Super Charge Your Metabolism

Do you feel you have the metabolism of a slug?

Let’s look at why and ways you can improve this.

The human metabolism involves all the processes within the body that build up and break down. It involves the conversion of food to energy, energy storage and muscular development. A slower metabolism will have you feeling like you gain weight easily and find it hard to loose. A faster metaboliser might be faced with the opposite; they just cannot eat enough food to keep weight on. Everybody’s metabolic rate is different, and it can be influenced by many things.

Firstly, the metabolic rate can be influenced by genetics. But just like all genetic inheritances, it is possible to buffer these with a change of habits.

What influences the metabolism?

Dieting

Firstly, what can slow the metabolism is inadequate fuel, or calories in. Many of my clients who come to see me have a long history of dieting. They loose weight, then gain weight…. Each time they find it harder and harder to shift the kilos. This is a sign of struggling metabolism. The human body is incredibly intelligent, and it has your back!

In primal times, low energy availability would have signalled the body that there is a famine, your body comes to the rescue, by slowing your metabolism and storing fats to help save your life. Now, this is a great safety device in primal times, however, it is NOT such a useful tool in today's day and age…

What can you do?

Your body needs to know that it safe to shift stored body fat. By feeding your body ENOUGH calories and REAL foods that the body recognises, you can begin to restore your metabolism. Focus on foods that your body recognises. Fresh vegetables and fruits that are full or fibre for satiety and brightly coloured for antioxidants. Include natural sources of protein and healthy fats, like beans, leans meats, olive oil and nuts and seeds.

Macro Composition

The thermal effect of food can play a large role in increasing your metabolic rate. The body is made up of an abundance of different proteins. Every process in the body is triggered by a protein of some description. It is essential we consume enough protein daily to support these processes. Protein whilst essential, is costly for the body to break down. The body needs to spend a lot of energy to break down and pull apart all the essential amino acids for the body. This means, when we consume protein, the body is burning calories to digest food.

What can you do?

To support all these processes, the body needs approximately 1 gram of protein per kilo of body weight per day. So, for a 60 kilogram woman, her body would require at least 60 grams of protein in divided doses per day. When it comes to loosing weight, building lean muscle, supporting endurance training, injury recovery or even ageing, the bodies protein requirements will increase.

To support your metabolism, aim to have 1 palm size serving of protein with each meal. Great sources of protein for your body include lean meats, eggs, beans, tempeh & fish.

Resistance Training

Muscle requires energy to exist. The more muscle cells that you have, the more capacity you have to burn energy and increase your metabolism.

Now, you definitely do not have to become like the HULK to gain the metabolic benefits. Many of my female clients have been a little worried about beginning a weight training program, for fear of ‘bulking up’. Muscle growth is under the influence by hormones. Men’s body are genetically designed to build larger muscle more easily than females. Females need to work incredibly hard to build bulk. However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t build amazing lean muscle. The more lean muscle the body has, the more energy the body will burn at rest.

Resistance training not only improves your metabolism, it also helps to support and grow strong bones to carry us. Having strong bones and muscles is of huge benefit to everybody, but even more so as people start to age.

An Ageing Metabolism

As the body ages, the metabolism naturally slows down. Women especially can feel an acute shift as they start to drift towards menopause. With quality nutrition and training, we can support a metabolism that is still fires well!

The ageing process has a natural slowing down effect on the body. This means that the body will naturally begin to break down more than it is rebuilding if it is not supported well. Hormonal changes within the body, make it harder to gain and retain muscle as it ages. As discussed, muscle is an essential component to a healthy metabolism. Therefore, as the body ages, it becomes more important to focus on quality strength training to maintain not only muscle, but strong bone.

What can you do?

To maintain muscle and bone mass it is super beneficial to participate in some kind of bone loading exercises. This can involve resistance training with weights or body weight training, light jumping, or even running (30 second runs on the spot a few times a day can be enough to stimulate change).

Nutritionally, to help reduce muscle breakdown, it is essential for an aging body to consume more protein to promote muscle retention. This will not improve metabolism, but longevity in movement!

There is no magic pill. However quality nutrition and training can do wonders improve our metabolic rate.

If you would like help to get your metabolism firing, I’d love to help you.