Increasing Your Metabolism by Exercise and Adding Protein

By: Gerald Fitz Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Weight loss is all about managing calories and eating fewer calories than you burn. Metabolism, in a nut shell, is how your body converts food into fuel and then burns that fuel. Metabolism is influenced by our age, sex, and the amount of muscle. Your genetic makeup also influences your metabolism.

Cardio exercises not only help with weight loss, reducing stress, giving you more energy, and helping you sleep better; it also increases your metabolism. When you do cardio exercises on the treadmill or elliptical you are burning calories. Experts say that in order to cash in on the rewards of a cardio workout, you need to do it for at least 20 minutes a day and three to four times a week. Interval training is great cardiovascular exercises that can jump start your metabolism. By alternating your intensity and speed you are causing your muscles to give you maximum results.

Another way to change your metabolism is to train with weights. Experts recommend that you should train with weights two to three times a week. These resistance exercises will create muscle and raises your base metabolic rate causing you to burn more calories while resting. Many women are afraid of training with weights because they don’t want to get bulky. This will not happen in women because they lack the naturally high amount of testosterone that men have. If women add a weight training routine to their workout, they will gain lean and toned muscles. Studies have shown that weight lifting also reversed the natural decline of our metabolism when we reach the age of 30.

By increasing the amount of protein in your diet you also increase your metabolic rate. Protein is essential to building muscle. After your workout, lean muscle continues to burn calories. The more protein you eat, the more you will help your body to create lean muscle that burns calories. A great way to add protein to your diet is to take whey protein. Whey protein creates the lean muscle that you desire. Whey protein isolate is 90% pure protein and has less carbohydrates and fats than other protein supplements. Along with taking the protein supplement, you need to drink more water so your body can process the waste produced from burning fat cells.

However, a decrease in your metabolism means you are burning fewer calories and gaining more weight. Eating less and spreading your meals out will decrease your metabolism. We need food to keep our body going. When we eat less, we are telling our body to go into starvation mode and conserve any energy it receives. Other things that lower your metabolism are diet drinks, especially sodas. Soda contains sugar that can slow down the metabolism. Other foods that can slow down your metabolism and ruin your diet are sugars, white breads, fried foods, processed foods, and alcohol. Eating too much sugar can cause your blood sugar levels to spike and you will begin to store extra fats and sugars. Alcohol is especially full of sugar and calories. It can cause your body to think it is dehydrated, which in turn slows your metabolism down to conserve itself and store the fats.

Doing a good exercise routine that involves cardio and weight training and taking whey protein will help you to increase your metabolic rate, causing you to burn more calories and lose weight.

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