Keeping your weight under control and feeling energized depends on your energy metabolism running at full capacity. Food is key to avoiding a “slow” metabolism.
Some people don’t care about what they eat and don’t gain a gram. The reason is that they enjoy an active and efficient metabolism, which quickly converts food into energy and extracts from it the nutrients necessary to stay healthy.
What’s their secret? Among the factors that influence this, the metabolic rate plays a relevant role, depending on whether it is more active and faster or slower. With small changes in habits and lifestyle you can reset the metabolism.
WHAT IS METABOLIC FLEXIBILITY AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT?
The body’s ability to adapt and extract energy from any “fuel”, both fats and carbohydrates is known as metabolic flexibility. When this flexibility is lacking, the risk of accumulating fat and feeling tired increases, especially in the morning, having more appetite for sweetness, irritability and lack of concentration.
Habits that improve metabolic flexibility include:
- Eliminate foods with added sugars and avoid consuming an excess of carbohydrates as with dishes loaded with pasta or rice or products based on refined flours.
- Increase fiber consumption (vegetables, legumes, etc.).
- Practice prolonged overnight fasting, from 12 to 16 hours (can be achieved by having dinner early and having breakfast later).
- The practice of physical exercise also favors the necessary metabolic flexibility.
These recommendations also prevent the onset of a metabolic disorder: insulin resistance. This hormone, which is produced by the pancreas, is essential to control the rate of glucose in the blood and to direct this fuel towards the cells. If too many foods rich in fast-absorbing carbohydrates (sugar, white flour …) are consumed, undesirable peaks in insulin production occur and over time insulin resistance can develop (the hormone loses effectiveness) and diabetes. In addition, it favors that excess sugar is quickly transformed into body fat.
HOW TO SPEED UP METABOLISM
The type of diet radically influences the functioning of the metabolism. To stimulate it, a series of changes can be introduced in the diet:
MORE PROTEIN
To extract calories from food, the body has to expend some energy (calories), and the digestion of proteinosis the one that requires the most investment, twice as much as carbohydrates and ten times more than fats. But not only do they require more metabolic activity, but they provide a feeling of satiety, which prevents you from overeating.
Protein, in addition, helps prevent the loss of muscle mass that is associated with hypocaloric regimes to reduce body weight.
- Legumes, including those derived from soy, are the main source of protein in vegetarian diets.
- The correct dose of protein needed can be achieved by following several guidelines. One of them is that for each kilogram of body weight you get at least 0.8 g of protein per day, but this amount can be increased to 1.5 or 2 g per day without unbalancing the diet, especially if they are obtained from healthy plant foods.
- Filling a quarter of the plate with protein foods is another orientation based on studies from Harvard University. This is something that most people meet or exceed (in dishes with conventional meat or fish there is usually an excess of protein), but only in the midday meal or dinner.
- Breakfasts can also contain a significant proportion of protein. Sweet “cafeteria” breakfasts are usually very low in protein, something that can be modified by including protein foods such as yogurt, tofu, hummus or egg.
- In addition, you can take a serving of nuts and seeds between meals (mid-morning or mid-afternoon) to entertain the metabolism, provided that no more calories than necessary are added to the total daily count.
DRINK MORE WATER
Not only is it a much better choice than sweetened beverages, but water can temporarily kick off metabolism. Although there are conflicting studies, some point out that drinking half a liter of water can increase up to 30% the metabolic rate during an hour. In any case, drinking water before eating can reduce the volume of intake, something interesting if the goal is to lose weight.
AVOIDING HYPOCALORIC DIETS
Often people interested in activating or “speeding up” their metabolism are the ones who have problems with weight, and it is not uncommon for them to encounter conflicting messages. They are interested in burning calories and body fat stores, so they indulge in hypocaloric diets, but by reducing calorie intake, their basal metabolic rate decreases. This is one of the reasons why it is not advisable to maintain too long regimes below 1,100 calories per day. It is much more sensible to consider long-term weight loss with a healthy diet that is easy to maintain over time.
The balanced vegetarian diet, based on natural foods, can be adapted to lose weight and reduces the incidence of metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome, in which factors such as abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, excess triglycerides and HDL cholesterol deficiency converge.
EXERCISE AND REST TO SPEED UP METABOLISM
For changes in diet to be really effective, they must be accompanied by changes in lifestyle; Otherwise, the activation of the metabolism will not be as efficient or, perhaps, will not occur at all.
