Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc… your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going.
Metabolism is affected by your body composition; the amount of muscle you have versus the amount of fat. Muscle uses more calories to maintain itself than fat. People who are more muscular (and have a lower percentage of body fat) are said to have a higher metabolism than others that are less muscular. If you want to increase your metabolism the answer is EXERCISE…. If you’ve never exercised before, make sure you see a doctor before beginning a new exercise program (your problems with metabolism may be the result of a medical condition rather than your diet or lack of exercise). You can increase your muscle mass by doing some type of resistance work (i.e. lifting weights, using exertubes, rubberbands, dynabands, hand weights etc…). You can also decrease your level of body fat by doing some type of aerobic exercise at least 3 days a week for longer than 20 minutes. any activity such as walking, jogging, step aerobics, hi/low aerobics, biking, swimming etc. this will increase your heartrate into the target zone and keep it there for the duration of the exercise session. You also need to eat! – Do not diet, just watch the types of foods you eat. Try to eat a diet that is lower in fat (check the labels on the foods that you buy) and start adding weight training to your exercise program. Your muscle is the furnace and the fuel it burns is fat!