Your Basal Metabolism Rate (BMR), holds significant importance in terms of fitness and health. It's the rate at which your body burns calories when at rest, to maintain vital body functions such as heart rate, brain functioning, etc.
Although, your metabolism mainly depends upon heredity, age, the gender you can work on improving your metabolism. So, even if you are not blessed with a good metabolism, there are ways to make it better:-
- Eat plenty of protein at every meal.
- Drink sufficient water.
- High-intensity workout - It involves a quick and intense burst of energy, HIIT workouts are best known for improving your metabolism.
- Weight lifting - Muscles are more metabolically active than fat mass, and building on your muscle means working on increasing your metabolism.
- Get sufficient sleep - Sleep has a huge impact on your body’s recovery, and lack of sleep decreases the number of calories you burn when at rest while increasing stress hormones and may also disrupt your appetite-regulating hormones.
- Vital nutrients for metabolism - Iron, B vitamins, Vitamin D
Iron - It is the oxygen carrier of the protein haemoglobin and essential for cellular metabolism. A reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells will hamper the cell functioning. Iron-rich products are poultry, leafy green vegetables, prunes and enriched cereal grains. One simplest method to improve iron intake is to cook food in an iron skillet pan.
Vitamin B6 and B12 - Both the vitamins are needed to mobilise your fat faster as they help metabolise energy production. The food sources of vitamin B12 are limited, and therefore there is a need to focus on including foods which help provide us with more of these vitamins.
Vitamin B6 sources - poultry, fish, soybean, oats, bananas
Vitamin B12 sources - yoghurt, poultry products
Vitamin D - It helps improve your metabolism and is actively involved in calcium homeostasis. As per studies, obese and overweight people are found to be most deficient in vitamin D.
Food sources - vitamin D fortified milk, cereals, fatty fishes
The most abundant form is sunlight.
Magnesium - It acts as a co-factor for energy production and responsible for a wide range of reactions in the body.
It helps control blood glucose, regulate blood pressure, keep your bones strong and smooth functioning of the nervous system.
There should be no nutrient deficiency for active metabolism and increased physical activity to improve metabolism.