Metabolic Health
Seven Steps to Boost Metabolism and Shrink Waistline
A well-functioning metabolism is key to fat loss and muscle retention.
This story highlights the importance of improving metabolism for fat loss, muscle retention, and overall metabolic health and provides seven practical tips to make necessary adjustments with healthy lifestyle choices.
What is metabolism, and why does metabolic rate matter?
Metabolism refers to chemical reactions to generate energy in the body. Numerous hormones and enzymes catalyze this process. The body has a complex metabolic pathway.
Metabolic activities can be anabolic or catabolic. Anabolic activities allow the cells to grow and catabolic activities to shrink. Food, movement, sleep, and rest are the primary lifestyle factors affecting metabolic activities positively or negatively.
Our metabolic rate is so critical that it determines the size of our waistlines, muscle mass, fitness levels, and overall well-being.
Understanding the basic metabolic rate (BMR) concept can be helpful. It refers to energy expenditure during resting time caused by bodily activities such as digestion, breathing, blood circulation, and cellular activities.
The higher the BMR, the more calories the body burns in a rested state. Unfortunately, as we age, BMR tends to get slower. Sedentary life and losing muscle mass also cause further slowing of BMR.
Apart from age, various other factors affect BMR. The well-documented ones are diet, activity levels, stress levels, medical history, weight, height, sex, ethnicity, and genetics.
Our physical and mental health depend on well-functioning metabolism to survive and thrive. Metabolic health is tightly coupled with mental health.
Conversely, when our metabolism slows down enormously, we might face metabolic issues that adversely affect our health span, lifespan, and overall life satisfaction.
Unfortunately, metabolic disorders affect millions of people. Common metabolic disorders include metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and some cancers.
The solution to optimally functioning metabolism requires addressing metabolic risks with healthy lifestyle changes. Additionally, solving underlying conditions with the help and support of qualified healthcare professionals is essential.
Hormonal balance is the most critical aspect of boosting metabolism. Insulin and glucagon are two crucial hormones in speeding up or slowing down the metabolic rate.
Here are the seven practical tips to boost metabolism and shrink waistlines.
1 — Increase resistance workouts or high-intensity training.
From my experience and observations, resistance training makes the most significant impact on improving metabolism. The reason is the effects of this type of training on our muscles.
The more muscles we have, the more energy the body burns. Therefore, when performing resistance training and lower calories from food, muscular people can lose fat faster than less muscular ones.
The muscle is an energy-hungry organ. Even when we don’t eat food, the body still needs to supply energy to muscle cells by burning fat molecules and turning them into glucose to feed and protect muscles using the gluconeogenesis and lipolysis processes.
HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is known as a better muscle-building workout than prolonged cardio. For example, in general, athletes performing high-intensity training, such as sprinting, have better body composure than long-distance runners.
HIIT and resistance training are not exclusive to men. They can be utilized by women too, as I explained in a recent story titled Here’s Why Resistance Training Can Be a Gamechanger for Women Too.
2 — Reduce excessive cardio.
Even though aerobic exercises are helpful for cardiovascular health, blood flow, and activating the lymphatic system to clear toxins, too much cardio might cause metabolic problems.
Excessive cardio might slow down metabolism by causing catabolism in muscles. During long cardio sessions, the stress hormone cortisol elevates and burns the glucose from muscle cells.
Lowering calories with excessive cardio and calorie reduction using fad diets might lead to starvation, muscle loss, and metabolic disorders.
The body cannot tap into fat stores when the cortisol levels get elevated for a prolonged time. Rather than fat, we might lose precious muscles due to excessive cardio. Fewer muscles equate to lower metabolism.
3 — Stop restrictive diets but consider time-restricted eating if it suits your needs.
Some diets restrict essential macronutrients like proteins and healthy fats. However, the nine essential amino acids we get from protein sources are necessary for muscles and many other metabolic activities.
Some fats are also essential for the body. For example, the satiety signaling hormone (leptin) is made up of fats and functions based on sensing fat intake and stores in the body.
When we don’t consume enough fat, the body can face leptin resistance, causing us to eat more than necessary and accumulate visceral fat.
Interestingly some diets ask people to eat less but frequently. Even though digestion of food might slightly increase metabolism, frequent eating causes insulin spikes and prevent fat loss.
Therefore, frequent meals might not work for some people. But they do for some. Therefore, we need to try and make necessary adjustments with support from qualified healthcare professionals.
The vital point to remember is that when frequent insulin spikes happen for a prolonged time, the body might get insulin resistance, causing the metabolism to slow down, accumulating visceral fat, and leading to metabolic disorders.
Time-restricted eating for healthy people can be more effective due to hormonal effects. During the fasted window, insulin stops, but glucagon and growth hormones increase. Glucagon helps with fat burning, and growth hormone protects muscles.
4 — Adjust macronutrients and increase the density of micronutrients.
As mentioned in the previous section, the ratio of macronutrients affects the metabolism directly or indirectly. Protein-containing food can speed up metabolism due to digestive energy expenditure and muscle-building activities like activating mTOR.
