Have you ever heard someone (or you!) nagging like this?
“I’ve cut off my calorie intake, I maintain those regular exercises,..but..why am I NOT losing weight?”
And they will start to blame themselves by saying “Perhaps, my metabolism is low!”
Do you know what METABOLISM is ?
Metabolism is the chemical reactions that occur in our body. It requires energy for us to undergo living processes such as breathing, digesting, healing processes and etc.
And wait! Is your metabolism same as mine?
Each and everyone of us has different metabolic rate; it depends on your gender, age, body size and of course your genes.
Men have more muscles, high bone mass and therefore they have high metabolism compared to women. And as we grow older, we tend to loose muscle and gain fat, and these two lead to slow metabolism. People with big body size will have more fat, thus their metabolism is slow. Yes, genes basically play a role in determining your muscle growth and size – hence affects your metabolism.
Now, you will start saying, “Let’s kill those fats, and start build muscle!” Right?
But wait, to increase body metabolism, it is not all about building muscles. I will share a few tips that you can practice to boost your body metabolism.
1. Don’t miss your breakfast – Start your day with nutritional breakfast. It can start up your metabolism and keep your energy high throughout the day. People who skip breakfast tend to eat a lot during lunch and this will increase calorie intake more than what you need.
Eat them all!
2. Take enough protein– Our body needs protein to build muscle. The more muscles you have, the more calories you will burn. Besides, our body use up more calories to digest protein compare to fat and carbohydrates.
3. Eat enough everyday – It simply means consume food moderately and do not overeat. Do not starve yourself either. If you cut too much calories, your body will start to reduce metabolic reaction to conserve energy. Thus, the fat burning process will be slower. You will start to lose muscle and this will slow down your metabolism.
Be a Snow White – Eat an apple
3. Be active – When you increase physical activities, you will burn more calories. Build up more muscles by running and pilate regularly or perform strength training. You will use up more energy and burn those stubborn fat.
Marilah beramai-ramai bersukan sambil bersosial!
4. Drink a lot of water – take 3-4 litres of water per day to stay hydrated. Your body needs water to process those calories, if you are not drinking enough, your body will burn less calories, thus your metabolism will be slow down. Cut off your sweet drink, it contains high calories.
Bring a bottle full of water with you everyday.
6. Have adequate sleep – having sleep deprivation will increase cortisol level (stress hormone) in our blood. Thus, it will disrupt glucose metabolism, thus lead to glucose intolerance. Leptin will be reduced and ghrelin will increase. This can cause increase in appetite, craving and tendency to eat a lot unnecessary.
Be a Sleeping Beauty. After a run get a good sleep
Basically, you can still enjoy your food while maintaining a good metabolism.
Till then, we’ll meet again, keep fit and be inspired! 😉