Have you been feeling sluggish lately? Dealing with cravings for foods you know aren’t great for you (like sugar and processed foods)? Are the few extra pounds around your middle stubbornly holding on — no matter what you do?
Do you want to lose weight and keep it off?
If you do, keep reading.
Because you are certainly not alone. In a lot of cases, people attribute weight gain, and difficulty of losing weight to an issue with their metabolism. But is it really?
And if it is a metabolism "issue" ... can you reset your metabolism?
Well, let’s start by talking about why your metabolism is important in the first place.
WHY IS MY METABOLISM IMPORTANT?
Metabolism describes the processes and chemical reactions that your body goes through to stay alive. It’s when the body converts food, oxygen, and water into energy. This process burns calories and creates energy.
However, the word metabolism is often used confused with basal metabolic rate, the rate in which your body completes these processes while at rest.
Understanding how your metabolism works is important in order to reach your fitness and health goals. There are many factors that contribute to metabolic rate.
Some factors that contribute to the metabolic rate cannot be controlled. Genetics is one of them and hormones (to some extent) can be another one. Both play a huge role in how your metabolism works.
You can look at your parents and other family members for clues on how your metabolism works. Other factors such as age, gender, nutrition, workouts, activity levels, water consumption, body composition, and much more all affect the metabolic rate as well.
Women and older people tend to have slower metabolic rates. Men and people who have higher muscle mass percentages tend to have faster metabolic rates.
Knowing this, you can better understand your personal metabolic rate and make adjustments to your lifestyle accordingly.
HOW TO RESET YOUR METABOLISM
Now, we don't like the term "reset" because we think it gives the wrong impression.
Your metabolism is not something like a wifi router that when it's running slow or not working as you want, you can just hit reset or unplug it... wait three minutes.. plug it back in to reset it and have lightning fast internet again.
Instead, let's use the terminology... improve your metabolism.
So can you "reset" your metabolism ... not really. Can you improve your metabolism? Yes!
There are 3 main ways to improve your metabolism: change your food, switch up your exercise, and create positive lifestyle habits.
STAY HYDRATED
Water is an essential part of metabolic processes. Water distributes nutrients and removes toxins and waste from the body after the metabolic processes have finished.
Without it, your metabolic rate slows. Therefore, consuming a minimum of 100 to 120 oz of water a day is a great starting point for helping to improve your metabolism!
EAT PROTEIN
As mentioned above, nutrition plays a big role in your metabolism. Inside of your nutrition plan, consuming enough protein every day is very beneficial for healthy metabolic functions as well as other things.
For example, protein (and all foods) requires your body to use energy to break down and digest it.
The number of calories needed by your body to digest, absorb and process the nutrients in your meals is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF). Protein has the highest TEF out of the three main macronutrients you consume: Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats.
It also takes your body a longer time to break protein down, so you will feel full longer. This will help you stick to your diet and nutrition plan and help keep cravings at bay.
EXERCISE
If you don’t work out, start today.
Exercise can be as simple as taking the stairs at work or walking a few blocks.
Any type of exercise is better than nothing.
Just moving your body will burn calories and help you create the caloric deficit you need to lose weight.
There are other favorable benefits of exercising such as better energy levels, improved circulation, better sleep, and many more!
BEGIN RESISTANCE TRAINING
Resistance training is your pathway to getting stronger, promoting lean muscle growth and to some extent getting leaner.
Sure, you can get super lean doing lots of cardio and endurance style exercise routines, but this does very little to keep the muscle you have.
Muscle tissue burns more calories every day than fatty tissue does. So promoting lean muscle growth and maintaining the muscle you have can help improve your metabolism and help you gain definition at the same time.
GET SUFFICIENT SLEEP
Lack of sleep is linked to a major increase in the risk of obesity. This may partly be caused by the negative effects of sleep deprivation on metabolism.
Lack of sleep has also been linked to increased blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, which are both linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
It's also been shown to boost the hunger hormone ghrelin and decrease the fullness hormone leptin. This could explain why many people who are sleep-deprived feel hungry and struggle to lose weight.
So, listen to your body and make sure you get enough sleep.
CREATE POSITIVE LIFESTYLE HABITS
This is what it all really comes down to for improving your metabolism. As you can see, there are many different ways to improve your metabolism.
You do not need to do anything drastic.
Small changes to the types of food you eat, ways in which you exercise and your daily habits can help you improve your metabolism, burn extra calories, and lose that extra weight.
If you need help making these changes, or have questions about your specific situation and goals, please don't hesitate to reach out! You can pick up the phone and call us at 714.262.4003 and talk to one of us here at Recoup Personal Training to help you!
Here’s to a healthy, younger you.
Bo, Matt & Stevie
