Ways to increase your metabolism

“I have difficulty in losing weight” is a very common statement. If you find it difficult to lose weight, you need to increase your metabolism.
Metabolism refers to the way that our body process and uses the food we eat. You need to reduce the calorie intake and increase your calorie expenditure to boost your metabolism and make it more efficient. So how do you increase your metabolism?
Well, resistance training and cardiovascular training increases your metabolic rate.

Resistance training (strength training or weight lifting) is anything that involves using resistance to build, strengthen muscle mass.  Muscle cells are up to eight times more metabolically active than fat cells, and muscle burns more calories than fat. Adding weight-bearing or resistance exercise is one of the only ways to increase basal metabolism.

Cardiovascular exercise (Aerobic, eg: cycling, jogging, rowing, walking etc) that raises the heart rate can also increase metabolism for a few hours after exercising.

Both types of exercise are useful for boosting your metabolism.  Regular cardiovascular exercise increases the amount of calories you burn through physical activity whilst regular resistance training will increase your lean muscle mass and therefore increase the number of calories you burn whilst resting. In combination the two types of exercise can give your metabolism quite a boost. Give it a try!!