Metabolism is the rate at which a person’s body burns calories for energy. People with high metabolism burn more calories. Many factors affect your metabolism, such as age, gender, muscle mass and activity levels. 

Teenagers have a higher metabolism than adults as they have higher muscle mass so more calories are burnt. Males also have a higher metabolism than females due to muscle mass. It is important to note that every 10 years the muscles in a woman’s body decreases while fat increases.

There are 3 ways to boost your metabolism:

1)            Resistance exercise 

2)            Diet with enough protein, calories, vitamin D, iron, and Magnesium. 

3)            Healthy Lifestyle

Resistance exercise is used to build muscle in addition to the regular aerobic exercise such as (walking, running, or swimming). Add high intensity interval resistance training to increase metabolic rate for several hours after each session.

Eat a healthy varied diet at regular times.

Eat an optimum amount of protein/day and divide it into 3 main meals. Protein increases your metabolism by 10% after each meal due to the thermal effect of food. An average adult needs 0.8 grams of protein/kilogram of body weight per day as our bodies cannot store protein. A person weighing 75 kg needs 60 grams of protein/day. However, protein needs may increase with active people.

•             To reach 60g protein/day, consume a high quality of animal protein every meal: 1 egg & 240 ml milk or yogurt at breakfast, 100g lean meat, chicken, or fish at lunch, 30g of cheese size of a match box with bread or rice with each meal.

Research in 2022 confirmed the influence of vitamins & minerals when combined with protein to boost metabolism:

Protein + Vitamin D increases muscle mass such as fortified milk & dairy, salmon, sardines, mackerel, and fish.  

Protein + Iron increases muscle mass such as lean beef, lamb or chicken liver, lentils, tuna.

Magnesium influences protein synthesis so has an indirect effect on metabolism.  

Drink 2-3 liters/day of water for optimal metabolism. 

Drink coffee, green tea, guarana, matcha, as they are rich in caffeine & antioxidants to increase metabolism temporarily.

Add hot pepper or cayenne that has capsaicin to increase metabolic rate & to burn fat.

Sleep properly for 7-8 hours daily, since sleep deprivation / or stress causes higher levels of cortisol  which leads to lower metabolism and increases risk of weight gain.

Avoid decreased thyroid function that decreases metabolism.

If you want to decrease your weight, try to maintain your metabolism. Use intermittent fasting or other strategies rather than reducing calorie intake as research showed that very low intake of less than 1000kcal slows down the metabolism and leads later to weight regain. Recent research in 2021 proved that Intermittent fasting with exercise on fixed timing aided in weight loss.

For more information or to discuss your body goals with Amna, please call us on 44960920