The Top 5 Ways You May Be Destroying Your Metabolism
Only 12% of American adults are Metabolically healthy. Which is alarming since metabolic health is the cornerstone of our overall health. Our metabolism, at its core, is the way our bodies regulate and manage energy. Every system in our body needs energy to function – from our immune system, to our endocrine system, lymph system, etc. And so if your metabolism is down regulated that means that your immune system and endocrine system will be down regulated as well, leading to countless downstream immune issues and hormone imbalances. So having a healthy metabolism is truly a cornerstone of optimal health. However, there is loads of confusing messaging out there from “diet culture” when it comes to optimizing our metabolisms and our overall health. So I want to set the record straight. Here are 5 things that you may be doing that could be destroying your metabolism. As well as changes you can make today to restore and optimize your metabolic health.
1. Not balancing your meals with protein, fat, and fiber. Protein, Fat, and Fiber work synergistically in your body. Protein’s primary role is to provide the building blocks, or amino acids, to synthesize proteins within the body. Dietary fats are essential to give your body energy, support cell function, and produce important hormones. Dietary fiber helps feed the good bacteria in your gut and makes you feel full faster, helping with weight management. And all 3 help to slow down the digestion of carbs and delay their absorption into the bloodstream. This helps to prevent spikes in glucose levels after eating. And can help you to become more insulin sensitive which makes you a more efficient fat burner and energy user. Insulin sensitivity is at the foundation of good metabolic health.
2. Calorie Restriction
Your body needs nutrients and a lot of them. We should always be eating for nutrients, not calories, understanding the energy you need comes from the nutrients. For too long we were taught calorie restriction as a means of weight loss. However, when you regularly eat fewer calories than your body needs, your metabolism actually slows down because the message your body is receiving is that food isn’t coming in, so it needs to conserve energy. Restriction is a ticket to disordered eating and weight gain. Eat more, not less of whole nutrient rich foods.
3. Overdoing Cardio
Allow me to preface this by saying, both cardio and strength training are essential for long term health. However, when you are trying to optimize and speed up your metabolism, too much cardio can work against you. What cardio does is essentially tell your body to become more and more efficient at burning energy. So over time, when you are doing regular cardio, your body learns to burn less and less calories. In order to do this it needs to slow your metabolism down. Strength training on the other hand, does the opposite. On average, for every 1 pound of lean body mass that you add to your body, your body is going to burn an additional 30-60 calories every day. So if you add 5-10 pounds of lean body mass (i.e. muscle) to your body, your metabolism now is burning an additional 300-500 calories every single day. Too much cardio on the other hand makes you lose muscle mass. As a result, the fat burning mechanism in your body slows down. So to optimize your metabolism you want to make sure that resistance training/strength training is at the foundation of your workouts and then you can add in cardio in addition to that a few times a week to optimize fat burning and for all of the added health benefits of cardio.
4. Restricting healthy fats and consuming unhealthy fats
Healthy fats help give your body energy, protects your organs, supports cell growth, aids in hormone balance, keeps cholesterol and blood pressure under control, and helps your body absorb vital nutrients. It’s so important for your metabolic health to consume healthy sources of fats and stay away from inflammatory ones. But there is a lot of confusion out there over what fats are healthy and what are not. Some healthy sources of fat are unsaturated fats such as wild fatty fish, nuts/seeds, olive oil, avocados, and eggs. Some healthy sources of saturated fat are coconut oil (loaded with healthy medium chain triglycerides- MCT oil), also grass fed beef, and grass fed butter/ghee. Some unhealthy fats that you want to avoid at all costs are refined seed oils such as canola oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, etc. These kinds of fats are highly inflammatory and at the root of many chronic disease. It’s also a smart idea to limit conventional meat and dairy as much as possible and always opt for high quality pasture raised meat and dairy.
5. Overconsumption of refined sugars/ultra-processed foods
Sugar is one of the primary culprits for pretty much every metabolic disorder including, insulin resistance, heart disease, obesity, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and more. The average American eats 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour (which converts to sugar) every year, the majority of which is hidden in ultra-processed foods. Not coincidently, only 12% of American adults are metabolically healthy. This is a huge problem. One of the best things you can do for your metabolic health is limit your intake of sugar (and white flour). One of the best ways to do this is limiting your intake of ultra-processed foods and sugar beverages such as soda and juice.
Attaining metabolic health and a healthy weight are not that far off, I promise. It’s about a lifestyle, not a diet. It’s not about counting calories or macros or obsessing over your diet. Those things just lead to disordered eating patterns and a dieting rollercoaster. I’ve been there, I know. Instead it’s about simplifying, focusing on eating a whole food diet, and cutting out the crap that doesn’t serve you (such as junk food, ultra-processed food, fast food, etc). It’s about creating slow and sustainable habits and having fun in the process. Believe it or not, eventually your palette does change to crave clean healthy, whole foods. The goal is not to restrict, but to get yourself to the point where you genuinely only crave the food that nourishes your body instead of depleting it and causing a metabolic cascade. So have some fun here! And remember, food is medicine – eat for nourishment and the rest will take care of itself.
