Increase your Metabolism

We all know that an increased metabolism leads to easier weight loss and makes it easier to keep weight off. Our metabolism is the process used to break down the foods we consume and produces the energy your body needs to make it through the day. By increasing our metabolism we are speeding up how quickly our body is breaking down the foods. The quicker the metabolism, the shorter the food sits in your body. Not everyone is lucky enough to be born with a great metabolism, for some people it does not matter what they eat or how much, their body will just burn it off. However for many of us in order to have a fast metabolism we need to do something in order to increase it.

The most obvious way to increase your metabolism of course is to increase your body’s need for energy. If your body needs energy it’s going to burn the food you have in your body and the fats you have saved up. You can increase your body’s energy needs by exercising! That was obvious, I know. But what you probably didn’t know is that the more muscular you are, the higher your metabolism will be. We are all constantly burning calories, and every pound of muscle in your body uses approximately six calories a day to sustain itself. The more muscles you have, the more calories are going to be burned to feed those muscles.

It’s hard to find time to exercise everyday. We all have other things we need to do, like go to work.. Thankfully exercise is not the only way to boost your metabolism, though it is one of the most effective! Adding some spice to your meals will help you boost your metabolism as well! Adding a few chili’s or something spicy to your meals will surprise your body and will speed up your heart rate causing your body to burn food faster to produce energy for your body.

Coffee! Believe it or not coffee can help boost your metabolism. The caffeine in coffee is believed to boost your metabolism up to 5% on any given day. Not only does coffee increase the metabolism, but it is believed to act as an appetite suppressant, saying that with coffee in your system you are less likely to have as big of an appetite as you would without the coffee. And for all those non coffee drinkers Green Tea revs up your metabolism as well as burns fat!

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Chrisi Keating

Santa Clara University

Communication Major