By Dylan Porras

Your metabolism has four ways to turn food into energy. These are:

  1. Resting Metabolic Rate (Energy we burn at rest)
  2. Non-exercise activity (Cleaning the house, playing with your kids, gardening, etc)
  3. Thermic Effect Of Food (Scroll down to learn more)
  4. Physical activity (Exercise)

A faster metabolism means that your digestive system works better, your body burns calories more efficiently and it can maintain a hormonal balance. Ultimately, what this means is that you will have a better chance at losing weight and keeping it off.

Your metabolism depends on things like:

  • Genetics
    • Age
    • Muscle mass
    • Body size
    • Diet
    • Hormones
    • Physical activity
    • Environment (Weather)

This explains why some younger athletes in high school or college can eat all day without gaining weight. Unfortunately, as you get older your metabolism slows down. But there are a few ways you can boost your metabolism.

INCREASE YOUR NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY

Pretty self-explanatory. Just move more. Going on walks is the most underrated way to do this! Our bodies were meant for constant movement, not sitting around watching Netflix while quarantining.

A good measure of this is your average steps per day. We encourage our clients to take a minimum of 8,000 steps per day. For some of you, this may sound easy but for most, that can be difficult.

THERMIC EFFECT OF FOOD

This is the energy (calories) it takes our bodies to digest, absorb, and transport nutrients. Certain foods require more energy for this process than others. Essentially, we burn more calories just by eating certain foods.

Foods & drinks that can help you boost your metabolism:

  1. Foods high in protein have the highest TEF (Meats, seafood, dairy, tofu, etc…)
  2. Coffee & Tea (caffeine)
  3. Legumes & Pulses (Beans, lentils, chickpeas & peanuts)
  4. Chilli Peppers
  5. Coconut Oil
  6. Seaweed
  7. Ginger

Seeing that proteins have the greatest impact, a good rule of thumb would be having a serving of protein at each meal. Start there and slowly add one item from the list a week to your regular diet to increase your caloric expenditure.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY (EXERCISE)

A mixture of high-intensity workouts and lifting heavy weights is the best approach for improving your metabolism. The good thing is, we do both in CrossFit.

Workouts like Fran or any other short sprint have been proven to increase your metabolic rate even hours after the workout, which means you will still be burning calories hours after the workout!

Lifting heavy weight is key for putting on and maintaining muscle. The more muscle we have the more calories we will burn. As seen in multiple studies, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.

Constant movement, a few tweaks in your regular diet, and 3-5 workouts per week can drastically change how your metabolism works. It takes consistency and discipline just like anything else. If you need help with any of this do not worry! Most people do and Blue Titan has you covered! Check out the link below for details.https://www.afewsimpledisciplines.com