hungry in the mornings, that is because you have a slow metabolism and your body is used to this but you can change it. Start by eating something very small and slowly increase your food intake. Over time, your body will crave a healthy meal first thing in the morning. Eggs are my go to breakfast!
2. Eat More Protein
Protein forces your body to use more calories during digestion compared to carbohydrates and fat. Eating protein with every meal (particularly carbohydrates) helps to prevent spikes in insulin, which means you are less likely to store fat. Protein also helps to increase your body’s muscle mass, which further increases your metabolism. Aim to eat protein with every single meal. Great protein sources include chicken, lean beef, turkey, salmon, fish, eggs, lentils, spinach, raw nuts, nut butters and protein powders.
3. Build Muscle
Muscle is more metabolically active than fat. So if you have a high body fat percentage, your metabolism is lower. And if you have a high percentage of muscle, your metabolism is higher. What this means is that if you have muscle, your body will burn more calories throughout the day. So your body burns more calories when you are sleeping!
4. Eat Regularly And Don’t Crash Diet
Skipping meals slows down your metabolism. I know I touched on it earlier, but when your body hasn’t eaten for a while, your body’s response is to conserve energy. This means that your metabolism will slow down and your body tries to store fat. Crash dieting usually sees extreme reductions in food intake so your body is essentially always in the starvation mode. When you come out of a crash diet, your metabolism will be low, so when you go back to eating normally, your body will store more fat than before your crash diet. That is why people who crash diet almost always end up putting all the weight back on.
5. Get Your Hormones In Check
Metabolism is controlled by the nervous and hormonal systems. Any hormonal imbalances can influence how quickly or slowly the body burns kilojoules. The best thing to do is go and see your doctor for a check up to make sure everything is working as it should. Hormonal imbalances can also lead to weight loss / gain.
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4 Responses
Hi,
You recommended eating breakfast to help move your metabolism but what about intermittent fasting? Isn’t that recommended for weight loss?
Hi lovely! Intermittent fasting is okay but if you plan to do your workouts in the morning, it would be best to have a light meal or snack. This will help fuel your body with enough energy for the workouts. :)
Rachael- I’m just a little confused. I think I have some metabolic damage from years of eating low calorie, but I tend to bulk up as I am naturally muscular. So, how can I boost my metabolism with workouts while repairing metabolism?
Hi Lauren, I’m really sorry to hear this! That’s good that you have muscle as that will be helping your metabolism. My best suggestion would be to continue your workouts but perhaps cut out the running and high intensity cardio if you are trying to repair your metabolism. And also diet should be the main focus for you – eating more calories and getting as much nutrients in as you can. I’m not sure how many calories you’re eating but start with 1200 calories at the absolute minimum and build up slowly. It could also be worth going to see a sports nutritionist or dietician to help guide you with your recovery. Good luck! xx