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Your metabolism plays a central role in powering your everyday bodily functions and regulating your weight. However, everyone’s basal metabolic rate (BMR) is different. This can be frustrating if you are trying to gain or lose weight but find that no amount of dieting makes a meaningful impact.
Understanding how to manipulate your BMR can empower your weight-change efforts and help you achieve your health-related goals. Simple changes — like starting your day with a brisk walk or cycling to work — can help you burn calories and increase your BMR.
You can also make lifestyle changes that boost your metabolism. Getting enough sleep and eating enough protein can alter your BMR and empower your efforts to lead a more active, healthy lifestyle.
Metabolism and Minerals
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) describes the amount of calories necessary to complete the basic tasks necessary for the smooth functioning of your body. These basic tasks include regulating your heart rate, digesting food, breathing, and growing hair or skin. You can typically calculate your BMR with the following equations:
- Men: BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) – (5.677 x age in years);
- Women: BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) – (4.330 x age in years).
Calculating your BMR also requires you to take into account your activity level, as sedentary people burn far fewer calories than those who lead an active, healthy life. You can also adopt a metabolism-boosting diet, which includes key foods like:
- Magnesium: Potatoes, whole grains, halibut, and bananas;
- Iron: Kale, broccoli, tofu, beans, and meats;
- Calcium: Milk, almonds, seeds, fortified juices, and yogurt;
- Vitamin D: Beef liver, sardines, egg yolks, and fortified plant-based foods.
Eating a well-rounded diet fires up your metabolism and gives you more than enough energy to work with during the day. Healthier, slow-burning foods help you feel satiated for longer, too. Oats, yogurts, and berries are just a few of the many examples of low-calorie but filling foods. Consuming these nutritious foods is key if you are trying to lose weight, as you will need to adopt a balanced diet if you want to stay on track over weeks and months.
Stress Management
Stress and anxiety can increase your metabolic rate as your body enters “fight or flight” mode in preparation to face threats. Adrenaline and cortisol can suppress your hunger, too, as you will not want to stop for a snack when facing a predatory animal or fighting off attacks. The nervous movements associated with feeling stressed burn plenty of calories, too, as small movements add up over days and weeks.
However, stress-related weight loss is terrible for your overall health and may cause long-term weight gain in the future. For example, burnout and weight gain are closely correlated, as burnout can cause you to:
- Miss sleep;
- Increase cravings for unhealthy, sugary food;
- Turn to coping mechanisms like alcohol;
- Reduce your interest in activity outside of work, causing a sedentary lifestyle;
- Fall ill due to an impaired immune system.
If possible, take steps to reduce stress and manage the symptoms of burnout by investing in self-care strategies like meditation and leisure activities. You will also need to speak honestly with your manager about the impact of work stress on your life and should begin applying for new roles if your concerns are not addressed by your employer.
Metabolism “Tricks”
Lifestyle changes to reduce stress and increase physical activity are pivotal to protecting your long-term health. However, you can still utilize a few tricks to manipulate your BMR and achieve your health-related goals. You can fire up your metabolism today by:
- Eating small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism running;
- Increasing your protein intake with whey protein;
- Try drinking your coffee black or switch to green tea;
- Investing in a stand-up desk or set timers to ensure you get off the chair at least once per hour
- Switch to low or no-fat Greek yogurt, as yogurts can help you metabolize fats.
These “tricks” — aka nutritional strategies — support your long-term health, too. Avoiding sugar in your coffee and eating small, healthy meals can create larger lifestyle changes as you will have far more energy for working out or walking after work if you have just enjoyed a small, high-protein snack. These smaller meals needn’t be bland, either. Today, you can pick nutritionally rich, tasty food and juices online that are convenient and support your long-term health.
Conclusion
Getting enough exercise, increasing protein intake, and reducing stress will boost your metabolism and improve your long-term health. Simple lifestyle changes like switching to black coffee can reduce your total caloric intake and help you manage your weight more effectively, too. Just be sure to follow through on BMR “tricks” with meaningful changes that boost your long-term wellness.