Improve your metabolic health

Improve your metabolic health

People often comment, "My coworkers and friends eat all day round, but they are extremely thin."  And despite my diet and extremely low food intake, my weight does not go down.   On the contrary, it keeps increasing.

These two individuals differ from one another in their metabolism.  In order to keep us alive, our body functions not just during the day but also at night.  For example, breathing, pumping blood, repairing cells and tissues, fighting infections, regulating body temperature, synthesizing hormones, enzymes, and a lot more.  All these processes are carried out by our cells through a series of chemical reactions, which we call metabolism.

In other words, if your body is functioning in the right way and your metabolism is good, you can lose weight even when you're resting or sleeping. Our body need these three things to function properly:-

1.  Healthy gut & adequate nutrition

2. Healthy and active muscles

3. Balanced hormones.

Many people nowadays suffer from various health problems because of metabolic issues like obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and PCOS. So, let’s discuss about some of the most common causes of low metabolism:-

1.  Fatty liver - A fatty liver or inflamed liver is directly associated with metabolic dysfunction because liver is the major site for metabolism.

2. Excess intake of sugar or refined food –Liver becomes more inflamed when we consume excessive amount of sugar or refined carbs. This inflammation impairs your metabolism and makes you retain more water. Food with added sugar or fructose, Fruit juices, Maida, semolina, and ultra-processed food or ready to eat packed food are examples of some food items that might affect your metabolism.

3. Sedentary lifestyle - Your muscles become less active if you spend entire your day sitting with laptop or mobile phone.  Our cells cannot function properly unless our muscles are active. So, sedentary lifestyle is 3^rd most important cause of low metabolism..

4. Deficiency of nutrients - Your cells cannot function effectively if you are deficient in certain nutrients, such as protein, calcium, iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12, magnesium etc... Your metabolism may also be affected by this.

5. Crash diet - Your body enters low power or survival mode when you go on a crash diet.  This is natural adaptive mechanism which is essential for survival even in case of extreme lack of food. It naturally slows down many body functions. This is similar to how your phone switches to low power mode when the battery runs low.

6. Accumulation of toxins – Our body produces toxins naturally.  Now a day excessive use of insecticides & pesticides in agricultural practices and frequent intake of medicines contribute to accumulation of more toxins in our body.  Toxins make your liver more inflamed, which may hamper your metabolism.

7. Chronic stress - When we are stressed our body produces cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which prepares our body for threat by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar, to provide immediate energy. When there is ongoing stress, the cortisol level stays elevated which makes it difficult for our body to function properly.

8. Ageing - Your metabolism slows down as you get older because your muscle mass declines, which is often noticeable after the age of 50 or 60.  However, unhealthy habits are often associated with premature aging, which is very common these days.

How to fix your metabolism?

1.  Reduce weight especially visceral fat or abdominal fat.  

2. Follow a detox diet once in 3 months - A detox diet supports your liver and improve its natural ability to remove toxins from your body.. Thus, at least once in every three months, try to follow a detox diet. This will also help to strengthen your immunity and maintain your healthy weight..

3. Manage deficiencies – Get your regular blood tests done, and if you have any nutrient deficiencies, think about taking supplements.  For this, you can also take the help of a qualified dietician.

4. Daily work out for 30-45 mins - You can engage yourself in any type of exercise, such as jogging, yoga, muscle training, brisk walking, sports, etc.  Exercise is essential for healthy and active muscles. Stay active throughout the day by taking stairs rather than elevator. If you are on desk job get up from your seat every two hours, take a short walk, and then again sit down to work.
5. Eat a balanced diet - Maintaining a healthy balanced diet is important, even if you're trying to lose weight.  Losing weight requires more than just cutting back on daily caloric intake. In order to make appropriate plans, we must identify the underlying cause of weight gain.

There are many other causes of weight gain, such as hormone imbalance, inflammation, insulin resistance, thyroid issues, food sensitivities, unhealthy lifestyle etc. So it is always recommended to take the help of a qualified dietician to determine the underlying causes for your weight gain and modify your diet accordingly. Avoid crash dieting and add more protein  in your diet.

6. Breathing exercises – Your cortisol level drops immediately and your body resumes normal functioning when you practice deep breathing or breathing exercises. It would be more beneficial if you perform breathing exercises in park or open area where there is some kind of greenery.

In addition, there are some food items like black coffee, cayenne pepper, green tea, Kalonji water, etc. which are helpful in boosting up your metabolism. You can add these food in your diet plan. A low carbohydrate high fat diet or keto diet may also help to increase your metabolism. 

Your metabolism may also slow down if you have been on a diet for a long time.  Therefore, take a break every three months and refrain from dieting continuously.

Click this link  if you aim to increase your metabolism and are overweight or have problems like fatty liver, diabetes, PCOS, high cholesterol, or hypothyroidism