3 Steps to improving your Metabolism
25 Jan, 2018
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You CAN Fix Your Metabolism!
3 Steps to Changing Your Midlife Efficiency
Step 1 Don’t Allow Midlife Compensation
Because most people use the simplistic “eat less, exercise more” mantra, they see the metabolism as a calculator. As a result they believe it has a linear, predictable and stable function. All that is necessary is to put in the right numbers and weight loss Utopia is yours.
Of course we know this is not true in practice. What happens when you eat less? You get hungry, your energy crashes and cravings ensue.
What happens when you exercise more (whether longer, harder or more frequently)? You get hungry. You get hungry, your energy crashes and cravings ensue.
Now of course different people will respond to this in different ways and again this metabolic decline varies from person to person and we are still working out how the decline happens, but it happens none-the-less.
This slowed metabolic output aspect of compensation is known in exercise research as “adaptive thermogenesis.” In short, this means through various mechanisms not fully understood, the metabolism will reduce its rate of calorie burn significantly. Some research suggests up to a 25% decline in daily energy expenditure.
These changes seem to be coming from a combination of loss of muscle mass, changes in leptin/thyroid output and a spontaneous decreases in non-exercise associated movement (known in exercise research as NEAT).
To “let go of the rope” and beat the metabolism at this game, requires you to be diligent with your approach. Not going to extremes with your diet and exercise, cycling and approach with periods of less food and exercise traded for periods of more food and exercise and learning to read the body’s metabolic signals are important.
My Midlife Midlife Mentoring System is a program whereby we teach how to avoid these pitfalls!
Step 2 Get Rid of Midlife Multitasking
The second law has to do with the inability of the metabolism to multitask well. the body functions in an anabolic (building up) and catabolic (breaking down) cycle.
If you exercise like crazy and eat like a bird you will burn fat, but you will burn muscle too (skinny fat). This can often leave a person smaller, but much flabbier. Not really what most people are after.
If you train with weights and gain some fat, or don’t lose it, it is like putting a jacket on top of two sweaters, you are naturally going to look bulky (muscle fat).
This is the law of metabolic multitasking at work.
Alas, too many people miss these two critical points. They do not do the style of weight training that is best at building muscle, opting instead for fast paced cardio centered lifting regimes over traditional body building and heavy strength training exercise.
They also forego carbs and shirk on their protein. Carbs are the major stimulator of the hormone insulin (protein is too and even more so in certain situations and in certain people) and insulin is a major anabolic hormone. This is most important for carbs and cardio. You likely need both, but not too little or too much.
My Midlife Midlife Mentoring System is a program whereby we teach how to avoid these pitfalls!
Step 3 Achieving Midlife Efficiency
Much of this metabolic efficiency is down to epigenetics and metabolic hormones. For example, those with normal thyroid function produce more metabolic heat and are more efficient. Those with lower thyroid function produce less heat and are less efficient. This is one of the reasons those of us with low thyroid function respond more slowly to diet.
Certain parts of the body are more efficient at storing fat and less efficient at losing it. These include the stubborn body fat areas like the hips, butt and thighs of women. it also includes the love handles of men.
These areas of fat are more insulin sensitive (more likely to store and less likely to release fat) and have more alpha receptors than betas (betas are like fat burning garage doors, while alphas are like tiny kitchen windows fat can barely squeeze through).
There are also things we have learned about macronutrients, toxins and gut microbes that impact efficiency.
When it comes to macronutrients we now know not all calories are created equal. Protein is the most satiating and most thermogenic of the macronutrients.
In other words substitute protein calorie for calorie in place of carbs and/or fat and the metabolism will burn off more energy. Protein is the hardest macronutrient to store as fat.
Carbs are the next most satiating and thermogenic and they are highly variable. Carbs with lots of fiber are very inefficient. Carbs with less fiber and more refined are more efficient.
Two more interesting and emerging pieces of information related to metabolic efficiency have to do with toxins.
These compounds, accumulate in the environment (pesticide residues, plastic leaching, industrial pollutants, etc) and concentrate in the fat tissue of animals. This is known as bioaccumulation, where animals at the top of the food chain who eat the plants that harbor the compounds end up with the highest concentrations. This is the same reason the large predatory fish of the ocean have the highest mercury levels.
Finally, bacterial populations in your digestive tract are impacting your metabolic efficiency as well. These “bugs” as we call them act like that annoying friend that keeps snatching French fries off of your plate.
Apparently we are learning that the amount and types of these bugs you have can determine much about your metabolic function. Not only can they use some of your calories, they are sending constant signals into your body and adjusting your metabolic thermostat as a result.
Rebalancing bacterial strains in the body is therefore very important!
Finally Using Your Midlife Individuality
Just as each human varies in their physical appearance, we vary in our metabolic function as well.
We have to honor these differences in ourselves. If you know that when you eat fat you tend to feel bloated, breakout with acne and feel sluggish.. then you need to honor that despite what the latest health book says about adding a pound of fat to your coffee.
My Midlife Midlife Mentoring System is a program whereby we teach how to avoid these pitfalls!
There are 5 Phases in this exciting new system:
Clarify Your Midlife Situation and Direction
Strategize Your Midlife Activities, Choices and Reactions
Upgrade Your Midlife Knowledge, Skills and Techniques
Optimize Your Midlife Environment by creating opportunities for successful choices
Mastery of Your Midlife Mindset, motivation inspiration self-esteem and self-worth perspective.
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You can get the Midlife Midlife fat burner Ten Day Accelerator Course NOW
OR…work with me personally on the 14 week Midlife Midlife Mastery Program …contact me at beranparry@gmail.com
