The Healing Centre

Stress and lack of sleep.

When you’re overstressed and not sleeping enough, your metabolic rate dives in a bad way. Your BMR has to be appropriate for the activities you’re doing.

Your age

As you get older, your BMR continues to slow down. That's mostly a result of a whole host of things, but you can understand why this happens by looking at the muscles of someone who is aging.

As we age, we start getting little bits of fat in the muscle if it's not being challenged through resistance activity. The muscle slowly turns into more and more fat and when you have a decrease in muscle mass through this natural aging process, you get an increase in fat.

Muscle is metabolically more active, so if you're not doing resistance training and you're not eating well, the muscles will be gradually replaced by fat. This will also lower your metabolic rate because it's turning into a less metabolically active tissue. Fats are not as active as your muscles.

Do high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

HIIT, a form of workout that mixes short bursts of activity and periods of rest, is also going to push your metabolic rate up and improve longevity at the same time. HIIT preserves the muscles while burning fats. On the contrary, long cardio sessions and extreme exercises have been shown to damage the heart.

Lift weights.

Include resistance training in your fitness routine, whether that's body weight exercises or lifting weights. This is critical to maintaining a normal metabolic rate as it prevents muscles from turning into fat. When you're capable of maintaining some of that muscle, your metabolic rate is going to be normal. Your energy level is also going to be normal, which is going to give you the appetite that you need.The Metabolism Paradox: Why Focusing on Boosting Your Metabolism May Be a Bad Idea

By: Jonathan Carp, MD

Posted in MiracleNoodle Blog