Best vitamins to boost your metabolism

Metabolism is the process of our body breaking down food and nutrients to support various bodily functions. Everything we eat affects our metabolism. Including how many vitamins and nutrients we consume.  

A fast metabolism will burn calories quicker than others, promoting a healthy weight. Although naturally, as people get older their metabolism starts to slow down.

There are some vitamins that should be eaten daily to promote a healthy metabolism rate and keep it working efficiently.

Below are the top 5 vitamins that you can easily include in your diet that will support and boost your metabolic rate:

1. Vitamin B

These include:

• B-12
• biotin
• folate
• B-6
• pantothenic acid or B-5
• niacin or B-3
• riboflavin or B-2
• thiamine or B-1

Vitamin B is an essential part of your functioning metabolism.

Its main purpose is to help your body metabolise carbs, proteins and fats for a fully functioning metabolism. The main function of the B vitamins is to help your body metabolize carbs, proteins and fats, whilst using the stored energy from food. This ability ensures that the body uses the nutrients for energy, instead of storing it for fat.

For example, Vitamin B-1 (Thiamine) is really useful for people looking to lose weight, as it helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy. If you do suffer low levels of this key vitamin, then it will lead to a malfunctioning metabolism and make losing weight really difficult.  

Some really good food sources of Vitamin B are:

• Lean meat
• Brown rice
• Eggs
• Nuts and seeds

2. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is right at the heart of a healthy immune system.

It is a very fat-soluble vitamin which your body will absorb and store in order to contribute to your immune system. A good level of vitamin D will help your body fight off any bacteria or viruses that may cause disease.

Vitamin D is also really useful when it comes to losing wright too. A recent study suggested that vitamin D supplementation can in fact improve your chance of losing weight and shedding some body fat.

A double-blinded study with 218 overweight females, who were following an exercise regime at the time had 114 taking a vitamin D supplement every day and the rest acting as the control group. After 12 months, scientises had discovered that the females who had been taking their vitamin D supplements lost much more weight (7lbs) than those who had lower than required levels of this ley nutrient.

Now, the sun is definitely the best place for us to get our daily vitamin D intake, but unfortunately for many of us, the sun isn’t always shining.

There also isn’t a huge number of foods that provide sufficient levels of vitamin D, hence why supplements are so highly regarded.

3. Iron

Iron acts as an essential nutrient for all of us as it promotes heathy growth, development and a strong metabolism.

That’s why too little iron and you may suffer from iron deficiency anaemia, which is one of the most common nutrition deficiencies in the US.

Iron is really important for carrying oxygen in red blood cells. These cells carry oxygen to and from muscle tissues in the body. Now, if you have low iron levels, your red blood cells may not be able to send enough oxygen to the muscle. This in turn may prevent muscles from burning fat as well as they should; this has a negative impact on the metabolic process in the body.

As well as supplements, some good food sources of iron include:

• meat
• beans
• brown rice
• dark green, leafy vegetables

4. Magnesium

Magnesium is a crucial mineral that your body relies on to function properly. It can help us to produce more energy whilst regulating our blood sugar levels.  Like Vitamin B, magnesium plays a key role in the body’s energy production and is essential to healthy nerve, muscle and enzyme function. Magnesium is necessary for more than 300 enzymatic reactions that support brain function and aids our muscle’s ability to contract and relax properly. And by helping to relax our muscles, magnesium can also help us sleep better, which is an important piece to supporting both a good mood and regulating metabolism and appetite. 

Although it doesn’t have a direct correlation with weight loss, a deficiency in magnesium can prove really harmful to your metabolism and thus make weight loss. much harder.

This is because magnesium is known for its lower levels of fasting glucose and insulin, which can significantly help those who are overweight. More than half of the insulin in our blood is sent straight to abdomen, so the more sugar we eat – the more insulin is produced. Any extra insulin is sent to the abdominal, which results in extra fat.

This means, that the more magnesium you consume then the lower your insulin levels will be, leading to a nice and trim midsection!

Magnesium acts as a really useful nutrient and can be found in:

• nuts
• seeds
• legumes
• leafy green vegetables such as spinach

5. Calcium

As well as ability to create and sustain healthy bones and teeth, calcium may also help you to lose weight. Combined with vitamin D, calcium may have a beneficial effect on your metabolism. It’s proven that vitamin D and calcium together can slightly boost your calorie burn throughout the day, promoting weight loss. Although more scientific work is needed to consolidate these findings, there is no harm at all in ensuring you are consuming the right levels of calcium every day.

Calcium is a very important nutrient that our body needs to help maintain a normal heartbeat, help our blood to clot and our muscle to flex. It is important to note that calcium and Vitamin D work in conjunction, so its key that you get an adequate amount of both nutrients to make sure you reap the full benefit.