Simple ways to boost your metabolism

Your “metabolic rate” refers to the amount of energy that your body needs just to stay alive. That is, to keep your heart beating, lungs breathing, blood circulating, etc.

A higher metabolic rate means that these processes happen faster and that they use more energy – in fact, up to 70% of your daily calorie intake! There plenty of simple ways to boost your metabolism today.

Don’t starve yourself
This is the number one rule: if your daily calorie intake drops below 1,000 calories, your metabolism slows as your body reduces the amount of calories it needs to function normally (“starvation mode”). As soon as you resume eating normally, your metabolism will return to normal and any weight you’ve lost will be regained.

Make sure you eat breakfast
Eating a good, nutritious breakfast will help kick-start your metabolism for the day, and the calories you consume throughout the day are more quickly converted to energy and burned. Skipping breakfast decreases your metabolic rate, which slows down your body processes and can make you feel sluggish and tired. Not a great way to start the day!

Eat lighter meals later in the day
Your body is better at processing food and burning calories when you’re awake and moving around. Try to make dinner a light meal, and some experts recommend not eating anything 3 to 4 hours before bedtime.

Eat smaller meals more frequently
Eating smaller meals more frequently during the day means your blood sugar levels are more likely to be stable (just make sure you’re choosing low GI / GL foods to graze on). This ensures a steady source of energy to fuel your metabolism.

Get enough aerobic exercise
Not only does it relieve stress, strengthen your cardiovascular system and improve your lung capacity, aerobic exercise will raise your metabolic rate for hours. If you can face exercising in the morning, then you’ll raise your metabolism all day (this is why exercising before bed time can sometimes keep you up all night).

Build muscle with weight training or resistance exercise
This one is easy – muscle burns more calories than fat. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Even when resting!

Get enough B-vitamins
If you suffer from low energy levels, check you’re getting enough B-vitamins. In particular, vitamin B-12 is essential for energy. Check out my previous post for some easy meal ideas to boost your B-vitamin intake.

If you’d like to make some these changes in your life, it’s best to start off gradually. Choose one or two that you think will work with your lifestyle – such as walking the dog in the morning and eating a lighter dinner – and see how they fit for a couple of weeks. Giving yourself time to get used to a new routine means you’re more likely to stick to it long-term!