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Your metabolism is what keeps your body alive and functioning by burning calories. Everything from breathing, digestion, and circulation of blood to growing hair, climbing stairs, and healing wounds. It bubbles even while you sleep. This low-burn rate stays pretty constant throughout the day. Body size, muscle mass, and age affect how fast your metabolism burns calories, but it’s mostly determined by genetic factors. You may increase the number of calories you burn through the day by pushing yourself harder at work or exercising more vigorously at home.
The abdomen is one of the body’s primary sites of fat accumulation, according to Robert Herbst, a 46-time powerlifting champ and Olympic judge. “Fat is first stored there and then burned from there last; unfortunately, we can’t spot reduce despite what infomercials claim,” says Herbst. “The only way to get rid of abdominal fat is to lose weight all over your body.”
When it works for the whole body, it also works for your stomach in more ways than one. The majority of the things you can do to boost your metabolism could also help improve your fitness, health, mental sharpness, energy levels, and self-esteem.
So, let’s consider some strategies for increasing your metabolism and burning fat.
1 — Use exercise to Wake up your metabolism up
Consider fat cells to be hibernating, advises Ellie Busby, a qualified nutritionist in the UK and founder of Vojo Health, a website for healthy living. “Fat cells need very little energy to keep them dormant,” she says.
These sluggish cells are broken down by exercise, which replaces them with muscle cells that are more active in increasing metabolism.
According to Busby, “Studies show that even individuals with a gene called ‘FTO’ that is linked to a slower metabolism had lost as much weight as those without the gene when they exercised for four weeks on end.”
2 — Make a muscle
Muscle is more metabolically active than fat is, so the more muscle you have, the greater number of calories your body burns even at rest.
“The greatest method to increase your metabolism is via resistance exercises, like lifting weights, which stimulates your metabolism for around 48 to 72 hours after the activity has ended, according to Herbst.”
When you get older, muscular strength training starts to become even more essential to maintaining your metabolism. According to a research by exercise physiologist Wayne Wescott, PhD, in Current Sports Medicine Reports, inactive people can lose 3% to 8% muscle mass every decade, accompanied by fat accumulation and resting metabolic rate reduction.
Resting metabolic rate may be increased by 7% after 10 weeks of resistance exercise, according to this research.
3 — Lift this way
The secret to creating metabolically active muscles is consistency (exercising 2 to 3 times each week) and weightlifting exercises that use several muscle groups at once, according to Joe Johnson.
Compound lifts are movements that work several muscles at the same time, making workouts more effective and efficient.
“Focus on basic compound workouts like pull-ups, squats, bench press, deadlifts, and shoulder presses and try to improve your strength by lifting a little more weight or doing 1 extra rep each week,” he advises. This method challenges your muscles and helps them grow stronger.
4 — Give your pancreas a rest
If you eat a lot of calorie-dense meals and beverages, you will consume more calories than your metabolism can process. This might result in weight gain and abdominal fat.
To counteract it, Dr. Cutler advises drinking unsweetened beverages, avoiding snacking, and “giving your storage hormones and pancreas a chance to rest between meals” as part of her weight-loss surgery Maryland Bariatric Center at Mercy in Baltimore.
“After dinner, you should eliminate all food until breakfast or lunch the next day so that your body may use the energy it has stored as fat,” Dr. Cutler adds.
