How your body changes calories into energy significantly influences your weight.
How people gain or lose weight is different for everyone. Each human being reacts in a different way to the food and drink they consume and also to exercise. Why? Because everyone has a different metabolism, and it’s that that counts. Some people eat anything and everything and don’t put on weight. Others don’t eat much but can’t lower their body fat percentage. Let’s have a look at metabolism and how it works.
Metabolism is a group of enzymes and hormones that transform fat cells into energy. The quicker your metabolism works, the more fat you’ll burn. The fat-burning process works like this:
- 60-70% of fat is used just to keep the body alive; this is your basal metabolism. It depends on your genes, but there are some variables which can be modified, which I will come to
- 10-15% is the digestive metabolism, in other words, the burning of calories used for the process of digestion
- 15-30% is used for physical activity
Did you notice that most of this process is done while resting? So, how can you increase that metabolism? By having muscles! Increase your lean mass! Your muscular tissue burns three times the fat as fatty tissue. Aerobic workouts are essential, but you’ll need muscles to burn fat. So give more attention to muscle workouts.
Digestion is the second factor in fat burning. Start by increasing your intake of lean proteins (the ones you’ll find in chicken and fish, for example) because protein digestion uses three times more calories than carbohydrates or fats. A good way of improving your digestion is by following a few of our dietary tips.
You may not be able to control your metabolism, as it is intrinsic to your nature, but you can help it improve and get it working for you. If this is what you want, change your habits! Eat properly, exercise, and, in the medium term, your body will start giving you the results!
Five tips for improving fat-burning in the digestion process
– After main meals, eat every 3 hours. Opt for light foods, such as fresh or dried fruits and cereal bars…
– Increase your intake of foodstuffs which help to accelerate the metabolism: chilli pepper, green tea, ginger, cinnamon, omega 3 and fibre, for example, are great!
– Drink water! It’s essential for transporting vitamins, minerals and hormones, as well as eliminating toxins and helping with the inner workings of the intestines
– Sleep well because when your body wakes up well-rested, it burns calories quicker.
– Control your stress levels. This will keep your cortisol levels low. Cortisol is a hormone which increases abdominal fat.
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