Medical professionals recommend getting five 30-minute workout sessions a week. By doing so, you can lower your risk of infections, illnesses, and other health problems, and enhance your energy levels and mental function. In addition, it can help you burn more calories and boost your metabolism, allowing you to lose weight the healthy way.
What is metabolism?
For your body to be able to carry out all of its day-to-day functions, you have to have a sufficient supply of units of energy known as calories. The role of metabolism is to convert these calories into the energy that your body needs to work. The process can be fast or slow, depending on certain factors, such as body composition, activity level, weight, height, genetics, and gender.
If you live a sedentary lifestyle or have poor eating habits, you are likely to have a slow metabolic rate. In this case, your body may not be able to burn calories fast, and you may become prone to weight gain, obesity, and other problems. On the other hand, if you exercise regularly and eat a health and balanced diet, you are likely to have a fast metabolic rate. You can lose weight or keep a healthy weight easily because your metabolism helps your body burn more calories.
What are the best exercises to boost metabolism?
Swimming
This exercise offers a full body workout that can burn tons of calories in a short period of time. It works the different muscle groups in the body, forcing you to tap into your fat storage for energy. Compared to other exercises, there is a lower risk of injury, as it barely impacts your ligaments, joints, and others.
The number of calories that you can burn by swimming depends on your weight. If, for example, you weigh 130 pounds, you can burn about 400 calories by swimming freestyle at a moderate pace for one hour, and up to 600 calories if you can do it faster. Or, if you weigh about 160 pounds, you can burn around 500 calories by swimming at a slow pace for one hour, and up to 700 calories at a faster pace.
Planks
This exercise can be done at home or at the gym. It is easy to do and does not require any workout equipment.
To start, you have to get into a push-up position, but with your forearms resting on the ground and your elbows bent and perpendicular to the ground. Make sure that your elbows are aligned with your shoulders, and your body — from your head to your heels — forms a straight line. Hold that position for as long as you can. Repeat.
The number of calories burned by planks varies by weight. Doing planks for an hour can burn about 200 calories, or about two to three calories a minute, if you weigh 150 pounds.
Burpees
This is another exercise that you can do anywhere, without the need for any gym equipment. Using only your body weight, it can burn a ton of calories, strengthen your muscles, and increase your metabolism.
To do a burpee, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides. Bend your knees to lower your body (like doing a squat), and place both of your hands on the ground in front of you, shifting your weight from your heels onto them. Then, do a little jump, softly kicking your feet back to assume a planking position. Make sure that your body — from your head to heels — forms a straight line. Do another small jump to get your feet back, and then stand up while raising your arms over your head. Repeat.
Doing 10 burpees without resting can burn about 10 calories. If you can do burpees non-stop for an hour, you can burn up to 600 calories.
Sprints
This exercise is effective in enhancing your stamina and endurance, heart and lung power, bone and muscle strength, and metabolism.
For your sprint training, you should decide a location first, or whether to do a flat sprint or an incline sprint. You also need a pair of good quality running shoes, appropriate workout clothes, and water.
To start, you can do a warm up walk or jog for about three minutes. Sprint for about 30 seconds, using full speed and force, and then take a 30 second rest. Repeat as many times as you can, alternating between 30-second sprints and 30-second rests.
Compared to jogging or walking, sprinting burns a lot more calories. If you weigh 150 pounds, you can burn about 20 calories per one-minute-long sprint. That is twice the amount of calories that you can burn by jogging for one minute, and four times the amount of calories that a minute of walking at a moderate pace can burn.
What are other ways to increase metabolism?
To get a big metabolism boost, you should also make healthy lifestyle choices in addition to working out on a regular basis. The following are other things that you can do to help enhance your metabolism:
Get enough sleep
Research shows that a lack of sleep can mess up your body’s metabolism and increases your risk of weight gain and obesity. To prevent these problems, you should make sure to get sufficient amounts of sleep, around 7 to 8 hours every night. By doing so, you can also improve your immune and brain functions, and speed up your recovery rate from injuries, wounds, and other health problems.
Do not skip your meals
Your body needs food to fuel it throughout the day. If you do not eat, you are only starving yourself and depriving your body of the essential vitamins and minerals it requires to carry out its many jobs, as well as jeopardizing your brain power and metabolism.
For the sake of your health, you should eat three small meals and a couple of small healthy snacks a day. Doing this gives your body a steady supply of energy sources that it can use to keep you up and running.
