How to increase the burning of calories in your body?

Mark
Written By Mark

While you’re sleeping or sitting on the couch, your body is busy converting food into energy and helping with things like cell repair and blood circulation, a process known as metabolism.

Metabolic processes aren’t just about how quickly (or slowly) we burn calories. They’re also about our metabolic health, which affects how our bodies react to and process certain foods, and can even affect our risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“Having good metabolic health reduces your risk of developing these metabolic diseases,” says Sarah Perry, a professor of nutrition at King’s College London in the UK.

In other words, if you have an efficient metabolism, you will process sugar and fat efficiently and will be less likely to develop high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and insulin sensitivity problems related to how efficiently your body uses insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. This is what we mean by being metabolically healthy, as Dr. Berry points out in a report by MaryIt was published in a newspaper British Telegraph.

What we eat is key to improving metabolic health by eating balanced, unprocessed, plant-based meals that are high in fiber and contain healthy oils and protein, as well as whole-grain carbohydrates.

4 pillars that improve metabolic health and increase calorie burning

Professor Perry says there is no magic bullet, but there are “four pillars” of good metabolic health: “In nutritional science, these are diet, physical activity, stress reduction and sleep.”

Improve your sleep and reduce stress

A study published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that losing just one hour of sleep a night was associated with increased visceral fat, which is fat located deep in the abdominal cavity.

In addition, stress increases the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Stress also plays a role in how we choose food, how our body processes it, and how quickly we eat, and stress hormones affect how we metabolize insulin and carbohydrates.

“If you’re feeling stressed, you’ll have higher glucose levels,” Professor Berry explains. “Managing stress is a good start to improving metabolic health,” she adds.

Change the way you eat

“When we eat something, a set of short-term changes occur in the body that trigger a chain of subsequent events,” Professor Perry says. For example, changes in inflammation, in how the blood clots, and how different cholesterol is distributed in the blood.

If we constantly eat high sugar or processed foods, this causes excessive changes in our metabolic responses and over time this puts additional stress on our metabolic health, which can be harmful.

Professor Perry advises making all your meals as unprocessed as possible. She notes that healthy fats, oils and proteins should also be included, along with some carbohydrates made from whole grains.

Lift weights and do brisk walking

“Weightlifting is good for metabolic health in midlife, it maintains bone density and muscle mass, and makes us more resilient to high blood sugar,” says Professor Berry.

She recommends lifting weights at least twice a week, and low- to moderate-level cardio, such as brisk walking or light jogging, also improves metabolic health.