10 Tips to a Healthier Metabolism

Losing weight can feel elusive at times, impossible at others. Here are 10 simple tips to build a healthier metabolism, boost your energy level, lose the unwanted weight and shape the healthy body you work so hard for.

It’s ironic, really, that the one thing that most of us have been doing for years in order to lose weight has actually, in the long run, been hurting your chances for weight loss success. Long-term calorie restriction and yo-yo dieting can actually slow your metabolism and ultimately, slow down weight loss. The opposite effect you’re going for!

If you’ve been dieting for a long time and have stopped seeing results, you’re left with a few of choices. You could throw in the towel and give up for good (don’t give up!). You could try to restrict even further (not the answer!). OR, you can reignite the fire by building a healthier metabolism.

Here’s how.

Tip #1: Ain’t Got Time for Fake

As much as possible, choose real food over fake, processed and/or refined products. Nutrition labels are all the rage and while it’s important to understand what’s on the label, your best bet is to buy real foods that don’t require one.

Real, whole foods that come to your kitchen as close to their natural state as possible are packed with nutrients and nothing else. Processed foods are convenient, yes. But they are also harmful to your health. All of the extra sugars, fats and additives that you find in processed foods and are closely linked to obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases currently running rampant in our soceity.

Tip #2: Hydrate, My Friends (Especially After Waking Up)

Water, water, everywhere. H20 is involved in every bodily function you can imagine, including metabolism. A well hydrated body is going to help your body absorb and transport nutrients, make and use energy, produce hormones (that in turn help weight loss), remove toxins from your body and keep your belly full.

Drinking water all day is important, and re-hydrating in the morning upon waking up is key to revving up your metabolism early on. A good night’s sleep leaves you 7-9 hours (right!?), behind your last sip of water. Re-up in the morning first thing, even before your first cup of coffee!

p.s. One of the BEST ways to remember to drink water is to grab a kick butt water bottle. I’ve owned a Hydroflask for 6 years now and I feel lost without it!

Tip #3: Don’t Run on Empty

Fasting before exercise has long held the crown when it comes to giving yourself a fat burning boost. Studies aren’t super decisive on whether fasted cardio gives fat burn a boost or not, but there’s one thing we know for sure: when you workout on empty your performance level drops.

What does that mean and why does it matter?

Would you drive your car on empty? Um, no (let’s be real, I panic when the arrow drops below 1/4 full). You don’t drive your car on empty because a) it doesn’t go as fast and b) it’s bad for your car.

Same goes for your body. Sure, you could run on empty. But without fuel in the tank, what feels like a “10” on the effort scale is not your real, well-fed and well-fueled “10”. All of this boils down to the fact that if you don’t have the energy it takes to give it your best, you won’t work out as hard, won’t burn as many calories in the long-run and won’t get the most out of your workout.

Tip #4: Don’t Skip Breakfast

Skipping breakfast is not a good way to build a healthier metabolism or lose weight! Studies around the world show that most people who skip breakfast make those calories up, plus some, later in the day.

Consuming a high-quality breakfast soon after you wake up stokes the metabolic flames for the day. Fasting, on the other hand, slows your metabolism. Plus, who wants to workout hard when you’re running on fumes?

Your best breakfast bet: a combination of protein, slow-digesting carbs and heart-healthy fat.

Tip #5: Keep Hunger in Check by Checking in on Hunger

Meal times are pretty ingrained in the way we live our lives. Since elementary school we’ve been allotted distinct time periods to eat: we eat lunch at 12, dinner no later than 6 and no eating past 8 pm. Why?

These set times don’t tell us anything about how hungry we are. As an adult in charge of packing your own lunch box, it’s really important to stay in tune with what YOUR body needs and is asking for, not necessarily that it’s “5 o’clock somewhere”.

Instead of giving my clients a meal plan that instructs them to eat at 8 am, 12 am, 3 pm and 7 pm, I ask them to do a Hunger Check In every 3-4 hours. When you check in on your hunger, instead of the clock, you create an awareness of what your body needs and what you feel like when you are hungry vs. bored vs. full vs. stressed.

