Not counting calories while eating could result in quick weight gain, but do you know someone who can eat whatever they want without worrying about putting on an extra pound of body weight? Do you wonder why those lucky folks do not put on weight even though their diet includes lots of frozen pizza bagels, fast food, and other sweet stuff? One big reason is that their metabolism is strong.
The process your body uses to convert food into energy is called metabolism, and if your metabolism is fast, your body will not have extra reserves of fat stored everywhere in the body. Unfortunately, your metabolic rate can suffer due to many factors.
When Will My Metabolism Slow Down?
Metabolic rate refers to the number of calories your body burns in a day. Unfortunately, your metabolic rate comes down with age. After you are 30 years of age, your metabolic rate will decrease about 1% every year thereafter. Besides aging, your overall lifestyle and the level of activity also play a big role in determining how fast your metabolism is.
You have to understand that metabolism refers to how your body processes food to produce more energy, but you will have to be physically active to use that energy or else it will be stored as fat. With your body's expenditure of energy coming down, you are going to put on more weight which will also hit your metabolism in a negative way.
It is also important to keep in mind that your body uses the energy produced through metabolism for different bodily processes, such as healing and breathing – this refers to your basal metabolic rate (BMR). It means that you are going to burn some calories even when you are not active; however, you will burn more calories if you have muscles and burn fewer calories if you are overweight and have more fat.
Most people think that their metabolism slow down with age because their body cannot process food properly, but that is not the case actually. The food processing part of your metabolism (thermogenesis) stays quite steady throughout your adult life, but you lose muscle mass with age and put on more fat, which directly hits your BMR and creates an illusion that your metabolism is slowing down.
How to Boost Your Metabolism
When will my metabolism slow down? You already know that what you eat, how active your lifestyle is, and how overweight you currently are can pay a big role in determining how strong your metabolism is. Here are some simple steps you can take to boost your metabolism.
1. Never Skip Breakfast
You should never skip breakfast no matter what. Ideally, you should have your breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning. This provides your body with fuel to function properly throughout the day. If you keep waiting until mid-morning to eat breakfast, you may end up hitting your metabolism hard. The idea is to avoid feeling hungry, as that is when your body stops burning calories and your metabolism slows down significantly. So, never skip breakfast and keep eating at regular intervals to avoid feeling hungry.
2. Include Protein in Your Meals
It is important to include some source of protein in every meal. Studies show that people who consume high protein diet manage to store excess calories as muscle, whereas people on a low protein diet store excess calories as fat. It does not mean you should include so much protein in your diet and replace all your whole grains with eggs and turkey legs, but you just need to ensure that your meals include some protein. You can have some eggs with breakfast, grilled chicken for lunch, and some veggies with a lean protein source for dinner.
3. Increase Your Intake of Water
Studies show that staying hydrated helps boost your metabolism. Every cell in your body needs water to function. A study shows that you are going to burn 2% fewer calories if you are dehydrated. You are likely to have a higher metabolic rate if you drink 8-12, 8oz of glasses of water every day, so be sure to include more water in your routine.
4. Maintain an Active Lifestyle
It is important to use the energy your body produces, as this triggers your metabolism and tells your body to produce more energy to support your active lifestyle. You can improve your metabolic rate through interval training – be sure to include high intensity cardio in your routine to keep your metabolism up for hours. You can get better results through interval training with short bursts high intensity workout as compared to half-hour on the treadmill at a steady pace.
5. Stay Away from Crash Diets
Instead of worrying “When will my metabolism slow down?” take steps to boost your metabolism. Crash diets, which make you eat fewer than 1,200 or 1,800 calories, are bad for your metabolism. This is not going to boost your metabolism in any way. By switching to a very-low-calorie diet, you may end up losing some pounds but you may end up losing muscle mass along with some fat. With your muscle mass coming down, your metabolism will slow down considerably, which is the reason why you put on weight quickly when you return to your normal diet after following crash diets.
6. Include Spicy Food in Your Meals
Spicy foods have certain natural compounds that boost your metabolism. Simply including a tablespoon of green chili pepper or chopped red chili in your foods can improve your metabolic rate. While the effect is usually temporary, you can still benefit from it.