Cutting protein and healthy fats and increasing carbohydrates for energy might slow down metabolism indirectly. Too many carbohydrates spike insulin and prevent fat burning.
Macronutrient requirements might differ from person to person based on numerous factors. Therefore, support from qualified healthcare professionals can be valuable. Certified dieticians or nutritionists can assess the factors and provide a personalized plan.
In addition, micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins are also necessary for metabolic activities serving as co-factors for various enzymes and hormones. Therefore, consuming nutrient-dense whole foods can be more valuable than food with empty calories, also known as junk or processed food.
Staying hydrated is also essential to speed up metabolism. Drinking adequate clean water is crucial to keep the metabolism active.
5 — Improve sleep quality and recover timely.
Sleep and recovery are also critical for metabolic health. The main contribution of sleep is to lower stress, balance hormones, and support metabolic activities.
Sleep deprivation adversely affects fat burning, as the elevated cortisol puts the body in sugar-burning mode, raising insulin and breaking the balance of metabolic activities. Sleep deprivation might also delay recovery.
Even though the metabolic rate slightly lowers during sleep, such as around 15%, after restorative sleep, the rate significantly increases, making favorable effects in the metabolic pathways and through excitatory neuropeptide hormones orexins, as explained in this paper.
6 — Act mindfully and meditate daily.
Mindfulness practices like meditation can also impact metabolic activities indirectly. For example, meditation can lower stress and balance hormones.
In addition, meditation can lower anxiety and improve sleep quality. As mindfulness practices help us regulate emotions, our overall stress profile improves and puts the body in a metabolically advantaged position.
Meditation after exercise can speed up recovery. As it lowers stress hormones, the body gets a chance to tap into fat stores after meditation sessions coupled with fasting.
7 — Balance and optimize hormones.
I left this item to the end as previous ones contribute to hormonal balance directly or indirectly. Hormonal balance is crucial for metabolic activities. As I explained in a previous story, hormones are more important than calorie counting for fat loss and muscle gain.
Hormonal fluctuations can be both triggering and aggravating factors for numerous metabolic processes. For example, ghrelin triggers hunger and leptin signals for satiety. Growth hormone triggers muscle cells to grow and insulin fat cells to expand.
From my reviews, powerful hormones affecting our metabolism are insulin, glucagon, leptin, ghrelin, adiponectin, cholecystokinin, growth hormone, sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen), and cortisol. I introduced the intricacies of six hormones affecting our metabolism.
Acquiring hormonal intelligence to optimize and balance them is essential. We can balance and optimize our hormones with lifestyle factors like restorative sleep, quality nutrition, regular exercise, rest, fun, and timely recovery.
However, underlying hormonal disorders require support from medical specialists such as endocrinologists. For example, if we have symptoms of slow metabolism, it can be helpful to get our hormones checked and treated by a specialist.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Understanding how metabolism works and taking corrective actions as lifestyle choices is the secret people look for in the wrong places, like expensive supplements and weight loss programs in magazines.
Most of the time, the culprit is slowing metabolism due to various lifestyle factors or underlying health conditions. More importantly, starvation caused by excessive calorie cutting is a critical factor we must keep in mind.
Fat loss and muscle gain for healthy people are not too complicated, but we overcomplicate and make them mysterious due to myths, misinformation, ignorance, and negligence.
Unlike misperceptions, time-restricted eating and ketogenic diets do not slow the metabolism of healthy people. On the contrary, they do just the opposite. However, these diets and eating regimens might not work for everyone. Nevertheless, it worked for many people and me.
For example, like many healthy people, my metabolism significantly improved after I started skipping a meal and later adopted one nutritious meal a day. As a result, I don’t gain weight but keep my lean muscles.
Replacing excessive cardio, like long-distance running with calisthenics, high-intensity interval training, and more resistance workout, significantly boosted my metabolism.
I lost muscles in my younger years due to typical weight loss mistakes but not in my older years. Instead, as I got older, I gained a defined body with a well-functioning metabolism thanks to a personalized diet, customized workouts, restorative sleep, and mindful living.
Here are some takeaways to boosting metabolism. You might skip if some points are irrelevant to your situation.
1 — Move the body regularly and incorporate resistance training using body weight and weightlifting tools.
2 — Solve sleep issues and diligently strive to have adequate and restorative sleep daily and recover timely.
3 — Consider a personalized diet ensuring sufficient protein and healthy fats. Refrain from refined carbs and processed foods.
4 — Consider eating nutrient-dense foods, including essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins from nutritious and whole foods.
5 — Reduce stress by taking regular breaks at work, having fun with friends and loved ones, acting mindfully, and meditating daily.
6 — Rather than weight loss, focus on visceral fat loss and muscle retention. Measuring our waistline can be a better indicator than the scale.
7 — Improve social connections to boost the mood and enjoy helpful lifestyle habits like healthy eating, exercise, and sleep.
8 — Finally, address underlying health issues timely by seeking support from qualified healthcare professionals and others.
Based on my observations, I shared two case studies of friends, one male, and one female, to give perspectives to my readers. I hope these stories inform and inspire readers who face metabolic disorders.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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