Here’s how:

• Set an alarm to go off every 3-4 hours after your first meal.
• Ask yourself, am I hungry? Am I thirsty?
• On a scale of 1-10, how hungry are you?
• If you are at a 6+, eat! If you aren’t hungry yet, check in on yourself in another hour or so…even if it’s “lunch time”.

Tip #6: Move More

Keep in mind that your metabolism includes all of the daily activities and functions your body moves through that require food or stored energy to be turned into usable energy. Muscle cells need a lot of energy, even when you’re not exercising.

If you want to build a healthier metabolism and increase fat burn even while at rest, move more. In terms of purposeful training, shoot for 2-3 strength training workouts a week, along with some cardiorespiratory training (minimum 150 minutes at a moderate intensity just to maintain).

On top of that, remember that every little bit counts. Parking further away, taking the stairs, getting a stand up desk or cleaning for 15 minutes every day – these are all simple activities that get you moving more. No, they don’t burn the calories that a run does BUT, they burn more calories than sitting on your bum! And in the long-run, an extra 200 calories a day off the bottom line becomes 6,000 off the month and 72,000 off the year!

Tip #7: Protein, and Protein Often

Protein: the bodybuilders golden idol. But protein is not just for meatheads and physique athletes. If you want a healthy metabolism you should be paying attention to protein too.

Protein is the building block of muscle, which you now know is the most metabolically active tissue in your body. It’s also harder for your digestive system to break down. Your body uses more energy, calorie for calorie, to break down 1 gram of protein than it does 1 gram of carbohydrates or fat.

Aim to eat 15-25 grams of protein, 3-4 times a day. 1 serving of protein is roughly the size of the palm of your hand (so no need to break out the portable food scale).

Tip #8: Don’t Over-Restrict

The laws of physics are strict: energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. But the idea that if one pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories…and that if you want to lose said fat in say, 1 week, you just need to feed yourself 500 fewer calories a day seven days…is outdated thinking. According to that mathematics, if you want to lose 2 pounds in one week you simply drop another 500 calories, and another, and another…

Your biological systems don’t math well. Once calories are in your system, there’s a lot more at play then calories dropping off by the hundreds. Your body adjusts. It’s how we, as humans, have survived for so long.

Overly restrictive diets and starvation methods teach your body to slow down the metabolic rate to make whatever energy is available last. Even in mild states of deprivation, your metabolism will adjust. Which means that eating less than your body needs is not beneficial to weight loss or your metabolic rate.

At most, reduce calories by 250-300 per day. You can do this through food intake, exercise or a combination of both. After that, your body resorts to starvation adaptation, aka woah nelly, let’s slow everything down and NOT burn calories unless we need to.

Tip #9: Enjoy the Indulgences Now and Then

Most of us beat ourselves up over a birthday or holiday indulgence but if you are on a calorie restricted diet, those extra calories keep your metabolism going…when consumed mindfully.

Yes, food is fuel. Yes, it is protein, and carbs and fat. It is also, just as importantly, a way that we culturally and historically have gathered with loved ones and celebrated life. Don’t lose that.

Zoom out for a moment and look at the big picture. Let’s say it’s Thanksgiving and you love homemade apple pie. You’ve been eating really well, you turkey trotted in the morning and you decide that you’re going to enjoy that extra slice of pie.

Guess what? Those calories aren’t going to make or break your weight loss goals. What they will do add to your enjoyment of the moment. That will be satisfying. And if you let yourself enjoy every bite without guilt, they have a place in your healthy lifestyle.

Tip #10: And Then, Go to Bed

Sleep is, perhaps surprisingly, very closely linked to weight loss and metabolism. Scientists chalk it up to a few variables:

• Your body needs time to recover and rebuild muscle. When you lift weights, you aren’t building muscle. You are, in fact, breaking muscle down. It isn’t until after you finish, and fuel up properly, and rest, than you start to build that calorie-burning, strong-as-a-bull muscle.
  
• Sleep is essential to hormone regulation (from hunger hormones like leptin and ghrelin, to repair hormones like HGH), and maintaining insulin resistance – both key factors in how your body deals with fat and how well your metabolism functions.
  
• A well-rested you is a more focused, energized and happy you. We all know that THAT you makes better choices throughout the day.