Boost your body's metabolism

The article was professionally consulted with Master, Doctor Nguyen Thi Nhat - Infectious Diseases Doctor - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital.

A physiologist once said that boosting your metabolism is a secret. What exactly is metabolism? Metabolism is the amount of energy in the form of calories that we burn during the day. Metabolism includes everything your body does to turn food into energy for your body to function.
Some people have a faster metabolism than others. Some things affect your metabolism that you can't control such as age, gender, and genes. But you can influence your metabolism through exercise.
Sure we burn calories when we exercise like running or walking... But we also burn calories when we use the computer, watch TV and even when we sleep - metabolic rate when rest.

Boosting metabolism not only helps burn excess fat, help lose weight, but it also brings many benefits to your health.
Cleanse toxins: a healthy metabolism can help cleanse and remove waste and toxins that accumulate in your body through perspiration, urination, and defecation. Toxins have an adverse effect on various functions of the body and so does the metabolic rate. Improves blood circulation: blood not only transports nutrients and oxygen, but also aids in the elimination of toxins. Boosting metabolism can speed up the absorption and transport of nutrients. Elevated mood: people with high metabolism tend to live happier lives. When metabolism slows, blood carries less nutrients to feed the autonomic nervous system causing anxiety, boredom, agitation and other depressive symptoms. Maintaining a good metabolism helps the body function more smoothly, leading to a more positive mood and energy. Helps you look younger: a higher metabolism helps to lose weight and rejuvenate the skin naturally. By increasing metabolism, it helps blood circulation better, increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients, eliminates toxins and metabolic wastes from the body. Boosts immunity: boosts metabolism, helps blood circulate better, strengthens your immunity, helps fight aging and disease. More energy: your body needs a certain amount of energy to meet the minimum metabolic rate to maintain the basic functions of life such as respiration, circulation, digestion, etc. Boosting metabolism helps increase energy for the body.

3.1. Building Muscle Mass When you increase muscle mass, you increase your resting metabolism. That causes your body to burn more calories. This is also why experts recommend adding weight training to your exercise program.
Some examples are: using dumbbells to do biceps curls, using weight machines at the gym, you can even do specific calisthenics like push-ups and sit-ups. This is good for building strength and losing weight.
Any type of strength training will increase muscle mass. That's why exercises like yoga and pilates help strengthen your body. Pilates helps strengthen your core, which is your back and abdominal strength. Some yoga exercises have a similar effect.
Some experts recommend weight training twice a week. However, it is not recommended that you carry weights or wear ankle weights when walking. This extra weight can damage your joints. Weights should only be used when you are standing still.
A trainer or exercise expert can set you up with a balanced strength training program that targets major muscle groups.

3.2. Exercise more for the heart The biggest metabolic boost comes from exercises that increase the heart rate. Such as jogging, hiking, walking, biking, taking aerobics classes, dancing, kickboxing or using the machine at the gym, anything that gets the rhythm up your heart rate increases. Ideally you should do this four to five times per week, each time lasting about 30-40 minutes. The purpose of this is to burn as many calories as possible. Some experts suggest that you should exercise to a level where you can still speak, but cannot sing. This can be a basis for determining exercise intensity.
3.3. Focus on frequency, duration and intensity If you are looking to lose weight, increase your exercise program from what you are doing now, you will see weight loss results faster .Increase your exercise amount, duration and intensity, you will definitely notice improvement. The increase should be increased gradually, should not be increased suddenly, making the body feel tired and can be dangerous for you.

3.4. Set a goal to lose one or two pounds per week A goal of losing one or two pounds per week is pretty much your body's limits. Because if you ask yourself to lose more than that, it will lead to a serious diet, completely not good for your health.
One pound of body weight equals 3,500 calories. That means your body has to burn a lot of energy. In fact, it's all the fat your body allows you to lose.
3.5. Don't Run If You Hate Running If you don't like what you're doing, you'll give up halfway. Find a form of exercise that you love, one that you really want to do.
You might consider the following: popular sports like tennis allow you to combine muscle conditioning, cardio, and burning calories. However, you won't be able to build muscle mass or lose as much weight as other forms of strength training.
3.6. Exercise in the morning You will stick to your exercise program, if you do it in the morning. Because you will have less opportunity to come up with excuses for not exercising.

Reference source: webmd.com