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The Basics: A short list of those things that can affect your basal metabolic rate.
Your basal metabolic rate is responsible for 70% of your total calories burned every day.
Genetic and environmental factors can cause your basal metabolic rate to increase or decrease. Those factors include gender, age, weight, height, body surface area, diet, exercise, muscle mass, and ambient air temperature to name a few.
Your thyroid and adrenal glands can increase or decrease your basal metabolic rate.
There are several natural supplements that can increase your basal metabolic rate – green tea, fish oil, capsaicin and ginger are just a few.
The Details: Continue reading to better understanding exactly what affects your basal metabolic rate and what you might be able to do to increase the burning rate of calories.
Your basal metabolic rate can affect your ability to lose weight. Your basal metabolic rate is the minimum calorie requirement needed to sustain your life while at rest (assume that you sleep all day and all night and don’t move). Your basal metabolic rate is responsible for burning up to 70% of your total calories daily. Calories are burned to support all bodily processes (respiration, maintaining body temperature, digestion, pumping blood, maintaining your balance, etc.). Your basal metabolic rate is a combination of factors – genetic and environmental. Your basal metabolic rate might be set too low.
Factors Affecting Your Metabolic Rate
Genetic factors mean that some people can burn calories faster or slower than others. Gender, age and weight also have an impact. The more you weigh the higher your basal metabolic rate. Men have a greater muscle mass and burn calories at a higher rate than women. You begin to lose basal metabolic efficiency at approximately 2% a year after age 20. At age 60, it is not unusual to see your basal metabolic rate significantly slower than you were at age 18.
Body surface area and body fat percentages also affect your basal metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate increases with greater body surface area. A short person can gain up to 15 pounds a year compared to a tall person with the same weight. Your basal metabolic rate increases with a higher body fat percentage. Diet and exercise have an effect also. Diet changes – from starvation to abrupt changes in eating patterns can cause your basal metabolic rate to be reduced by 20-30%. This is a serious change in burning calories in your body. Exercise can raise your basal metabolic rate when you add lean muscle which burns more calories compared to fat.
Your body temperature affects your basal metabolic rate. For every degree increase in your internal temperature (normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees) your basal metabolic rate can increase by approximately seven percent. Chemical reactions occur more rapidly at higher temperatures. The outside air temperature can affect your basal metabolic rate. Hot temperatures have little affect since your body can compensate by releasing more heat to the air. But, colder temperatures have a more pronounced affect because your body has to generate heat to compensate for the colder outside temperature.
Thyroxin and Adrenaline Affect Your Basal Metabolic Rate
Your thyroid gland produces thyroxin. It regulates the increase or decrease in your basal metabolic rate. The more thyroxin produced the higher your basal metabolic rate and vice versa. Adrenaline can also increase or decrease your basal metabolic rate, but not to the same degree that thyroxin does.
Nutritional Supplements Can Raise Your Basal Metabolic Rate
The following nutritional supplements have been shown to safely raise your basal metabolic rate. Fucoxanthin (found in brown algae), pomegranate seed oil, green tea polyphenols (epigallocatechin gallate – EGGC) in combination with caffeine, fish oil rich in EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA – found in meat and dairy products), capsaicin (the active ingredient in hot red peppers), and extracts of ginger.
Each works a little differently. EPA and DHA inhibit key enzymes responsible for lipid synthesis and enhance lipid oxidation and fat burning. EPA and DHA also inhibit free fatty acids from entering your fat cells for fat storage. CLA causes increased energy expenditure, decreased fat cell differentiation and increased fat burning and fat oxidation. EGGC in combination with caffeine and capsaicin work thermogenically. Thermogenesis increases your body’s basal metabolic rate by increasing your body’s core temperature. Extracts of ginger increase your oxygen consumption and enhance fat burning.
Red O’Laughlin aka The Prosperity Professor