In earlier articles, we defined metabolism as the body doing work.  We also discussed different ways to measure your daily caloric expenditure in reference to basal metabolic rate.  Here, we will share with you the most effective way to increase your metabolism. 

What does increase your metabolism mean?

Metabolism is all the biochemical processes that take place inside the body that are necessary for maintenance and survival.  By creating conditions that place greater demands on these biochemical processes, the body works harder to repair and recover itself.  Furthermore, you can also create an internal environment where the body is expending more energy at rest to pump more blood, repair more cells and so forth.  The body is designed through evolution to conserve energy for times of need; to do as little work as it must in order to ensure survival.  So, by setting up a new – higher wavelength at which it works, more energy will be expended.  The terms metabolism, metabolic rate, BMR, RMR and RDEE are often interchanged.  For our purposes we will use “increase your metabolism” to correctly refer to increasing your basel metabolic rate (BMR).  The focus is to burn more calories at rest, filling up this energy demand from stored fat.

Why is it Necessary?

Most of us are aware, that the best way to burn stored fat is to increase the rate of metabolism.  Increasing your BMR goes beyond simple aesthetics, as today’s modern lifestyle places significant energy demands on our bodies than ever before.  Our daily lives entail stressors of many kinds including: high pressure/performance jobs, families, school, and other commitments equating to little personal time.  In such busy environment our bodies are mandated to perform at their prime in order to overcome daily challenges applied physically, mentally, and spiritually.  The body continues to adapt to above mentioned stimuli by repairing, rebuilding and replenishing systems as needed – utilizing stored and consumed energy.  Optimum performance requires a fast metabolic rate necessary to conduct numerous anabolic reactions resulting in building hormones, muscle, bone and enzymes in order to adapt and overcome bestowed demands of modern life.

How about cutting calories to lose weight?

As discussed in earlier articles weight loss does not necessarily mean fat loss.  Additionally, you can measure food, count calories, plan each snack, or you can let your body do the work as per its design.  Excessively decreasing caloric intake is actually counterproductive as your body starts to slow down metabolism preparing for times of low food supply (due to human genetic evolution).  You may keep starving yourself and still not see any meaningful and/or sustainable weight loss.  The alternative is to make your body do more work by increasing metabolic processes such as building more muscle, hormones and enzymes.  Such internal environment results in increased BMR – energy expended at rest.

Factors that affect Metabolismlean body mass

Metabolic speed is person specific however, common factors exist that influence the overall process.  Some of these factors are:

Gender – Men tend to have a faster metabolism than women. 

Lean Body Mass – More muscle mass equates to a faster metabolism.  On average woman has about 70 percent of muscle mass and twice the body fat when compared to man.

Hormones – Individuals with higher levels of thyroid, sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) and growth hormone have a faster metabolism. 

Body Composition – Body types that genetically tend to be more lean, such as ectomorphs and/or mesomorphs, have faster metabolism than endomorphs.

Age – Metabolism naturally starts to slow down with age, often in our 30’s. 

Lifestyle – Lack of sleep/rest and high stress levels can affect metabolic rate.

All things considered, research shows that lean body mass plays a prominent role in metabolic rate.  Muscle is a more active tissue than fat, requiring greater caloric expenditure at rest.  Men naturally have more lean body mass than women thus, burn more overall calories.  Moreover, maintaining muscle requires performing physical work resulting in elevated anabolic hormone levels such as testosterone (in men), estrogen (in women) and growth hormone (in both sexes) – these anabolic processes result in extensive caloric demand.  With age, physical activity levels naturally decrease and so does lean body mass.

Most effective way to increase your metabolism

Increasing lean body mass is the optimal method to increase your metabolism.  Here’s why – to generate more muscle, you need to exercise – engaging in resistance training.  Such training will naturally elevate hormones – testosterone / estrogen and growth hormone (GH) – which not only play a role in muscle hypertrophy (anabolism) but in metabolism as well such as tissue repair, fat oxidation and so forth.  Furthermore, to build muscle you need to eat quality foods that contain both energy and nutrients – macros and micros. Eating right and exercising leads to a fit lifestyle.  Your body will also evolve its recovery efforts through effective rest and quality sleep – lowering cortisol  levels (stress hormone) while increasing GH concentration – yielding better metabolic conditions engaging in repair and restoration processes.  For targeted training routines and flexible eating learn more about The No-Diet Book and Stronger Leaner Faster Book.