06 Jan How To Increase Resting Metabolic Rate
In order to increase resting metabolic rate, you have to know what affects resting metabolic rate. If you’ve ever wanted to “boost your metabolism”, this is the key to doing just that! Before we start, the definition of resting metabolic rate is the amount of energy that your body needs at rest. We don’t often think about burning calories while sleeping, eating, breathing, etc. but we do! 🙂
Let’s learn about what affects resting metabolic rate!
What Affects Resting Metabolic Rate
First, we have to understand what we don’t have control over that affects our resting metabolic rate. These are things like:
- Age {It decreases 1-2% per decade}
- Genetics
- Height
- Gender
The things that we do have control over that affects resting metabolic rate:
- Thyroid
- Food Intake
- Muscle
- Exercise
- Environmental Temperatures
- Altitude
- Caffeine Intake
The two biggest things that I want you to take away is FOOD INTAKE and MUSCLE. These two things are something we easily want to overlook because it’s nothing fancy or unicorn-like. Gaining muscle helps increase your resting metabolic rate because muscle is a metabolically active tissue. More muscle = better metabolism. So, that means put down your cardio machines and get under some heavy weights.
Moving onto food intake – this is a BIG ONE. You might want to head straight to “restrict calories” when you’re wanting to lose weight and boost your metabolism, but that’s actually one of the worst things you can do. Restricting calories reduces your resting metabolic rate {up to 20%}. And it doesn’t always bounce back right away if you start consuming the right amount of foods.
So, don’t expect to have a good metabolism if you’ve been restricting calories for years. It takes patience and consistent good food. Your personal amount of calories + macros will need to be figured out with your dietitian, as we take into account your activity and other things too!
If you’re ready to put all of worry and wonder aside and start working with professionals to figure out a customized plan for you, book a free 15-minute call with us! We’ll game plan and talk about next steps.