- Physical exercise, especially anaerobic exercise, increases the basal metabolic rate. Anaerobic activity is that which requires muscular effort, rather than respiratory and cardiac effort, such as exercise against resistance, which is performed with weights, rubbers or gym machines (it can also be done using one’s own body weight). The reason is that, as the muscles develop, it will increase the energy expenditure that is carried out at rest. Introducing high-intensity intervals into an aerobic exercise session can also be helpful.
- Increasing sleep hours can help. Some experts propose just the opposite, because sleeping spends less energy than being awake, but what interests us is that the metabolism is more effective at all times and rest favors it. A study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, published in Obesity, has proven that insufficient sleep reduces metabolic rate and causes weight gain.
THYROID PROBLEMS CAN CAUSE A SLOW METABOLISM
A cause of “slow” metabolism can be an under functioning thyroid gland or hypothyroidism.
Symptoms such as constipation, a reduction in heart and respiratory rate, fluid retention, depression, fatigue, paleness or decreased sexual desire, among others, may be related to a malfunction of the thyroid gland, which produces hormones that are key to regulating metabolism.
It is best to check it out. Your doctor may perform specific blood tests to determine if you have hypothyroidism and what causes it.
In any case, hypothyroidism is not the most frequent reason for being overweight – contrary to what some people believe – nor is stimulating the thyroid the miracle remedy to stimulate or “accelerate” the metabolism.
SLOW METABOLISM: SYMPTOMS
Symptoms that indicate an underactive or too “slow” metabolism are:
- You often feel cold, especially in your hands and feet.
- You gain body weight easily or it costs a lot to lose it.
- Appetite for sweet foods, which is followed by the feeling of exhaustion.
- There is usually tiredness and headaches.
- It can be associated with brittle nails, slight hair loss, and dry, cracked skin.
Resting metabolic rate analysis helps to know if symptoms are due to metabolism. It consists of an indirect calorimetry study, which calculates how much oxygen is inhaled and exhaled in a given time.
KEYS TO SPEED UP METABOLISM
Metabolism is determined by habits maintained for years, but steps can be taken to regulate it.
- Natural flavors. Addiction to the intense flavors of ultra-processed foods with excess salt, sugar, fat, aromas and flavor enhancers can alter the appetite regulation and energy extraction systems from food. Choosing natural foods is the healthy alternative, also for metabolism.
- Emotions. The metabolism also suffers from the tendency to eat to calm anxiety or get emotional comfort. Respecting the schedules in the intakes, planning the menus and conscious eating, which helps to distinguish real and physiological hunger from “emotional hunger”, allow to normalize metabolic functioning.
- Micronutrients. It is not a matter of taking care only of the proportions and volumes of macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. All essential micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) participate in metabolic pathways. It is necessary to consume a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Vegetarians should also supplement vitamin B12 and use iodized salt and small amounts of algae.
- Intermittent fasting. Prolonged fasts may reduce metabolic activity, but intermittent fasts (on alternate days or daily for 12-16 hours between dinner and breakfast) along with physical exercise favor fat metabolism. It may be a healthier way to lose weight than prolonged calorie restriction.
- Microbiota. The microbiota influences the hormones that regulate metabolism. Healthy gut bacteria can help extract energy from food and reduce inflammation. The state of the microbiota improves by eating foods rich in fiber and probiotics.
- Daily activity. In addition to exercising to develop muscles, which will increase energy expenditure even when we are at rest, we should do our best to move more: walk at a brisk pace, clean the house in a lively way, climb stairs, get up from the chair every 20 minutes, etc.
5 FOODS THAT STIMULATE METABOLISM
All nutrients play a role in metabolism, but some stand out for their involvement in the extraction and use of energy by the body.
- Pumpkin seeds: they are very rich in zinc. This mineral can prevent resistance to insulin, a hormone that regulates sugar metabolism.
- Green tea: promotes the metabolism of reserve fats, especially when combined with physical exercise. You can take it alone, without sugar or honey.
- Brazil nut: it is the richest food in selenium, which participates in the production of cellular energy and reduces oxidative stress. It is enough with half a walnut a day.
- Chile: the capsaicin in hot pepper increases fat combustion, reduces the volume of intakes and promotes insulin control.
- Nori seaweed: a small amount, about 4 g, provides 80 mcg of iodine, half the recommended amount. This mineral is necessary for thyroid health.
