Your metabolism is a complex process that can be affected by several factors. Some of these are completely beyond your control, but you can manage others to improve your overall health and fitness. In this article, Dr Mahmud Kara will look at some common things that can affect your metabolism and how they do so.
Sleep
If you’re not getting enough amount of sleep, then that can surely lead to gaining more weight. That’s because when you’re tired and stressed out, your body releases cortisol, which can trigger the production of fat cells. Sleep is also important for regulating hunger hormones and maintaining a healthy metabolism.
When you’re asleep, your body produces human growth hormone (HGH), which helps build muscle mass and maintain bone density, insulin sensitivity improves so that your blood sugar doesn’t spike after eating, and leptin goes down while ghrelin goes up. This means that when it comes time for lunch or dinner, those calories won’t stick around on their own accord.
Stress
When you’re stressed, your body produces more cortisol than usual – and that increases your appetite and causes you to gain weight. Cortisol also makes it harder for the body to burn fat, so instead of using the energy from what you eat as fuel, it stores it as fat in case there’s ever another famine.
So if you’re feeling stressed out or anxious about something important, try taking deep breaths or listening to music until those feelings pass so they don’t interfere with how well your body works.
Weight Training
Weight training can help you build muscle, which increases your metabolism. And when you gain muscle, you’ll likely lose some fat along with it, which means more calories burned throughout the day.
So how do you get started? First off, aim for two or three weight-training sessions per week on nonconsecutive days. You’ll also want to make sure that each exercise is done for about 10 to 12 repetitions (reps).
If this seems too easy at first and doesn’t provide enough challenge for your muscles, try doing more sets of fewer reps instead until they become more comfortable with it. The goal is that over time these exercises will become easier and eventually feel like second nature.
Calories And Nutrition
Calories matter much now because they’re units of energy, not nutrients. But while calories are important for weight loss and maintenance, they’re not the end-all-be-all when it comes to health. Nutrition is more important than calories (and it’s what you eat rather than how much).
Nutrition is the quality of your food–what’s in it and how much you eat. It affects how quickly your body burns calories for energy, which can affect whether or not your metabolism will be affected by other factors such as stress or lack of sleep.
Keeping Track Of Metabolism Can Help You Lose Weight
And finally, Dr Mahmud Kara states that tracking your metabolism is important because it allows you to see how well the food that you eat is being converted into energy. This will provide an idea of what types of foods should be included in a diet plan for weight loss, as well as what types should be avoided.
