First let’s understand what metabolism is. It’s a chemical reaction in the  body’s cells which changes food into energy. In simple words, the calories you burn at any given time of the day is called metabolism.

There is another term called BMR (Basal metabolic rate), which is also called RMR ( Resting metabolic rate). These are the calories your body burns when you are not moving or sleeping, resting, sitting on a couch, watching television. We don’t work for 24 hours. We work for 8-10 hours.  The rest of the time our body is in the BMR zone. This BMR should be high. If this BMR or RMR is high, your body will burn more calories.

Now let’s talk first about the factors which  affect  our metabolism.

• 1) Age – After the age of 30 your body starts to lose  muscles, which causes 3-5% decline in BMR every decade. As you get older, hormonal changes also impact metabolism. As you grow older your body doesn’t metabolize nutrients from food efficiently  which causes blood glucose levels to be elevated.

• 2) Genetics – The genes also play a vital role in determining BMR. So the BMR differs from family to family.

• 3) Muscle mass – Muscle mass has a significant impact on metabolic rate because it requires more energy to maintain than fat. One pound of muscle requires calories a day to maintain while fat requires four. More muscles means faster metabolism that burns more calories. Muscles burn calories even when you are not moving because it needs energy to contract and relax.

• 4) Size of the body – Larger organisms have higher metabolic rate. When your body mass, height and surface area increases, your metabolic rate goes higher because large bodies have more metabolising tissues.

• 5) Gender – Another factor which has a huge effect on metabolism. Men have faster metabolic rate as they have lots of muscle tissues due to hormones called testosterone, while women have slow metabolic rate as they have less muscle due to a hormone called estrogen.

• 6) Body temperature – Higher body temperature is associated with higher metabolic rate. A rise in body temperature of one degree Celsius is associated with a 10-15% increase in oxygen consumption. Fever increases body temperature which increases metabolism.

• 7) Drugs – Drugs like caffeine or nicotine can increase the BMR. Repeated use of a drug can cause the body to increase the production of enzymes that metabolize the drug.

• 8) Sleep – Metabolism remains stable with enough sleep. Poor sleep disrupts the body’s natural sleeping cycle which affects hormones. Sleep is very important for regulating metabolism. Sleep reduces approximately 15% metabolic rate during Sleep. Sleep is important for maintaining BMI and body fat mass during the periods of reduced calorie intake.

Now we will see what best we can do to speed up our metabolic rate. It is very important to have fast metabolism as it helps you to burn more calories. That means you can eat anything.

• 1) BE A GRAZER – Rather than having 3 big meals try to have 5-6 small meals. You will experience a metabolic boost. Eating a portion of carbs and protein every 3 hrs.will help reduce craving and feeding of deprivation support your metabolic rate & keep blood sugar level stable. The study flow of amino acid & glucose helps feed muscle tissue as well as blunt body’s typical starvation responses when on low calorie intake.

• 2) WEIGHT TRAINING – People make mistakes by replacing weight training with aerobics when they try to lose body fat. Weight training increases muscle mass & muscle burns more calories than fat. Weight training speeds up your metabolism. When it comes to burn fat, weight training can be better.

• 3) DON’T GO CRAZY ABOUT CARDIO – Doing cardio can actually slow down your metabolism. Extra cardio will cause your adrenal glands to crank up cortisol production. Extra cortisol will really send your metabolic rate through in crap because it eats up muscle.

• 4) CARBS ARE YOUR FRIEND – When you cut back on carbs, your body has a tendency to lower T3 levels, which is a thyroid hormone that keeps your metabolic rate strong. Going on low carbs does appear to work initially because there is an instant loss of water from the body.

• 5) RE-EVALUATE YOUR THYROID  MEDICATION – Your thyroid hormones are generally regarded  as single most important determinant of BMR. Many people start taking thyroid boosting piles in an attempt to get ripped, even though their thyroid is working fine. Sensing an over production of thyroid, your body’s negative feedback mechanism will kick in causing your body to put breaks on its own thyroid hormone production.

• 6) BULK UP SMART WAY – The reason behind bulking is to pack on mountains of lean muscle. But often you end up gaining slabs of fat. The problem is, a pound of fat contains 3500 calories of stored energy.

• 7) SET YOUR ALARM CLOCK – Getting enough sleep is important for maintaining a healthy metabolism. Too much can be counter productive. Your metabolic rate is reduced by an average of 20% during Sleep. So if you are in bed until noon and then spend the rest of your day in front of T.V. or PC, you can expect your metabolism to go down.

• 8) FOCUS ON WHOLE FOOD – Instead of whole food, some people drink MRPS shakes, Protein shakes of six meals a day. There is a digestive system in your body. The process of digesting solid food every few hours actually increases your metabolic rate, known as a thermal effect of food.  Digestion by itself requires lots of calories. MRP’S or protein shakes are rapidly digested & absorbed, resulting in minimum metabolism. Make sure you should include 3 to 4 meals of solid foods instead of MRP’S or protein shakes out of 6 meals. Fill in the remaining meals with quality MRP’S or protein shakes as these quality stuffs provide exact portions of high quality protein, energy rich carbs & important vitamins & minerals without the excess junk.

• 9) PUMP YOUR PROTEIN – People who exercise & eat a high protein diet (little more than 1gm per pound of body weight per day) burn more fat due to increased thermic effect or increase in metabolism. Eating six protein-containing meals a day gives an advantage to your body to increase metabolism and burn more fat.

• 10) HIT THE BOTTLE DURING WORKOUT- It’s common for people to dehydrate by 2-6% of their body weight during exercise. That’s not good. Dehydration can cause significant drop in an individual’s BMR & resulting in the body using a higher percentage of energy carbs as opposed to fat.

• FINAL THOUGHTS :

METABOLISM – It’s all creating a lifestyle that keeps your body active and balanced. From building lean muscles and staying hydrated to managing stress & getting a quality sleep, every small habit contributes to your body’s metabolism. The more consistent you are with right movements, nutrition, sleeping patterns and mindset, the more efficiently your body works. So rather than chasing short cuts, focus on consistency in workout, nutrition, sleep, recovery. Consistency is the key to build fast metabolism. 

• STAY AWAY FROM STEROIDS. 
• SAY NO TO DRUGS.