Building your metabolism

A lot of people want to build up their metabolism, there are various ways you can do this. As in, there are foods/ supplements that aim to boost your metabolism, as well as caffeine and many other factors that come into it too, including hormones. 

1) Eat  

This is a simple one, but many people don't really understand Its importance. Metabolism really means the chemical processes going on in your body, including how food is processed. Your metabolism will determine how much energy you use throughout the day. A person with a high metabolic rate will be burning more calories than a person with a low metabolic rate. It's as simple as that. This is why its important we take care of it. When we diet, or eat in calorie deficit our metabolic rate is significantly slowed down as the body tries to preserve its energy. Therefore, when you're looking to lose a little fat it's important you don't just go into a major calorie deficit straight away. You may lose weight initially, but eventually your body will begin to hold on to as much energy as it possibly can..even when you're eating hardly anything you won't be making progress. You'll also feel pretty terrible.AND when you eventually start eating normal again, you'll be in a far worse place with a slower metabolism and probably with more body fat than ever. If you've been under- eating for a while, then you may want to build your metabolism by slowly adding calories to your diet. This is probably the best way as your metabolic rate will increase slowly with calorie intake and you won't be storing excess amounts of fat. When you have a higher metabolic rate, you can eat more (which is frickin awesome) not only this, IF one day you go on a cut you'll find losing fat will be far easier as your metabolism will be more efficient. Your body will respond far better to a calorie decrease, you'll be able to eat quite a lot of food and still be losing fat! you also won't have to be doing excessive amounts of cardio. This is why bodybuilders 'reverse diet' after a show. They slowly build up their metabolism, with minimal fat gains and eventually when its time to cut again they can do so fairly easily. A person constantly in a calorie deficit would REALLY struggle on a cut. Where do you go from say..1000 calories? can you afford to drop your calories lower than that to drop fat? can you do even MORE cardio to get results? 
So anyway, this is why it's important. If you're currently below your maintenance calories, I say build it up, increase your metabolic rate and get your body working like a machine! 

2) Caffeine - found in - Green tea, Coffee, Green tea extract.

Caffeine has also been shown to improve metabolic rate. A study investigated the effects of caffiene on fat oxidation. There were obese subjects, and subjects of a healthy weight in the trial. They ate a meal with caffeine and investigated the effects on fat oxidation. Fat oxidation increased in both individuals post meal. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system to breakdown fats, it also stimulates the release of the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) which also stimulates fat breakdown. 

3) Eat protein and lift weights 

So gaining muscle mass is also a metabolism booster. When you have more muscle mass, your body uses more energy. It's as simple as that. But I think the MAJOR contributor is that, when you lift weights your body needs to repair itself. Healing muscle requires energy, therefore more energy is used. Resistance training and losing fat come hand in hand, if you're dieting and not partaking in any resistance training you're likely to lose muscle too. So, pretty much..post workout, protein turnover (muscle breakdown & synthesis) requires energy, therefore your metabolic rate is faster, hours or even days post workout. Muscle requires calories to be built guyssssssss, 

4) Eat breakfast

Ramp up your calorie burn by starting the day right! People will have different preference on what to eat for breakfast. Just get a quality breakfast in, high fat/protein is what I usually go for. There is a lot of evidence linking a high protein diet to a fast metabolism, so get enough of it. 1-1.5g per kg of bodyweight should do you good. 

5) Sleep

I won't go into great detail here. But a lack of sleep may mess with your hormone production as well as your metabolism. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a slower metabolism, and also increased production of the hormone ghrelin (which makes you more hungry) So many important processes happen at night. This is why I nap..not because I'm lazy or anything. 

6) Water 

I have mentioned this a lot and I will mention it again. Water is the key to all metabolic processes in the body, without it essentially nothing could take place. 
Found a very interesting study on this! from here

Based on three previous studies that found dehydration depressed metabolic rate, a team of graduate students at the University of Utah undertook a study to determine how hydration affected resting metabolism. E. Wayne Askew, director of the Division of Foods and Nutrition at the university’s College of Medicine, led the research study. Research subjects were divided into three groups: The first group received four 8-ounce glasses of water daily, the second got eight 8-ounce glasses and the third got 12 8-ounce glasses per day. Test subjects -- all of whom were measured at rest -- who received eight or 12 glasses of water daily burned calories at an accelerated rate, compared to those who were not fully hydrated. 

So that was just a round up of metabolism and how you can increase yours! 

Hope this post helps, happy humpday!