By Andris Vassilios *:
Basic Metabolism is affected by many factors such as:
• The height
• The age
• Muscle mass
• Gender
• Physical activity
• The frequency of meals
• Genetic factors
• The percentage of fat
• Body temperature / Health
• The glands / hormones
It seems that gender and age naturally cannot be changed. From the age of 25 the metabolic rate shows an annual decrease of 1%, which means that during adulthood the basal metabolism can decrease by up to 40%. Here are some ways to change your lifestyle, and if they are implemented, they can help boost your metabolism.
Do not forget your breakfast.
If you do not eat breakfast, your metabolism slows down, sending the message to your body that it is in a phase of deprivation, as a result of which the body saves its "fuel", as it has been a long time (8-10 hours) without food.
Eat most of your food earlier in the day
Dinner should be a lighter meal of the day, some experts recommend eating nothing after 8pm, or better yet stop eating 3 hours before bedtime. This helps your body's metabolic processes by burning what you have consumed while you are still on the move.
Do not starve or fast for hours
By reducing your daily calorie intake to less than 1.000 calories a day, you are sending a message to your body that it is starving, thus slowing down your metabolism, so that it can save fuel during difficult times.
Sterile diets
In addition, "deprivation diets" undermine the effort to maintain weight in another way. Precisely because they are strict diets, after their completion we have a very strong desire to eat that we were "forbidden" during them. Finally, we must not forget that, every time we regain our lost weight, the percentage of fat in our body increases.
Eat smaller meals and more often.
Small and frequent meals keep your blood sugar steady, providing you with a steady source of energy that helps your metabolism.
Do aerobic exercise
Do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day to boost your metabolism. If you do aerobic exercise in the morning, your metabolism is boosted throughout the day.
Increase your muscle mass by doing weight training or resistance exercises.
At least two to three times a week, you should follow a program with weights or resistance exercises in order to strengthen your muscles. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you are not exercising.
Water
Metabolic energy burning processes require water to function efficiently.
Green tea
It has similar properties to coffee, because it also contains caffeine and catechins, which stimulate metabolism and increase the mobilization of fat, ie lipolysis.
Coffee
Caffeine seems to instantly increase calorie burning and boost metabolism. This does not mean, however, that you should lose. Limit your consumption to 3 cups a day.
Spicy foods
Spicy foods can also boost metabolism. You can see this when people start sweating after eating a spicy food. Of course, it is not considered an ideal way to boost one's metabolism.
Sleep
When you sleep a few hours this can reduce your metabolism as the body seems to suffer from insufficient rest. Try to sleep for 6-8 hours daily. Also sleep beyond 8 hours is considered counterproductive, and makes it difficult to increase metabolism during the day.
* Andri Vassiliou, Dietitian - Nutritionist