If you’re looking to stay in shape, then you’ll need to burn more calories than you take in. That’s about as close as nutrition gets to a hard, inescapable truth. But most of the calories we consume don’t come from exercise directly. Or to put it another way, you don’t lose weight in the gym – though going to the gym might help you to lose weight once you’re outside of it. How can this be so? The answer lies in something called Basal Metabolic Rate.
What is metabolic rate?
Your metabolic rate is the rate at which you consume energy in a given amount of time. Most of this amount comes from keeping your internal organs working but some of it comes from other activities like physical activity and digestion. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is what keeps your organs working, and it’s mostly consumed by cells exchanging water with one another.
So how does this relate to weight loss? Well, the more energy your body is consuming, the likelier it will be to turn to your body’s fat reserve in order to make up the loss. Thus boosting your basal metabolic rate will cause you to lose weight, provided that your calorie-intake remains constant. A rugby-playing man weighing 150kg will consume a lot of calories in order to preserve their muscle mass.
While metabolic rate varies from person to person, even after differences in muscle composition are accounted for, you can get an idea of your metabolic rate using tools like this one.
Train with Weights
We might naturally associate weight-training with bodybuilding, and the growth of bulging muscles. Naturally, not all of us want this – and women are especially hesitant to venture into a sweaty, testosterone-fuelled section of the gym. But weight-training needn’t mean muscle growth; for most of us, it’s perfectly possible to build calorie-guzzling muscles while actually getting smaller.
Eat more protein
Protein not only helps to build muscle mass, it also bolsters the metabolic rate in the aftermath of a meal. This is because, of the three major macronutrients (the others being carbs and fats), protein requires the most energy to digest. Protein can be gotten from pulses, broccoli, nuts, dairy, meat fish and eggs. If you’re serious about portion control, you might invest in a set of precision bench scales from RS Components. This will allow you to be far more precise, and will eliminate the guesswork.
Drink More Water
Similarly, drinking also consumes calories, as well as keeping you hydrated. Water, unlike sugary energy drinks, doesn’t contain calories. Moreover, it can contribute to a feeling of fullness that’ll mean you eat less. Coffee and green tea also help to boost metabolism – though their caffeine content might interfere with your ability to sleep.
Sleep Properly
One of the many benefits of a good night’s sleep is that you’ll be able to keep your waistline down. A lack of sleep correlates with high blood sugar and a deficiency of the hormone leptin – which regulates satiety. Sleep allows you to keep your appetite in check, and allows you to incrementally build your metabolism.
Learn to Manage Your Stress
It is a medically proven fact that stress and depression spoil your general and overall health by lowering the rate of your metabolism drastically. This is because stress disturbs your hormone levels and also causes Cortisol to be produced more than the normal level. As Cortisol Hormone is involved in regulating appetite, its abnormal production has been observed in people with disordered eating. Moreover, stress badly affects the quality of your sleep which in turn deteriorates your metabolic activities. It is, therefore, very much necessary for you to learn to manage your stress to your maximum.
Get Enough B Vitamins
Various kinds of vitamin B play their vital role in regulating the rate of metabolism in humans as well. These vitamins B include particularly B1, B2 and B6. Their normal intake keeps the rate of your metabolism at a fairly constant level. If their amount in your diet gets disturbed, your metabolic activities and the rate of their accomplishment is badly affected. So you must keep bananas, eggs, spinach, peanut butter, peas, orange juice, baked potatoes, whole-grain food, etc a regular part of your daily meals.
Eating at regular Times and Drinking Green Tea
Taking meals at regular times daily and including 1—2 cups of green tea also promote the rate of metabolism to an appreciable extent. Green tea stimulates the metabolism of fats and helps lose weight a lot. Your body gets used to the timings of your intakes and, hence, your metabolism rate becomes stable on the daily basis.
Conclusion
Following the above mentioned tips, you can easily keep the rate of your metabolism at a good level. This is also absolutely necessary to boost your metabolic rate and lose weight. In short, these tips go a long way towards your overall good health.
