How to Activate Your Metabolism by Exercising
The human body is considered a great vehicle that mobilizes us every day. For that reason, experts state that you should take care of it as if it were a new car. All means of transport require their respective fuel. In the case of the human body, it needs food. Do you want to know how to activate your metabolism to take advantage of it?
This process is very important in the human body. No vehicle could run if it doesn’t get the fuel it needs. Therefore, below, we’ll talk about metabolism and exercise and the close relationship between the two.
What’s metabolism?
Generally speaking, metabolism refers to the chemical and physical processes that occur in the body to convert food into energy or use it to carry out different actions.
At the cellular level, chemical reactions that turn the nutrients in foods into energy for the entire body occur. That’s why experts compare this process with the fuel means of transport requirements.
For this reason, food is a fundamental pillar of health. However, food isn’t the only determinant in the metabolic process. In fact, genetics and physical exercise also play a role.
Activate your metabolism: genetics and exercise
Many factors affect a person’s metabolism. However, we’ll emphasize two of the most relevant ones: genetics and physical exercise.
On one hand, genetics is responsible for determining the body’s energy expenditure in total rest, which is called basal metabolic rate or BMR. All people have different expenditures, and this is evidenced in food consumption. Thus, not everyone should consume the same amount of calories because the results tend to be different.
Here’s an example. Two women eat more than 2,000 calories a day. One becomes overweight, while the other maintains her normal weight. Although many factors play a role in this, the main one is metabolism determined by genetics.
On the other hand, physical exercise is another important aspect of the metabolic process. As such, regular exercise can have an impact on it. How’s that possible?
Activate your metabolism by exercising
In general, experts highly recommend physical exercise, so much so that they consider it one of the healthiest lifestyle habits. To adequately activate your metabolism, you need to do more intense physical activities.
The combination of intense aerobic exercise and strengthening exercises can help activate your metabolism. Therefore, you should consider the following recommendations.
Aerobic exercises
Although many aerobic exercises can help activate your metabolism, the important thing is their intensity. The most advisable are the following:
- Jumping jacks.
- Jump roping.
- Skipping.
- Burpees.
- Speed races.
Strengthening exercises
When you do strengthening exercises, your muscle mass increases. As a consequence, your bigger muscles will need a much higher caloric intake at rest. To achieve muscle hypertrophy, experts recommend including the following exercises in your routine to activate your metabolism.
- Push-ups.
- Bench and parallel bar dips.
- Barbells.
- Static and dynamic lunges.
- Dumbbells for biceps and triceps brachii.
- Weighted squats.
Other recommendations to activate your metabolism
Remember that metabolism varies from person to person. In fact, it depends on different aspects such as age, gender, genetics, and physical exercise. Therefore, you also need to consider other keys to help activate your metabolism:
- Knowing your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is relevant, as it allows you to know the minimum calories your body needs at rest.
- Don’t resort to “miracle” diets. Your body is important. Thus, you shouldn’t subject it to everything you hear. Remember that it’s always appropriate and necessary to consult professionals.
- Have breakfast. Cutting out breakfast is one of the main mistakes people make. This is only appropriate if the nutritionist recommends, for example, intermittent fasting to achieve weight loss.
- Drinking water. It’s a fundamental measure not only for metabolism but also for the rest of the body’s physiological processes.
Knowing about metabolism
Despite the fact that it’s a process that occurs in the human body, few people know a lot about it. As we mentioned above, if you have a particular goal regarding body composition or sports performance, the best option is to turn to health and nutrition professionals.
In short, practically everything in your body works thanks to the metabolic process, from blood circulation to respiration itself. For this reason, you shouldn’t take it lightly.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Morales Durán, M., & Calderón Montero, F. (2000). Fisiología del ejercicio. Rev. Lat. Cardiol. (Ed. Impr.).
- Boticario, C., & Cascales, M. (2012). Digestión y metabolismo energético de los nutrientes. UNED.
- Abierta, A. (2012). Nutrición y metabolismo. In Balcells. La clínica y el laboratorio. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-84-458-2585-3/00031-2
