When talking about weight and volume loss diets, advice on how to speed up metabolism is often a recurring theme. Without realising it, we end up in a conversation about the formula for calculating basal metabolism or metabolic age.
In this article we define the above concepts, clarify their importance and give you some tips on how to activate your metabolism. Read to the end and you’ll discover a trick to improve your results.
Here we go!
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What is basal metabolism?
Basal metabolism is the minimum level of energy our body needs to survive when we are at absolute rest. There are certain functions that never stop, otherwise we would die. For example, we never stop breathing and our heart is always beating.
Along the same lines, calculating the basal metabolic rate allows us to find the minimum amount of calories our body needs to continue performing all its functions. There are different formulas for calculating it and one of the most commonly used is as follows:
- Men: (10 x weight in kilograms) + (6,25 x height in cm) – (5 x age in years) + 5
- Women: (10 x weight in kilograms) + (6,25 x height in cm) – (5 x age in years) – 161
However, in addition to weight, height and age, other factors such as health and level of physical activity should also be taken into account. Therefore, it is always advisable to calculate basal metabolism with a professional.
Types of metabolism: fast and slow
Once you’ve calculated your basal metabolism, you’ll know the minimum level of calories your body needs. From there, you can work on speeding up those basic functions so that your body burns calories faster.
Have you ever heard of fast metabolism and slow metabolism? These concepts refer to how quickly your body burns calories even without any physical activity.
How to speed up your metabolism?
Want to know how to speed up your metabolism? Follow these tips!
Speed up your metabolism by strengthening your muscles
Muscle training is beneficial for speeding up metabolism because muscle consumes more energy than fat and therefore our body burns more calories to maintain it.
Practice very intense exercise
Have you ever heard the saying that the exercises you do at the limit of your strength are the ones that count the most? We could say that this is the basis of HIT or high-intensity training.
If you push yourself to your maximum, your body will continue to need energy long after you’ve finished exercising and therefore speed up your metabolism.
Eat foods that speed up metabolism
Have you heard of diets that speed up metabolism? The key is to avoid high-fat foods, especially saturated and trans fats, and to focus on protein and omega-3.
Protein, found in foods such as meat, fish and eggs, helps strengthen muscles and requires more energy to digest. The same goes for omega-3, found in salmon and nuts.
Don’t skip meals
Intermittent fasting does not help to activate the metabolism, quite the contrary. If we do not eat, we programme our body to use up its existing reserves more slowly so that it does not run out of energy.
Otherwise, it would not be able to continue to perform vital functions. The best thing to do is not to skip any meals and, between meals, snack on healthy snacks such as nuts or fruit.
Do stress tests to understand how to speed up metabolism
We are now clear on the importance of calculating basal metabolic rate and combining diet and exercise. Then it is time to focus on another equally important point: do stress test to understand how to speed up metabolism.
After getting the keys on how to speed up metabolism, we usually head straight to the gym and adopt new eating habits. First of all, however, it is advisable to go to a professional for a stress test.
But what exactly is it for? Thanks to it, you will know what your physical condition is and how you need to work to activate your metabolism in the most effective way without putting your health at risk. If you want to find out more, get in contact with us and we will inform you without obligation.
