How To Boost Your Metabolism
June 21, 2023 | Words by Gabe Yanez
The Latest Nutrition Buzzword
Metabolism is a term frequently mentioned in health and nutrition conversations. After all, doesn’t it dictate how quickly you burn calories and fat? When you see someone that is effortlessly lean, isn't that just because they have a naturally fast metabolism?
And isn't your metabolism why weight loss becomes much harder as we age?
The short answer? Yes — a faster metabolism can make weight loss easier. And yes — our metabolism tends to slow down as we age.
So what can you do about it?
One Simple Hack
Our metabolism is a complex biological system that determines how quickly we burn calories and fat. While this is true, there are a lot of gimmicky hacks out there that promise to accelerate metabolism, despite no evidence to support their claims. There are supplements, foods, and specific diets that all promise the same thing — an easy way to lose weight.
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts when it comes to making real, sustainable changes to improve your body composition and your health. There is no magic pill for boosting your metabolism.
On the flip side, there are definitely ways to disrupt your metabolism, causing it to slow down and making it harder for you to reach your body composition or health goals.
Crash diets and other extreme weight loss tactics (juice cleanses, prolonged fasting) may seem promising due to their quick results, but they can sometimes trigger a long-term backlash from our metabolism.
In addition to slowing down metabolism, significant weight loss can lead to hormonal changes, leaving individuals constantly hungry and more likely to revert to old eating habits.
When it comes to healthy and sustainable weight loss, you shouldn’t lose too much, too soon, too fast. If you feel like you have some weight to lose, the best way forward is to build healthy habits one step at a time.
There are no shortcuts to sustainable weight loss or magic tricks for boosting metabolism. The best thing you can do to “boost” your metabolism is to make sure you aren’t doing something that will cause it to slow down.
One Thing To Try This Week
What Would You Like to Achieve?
Take this week to think about the nutrition or body composition goals you’d like to achieve before the end of the year. As we come up to the halfway point of 2023, it is a great time to reassess the progress you have made so far and come up with a plan to make sure you don’t get to year-end having taken more steps back than you did steps forward.
Are you where you want to be? If not, what do you need to change to turn things around?
Could working with a nutrition and accountability coach be the missing piece currently holding you back from making the progress you want to make?
