Increasing Your Metabolic Rate

You can't change your genes, your age or your gender, but with a few changes in your exercise and eating habits, you can boost your metabolism by up to 10 percent.

We all expand energy at every second of the day whether we are sitting at our desk, eating lunch, or even sleeping. Therefore, the best place to start if you are looking to increase your metabolism is to understand your Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. BMR is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day, and determines how easy or how hard it may be for a specific individual to gain weight. We’ve all known that lucky person who rarely exercises, eats whatever they want, and never gains a pound. Chances are they have a naturally high metabolic rate and their body burns as many calories as they consume.

Whether you are looking to increase your metabolic rate for weight loss or to maintain your already healthy lifestyle, here are some tips on how to reach your BMR goals.

Exercise Basics for Increased Calorie Burn

The most effective way to boost your metabolism is by exercising. Increasing your cardio to burn fat and lifting weights to build muscle can have lasting effects on your metabolic rate.

Aerobic activity can be anything from a session on a tredmill to a pickup game of basketball. The point is to have fun and get your heart pumping for at least 30 minutes a day. Strength training requires a little more care and planning, and should be done on days when you're not doing a full-scale aerobic workout.

If you've never tried weight training, here are a few basic tips to get you started.

• Get some help: Basic weight training isn't hard, but even a single one-on-one session with an exercise physiologist/trainer can help make your workout safer and more efficient. Most health clubs provide trainers with extensive knowledge and reliable credentials. Or if you prefer working out at home, get a basic weight training video or book to help you know where to begin.
• Start small: The goal of weight training is to gently put stress on your muscles, not tear them to shreds. Start with weights that you can lift easily, without having to contort yourself into strange and potentially dangerous positions. Increase weight only when you can easily do 12 repetitions in good form, and then only in small (such as 5 pound) increments.
• Go Slowly: Yanking a weight up and down as fast as you can doesn't work muscles efficiently, and it increases the likelihood that you'll hurt yourself. Use a slow, smooth movement, raising the weight on a count of five, and lowering it on another count of five. Pay attention to how your muscles feel as you do this. A slight burning sensation is okay, searing pain is not. If it hurts, stop.
• Give yourself a break: Be sure to take a day off between weight training sessions in order to give your body time to recover and build new muscle tissue.

The Power of Food

Food does more than add calories, it also burns them. Digestion takes work, and therefore calories - a phenomenon known as the "thermogenic effect of food". The thermogenic effect is the effect food has to burn energy through the production of heat. Even though this effect accounts for only 5 to 10 percent of your metabolic rate it's still worth understanding. Here are some tips.

• Do your eating early. Metabolism naturally slows down during the afternoon and evening, which means that food has less of a thermogenic effect when eaten late in the day. So you stand a better chance of burning off a hearty breakfast than you do an enormous dinner.
• If you must eat late, go for lean protein and veggies. Pure protein has the most thermogenic effect of all foods (30 percent of its calories are used during digestion), so very lean protein foods will give your metabolism a little boost. The fiber and complex carbohydrates in vegetables will also force your body to do some extra work, though not as much as they would earlier in the day.
• Be sure your carbohydrates are complex. Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Your body has to work harder to break down the fiber and complex carbohydrates in whole grains and vegetables than it does breaking down fiber-free refined flours or simple carbs such as honey and sugar. Get the maximum metabolic benefit from your carbohydrates by eating plenty of whole grain foods, such as oatmeal, brown rice and whole grain cereals and breads, and steering clear of sugar and refined flour products, such as most pastas and white bread.