7 Tips to Speed up Your Metabolism

For your well-being!

4 min

By Ignacio Heredia
August 30, 2022

Why trust us?

You know what they say: the more muscle you have, the better your metabolism will work. And this leads many people to prioritize weights. But are there other ways to speed up your metabolism (yes there are). Let’s start by clarifying some terms. Metabolism is “the enormous set of chemical reactions following digestion and absorption responsible for producing energy or synthesizing macromolecules,” as explained by the Guide to Metabolic Biochemistry . In other words, metabolism refers to the chemical reactions by which our body transforms food and drink into energy.

Until now, it has always been taken for granted that our metabolism slows down as we get older, especially after the age of 40, with a more pronounced drop in women when they reach menopause. However, this is not true.

A study of 2021 published in Science , has analyzed data from 6,500 people of all ages, to conclude that our metabolism remains stable between the ages of 20 and 60, and then declines by 1% per year after this age.

This same study goes on to demolish previous beliefs and explains that there really is no difference between the metabolic levels of men and women, even when compared to women who have already entered menopause.

So right now you must be wondering why you feel that your metabolism has been slowing down over time. The answer has more to do with your lifestyle than your age or gender.

Don’t worry! This is good news, because it means that it is up to you to make changes in your daily life that will help you speed up your metabolism. Here are 7 tips to speed up your metabolism, take note!

1 – Get a good night’s sleep

Do you sleep less than seven hours a day on average, this can lead to serious problems such as weight gain, diabetes, hypertension, depression, heart problems and an increased risk of death, as reported in an article by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. The sleep is fundamental for the recovery of all processes in our body and also has an impact on our metabolism. A research study conducted by Dr. Sunil Sharma and Dr. Mani Kavuru has shown that too little and too little sleep has a detrimental effect on metabolism.

If you can’t get enough sleep or a deep enough sleep, perhaps you can make some changes to your routines. Leave your cell phone and other screens for an hour before going to bed, do breathing exercises or incorporate relaxing activities to ensure a deep and pleasant sleep.

2 – Take more protein

Digesting food increases our metabolism for a few hours, as caloric energy is needed to process the nutrients we ingest. Furthermore, it turns out that protein causes the maximum acceleration in this process, approximately 15-30%, compared to 5-10% for carbohydrates and 0-3% for fats. All this is demonstrated by this study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology Among the forms of protein on the market is whey protein, which, due to its particular properties, provides a large amount of quality protein and little fat.

3 – Drink cold water

Increasing your water intake can speed up your metabolism. There is research like this one published in The journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, that claims that drinking half a liter of water can speed up your metabolism by 25% for one hour. In addition, another study also published in The journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism explains that our metabolism is also accelerated by drinking cold water, because of the energy our body expends to heat it to our body temperature.

4 – Practice high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Training HIIT is one of the best alternatives to both lose weight and speed up our metabolism. In fact a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise , points out that the practice of short exercises at maximum intensity can accelerate metabolism by up to 49%. Another study from the Journal of obesity concluded that after 12 weeks of HIIT, overweight people reduced their stomach mass by 17% losing an average of 2 kilograms.

5 – Add some spice to your diet

The substance that makes spicy foods spicy is called capsaicin, and science has demonstrated that it can also help you speed up your metabolism. A study published in Chemical Senses confirms that consuming spice can help you burn approximately 10 to 20 extra calories per meal.

6 – Drink more coffee

Regarding metabolism, coffee is one of the few natural substances capable of accelerating it, thus helping to burn fat as we can see in this study published in The american journal of clinical nutrition . Another study from Harvard University in 2020 found that drinking four cups of coffee a day for 24 weeks could reduce body fat by 4% in both men and women.

7 – Join the green tea trend

It seems that in recent years we have been experiencing green tea fever. From being almost an unknown, it has gone from being on the menus of every coffee shop. And this is good news, because green tea can help you convert stored fat in your body into free fatty acids, which increases fat burning by 10-17%, according to this study from the American Society for Nutrition. There are also other studies, such as this from the University of Toyama in Japan, or this other study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, confirm the ability of green tea to regulate the level of insulin in the blood and to increase the time of fat oxidation. All of this helps with acceleration of our metabolism. Moreover, it is delicious, with or without honey!

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