Your metabolism does slow down as you get older.
But age is NOT an excuse to just accept metabolic decline and weight gain.
Because your metabolism adapts – it doesn’t just break.
And you can increase your metabolic rate and improve your metabolic health at any and every age.
However, too often our lifestyles, training and dieting practices do the opposite.
To try to see better weight loss and fat loss results faster, we implement training and dieting practices that actually sabotage our metabolic health and backfire.
That’s why I wanted to share 7 tips to help you increase your metabolic rate and fuel and train to become leaner and stronger as you get older!
Because we can feel our most fabulous till our final day on this planet and that starts with us focusing on strength training!
Yup, tip number one is to focus on lifting or strength building in some form – even with your own bodyweight.
We want to put our focus on building muscle with our workouts.
This is a tip you’ve heard before but something we so often still don’t prioritize enough. And if you’re wondering where cardio fits in, don’t worry, I’ll touch on that too.
But muscle increases our metabolic rate as it requires more calories to be maintained.
It also often upregulates other bodily processes which require more energy to be used as well.
This means our body burns more calories at rest, which is an increase in our metabolism.
Not to mention muscle allows us to be more active overall while improving our overall health.
The better our body functions, the better our body functions!
So focus your workouts not just on getting out of breath and being cardio or even on how many calories you can burn in a single hour…
Focus on pushing that progression in movements to challenge your muscles to grow!
This will not only increase your metabolism but help you PREVENT adaptations in the fat loss process to make maintaining your results easier too!
Tip #2: Prioritize gut health.
Just like you want to give a car quality and take care of the engine so it runs well, you want to give your gut the fuel it needs to be healthy.
This helps your metabolism function optimally and can improve your body composition.
So take care of your gut by focusing not only on fiber but also prebiotics and probiotics.
Probiotics and prebiotics help improve lipid metabolism and studies have shown that people with a greater variety of gut bacteria have a lower risk of belly fat as well!
And while I mentioned strength work being key, we can’t ignore the importance of cardio.
But we do have to recognize which forms of cardio are right for our needs and goals.
When it comes to metabolic health we want to go fast AND slow!
That’s why tip #3: is to Walk AND Sprint.
So often I get asked, what’s the best cardio for fat loss and metabolic health. And honestly, it’s using both ends of that cardio continuum to some extent.
Walking is probably hands down the most underutilized tool for overall health and fat loss. It truly helps us maintain hormonal balance, keeps your metabolism healthy and is a great fat burning activity.
And on the other side of the cardio continuum, sprinting, or SIT protocols, has been shown to decrease fat mass, increase muscle mass, and even aerobic capacity. Sprints have been shown to help with a reduction specifically in abdominal/visceral fat.
So shoot for 8,000-10,000 steps a day and include sprints 2-3 times a week. Even just 5 minutes of sprint work can have a huge impact!
To complement your training and to make sure your hard work in the gym does pay off with fat loss without sacrificing your muscle, you also want to focus on the dietary change most of us struggle to make to start…
Increasing protein. Yes tip #4: is Protein. Protein and oh yea…protein.
Protein, those amino acids, are the building blocks of muscle.
And as we get older, we struggle more to build and retain lean muscle, which is why we can see our metabolism slow down.
We also don’t utilize protein as efficiently, with some research showing nearly a 40% reduction in the efficiency of muscle protein synthesis with age-related anabolic resistance.
This is why increasing our protein, especially as we get older is key.
Not to mention, protein can help us feel fuller in a calorie deficit to lose fat while protecting our muscle and even helps us burn more calories at rest because it uses more energy to be digested.
This higher thermic effect, the increased energy expenditure to digest protein, naturally raises our metabolism.
So really it’s a win win and also why a high protein diet has been shown to be so great for losing fat while even GAINING muscle in the process.
As much as we often focus most on our diet and workouts for fat loss and metabolic health, we can’t ignore all of the other lifestyle factors that contribute – like sleep.
Tip #5: Is focus on sleep QUALITY.
Notice I said QUALITY not just QUANTITY.
Because so often we aren’t optimizing the sleep we’re already getting to be as restorative as possible and instead try to pressure ourselves to try to get more which can feel impossible when we’re busy.
And when we aren’t getting quality sleep, we can see hormonal shifts that negatively impact our metabolism not to mention end up craving foods we shouldn’t.
Those cravings can lead to us overeating and sabotaging your fat loss goals.
So first, focus on getting quality sleep from the second your head hits the pillow till you wake up.
Now you may be thinking, great but HOW?
And while strength work and building muscle can actually improve our sleep quality, our diet plays a huge part.
When we are trying to see better fat loss results faster, we often create big calorie deficits and even opt for low carb as it can lead to quick drops on the scale.
But too big a deficit and dropping carbs too low when we are active may be exactly why you’re not sleeping well and even why you’re constantly waking up at 3-4 am.
So if you note those issues, tweaking your macros may be key!
Increasing protein may help as you will also get more tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid that can improve sleep quality.
Also, pay attention to those micros like magnesium.
Taking it 30 minutes before bed can help calm your nervous system, relax muscles, and regulate melatonin and cortisol levels to improve your sleep quality.
Micros in general can be key to track and adjust for overall metabolic health outside of just improving our sleep, which is why tip #6: is to Optimize those micros.
It isn’t always just about “getting enough” or “eating clean” either.
Sometimes we have little nutritional gaps or imbalances that mean getting MORE of a specific micro, especially based on our activity level and age.
And if you are in a calorie deficit for fat loss, this can make it even more key to not ignore your micronutrient balance.
To improve your metabolic health, prioritizing and optimizing our intake of specific vitamins and minerals like Vitamin B complex or Zinc may be helpful.
B vitamins play a crucial role in energy metabolism by helping convert food into energy, including those involved in the metabolism of glucose.
A deficiency in B vitamins can lead to fatigue and a decrease in overall metabolic efficiency.
Zinc has been suggested to play a role in insulin signaling and insulin sensitivity and is a powerful antioxidant which can help reduce levels of inflammation and protect metabolic processes.
Improved insulin sensitivity can contribute to better glucose utilization and overall metabolic health.
Vitamin D is a 3rd micro to pay attention to as well.
People with high levels of vitamin D have been shown to have a lower risk of developing belly fat.
Vitamin D may prevent new fat cells from forming and increase levels of serotonin, a brain chemical that’s associated with regulating appetite.
Higher levels of vitamin D also help maintain and increase testosterone in the body which promotes muscle mass growth and retention.
Testosterone speeds up the rate of metabolism in muscle cells, which is what can also improve our metabolic health so we burn fat as we build muscle.
With all of this though, there is no magic pill. No fat burning metabolism magic supplement you can take that will fix everything.
It’s all about creating those healthy lifestyle habits and addressing your nutritional needs.
That’s why my final tip is to Stop searching for a quick fix.
Fat burners. More cardio. Caffeine to keep us going. Bigger calorie deficits.
These things can seem like a good idea at the time and yield some short term results. But they are also what ultimately backfire and sabotage us.
We end up seeing our metabolism slow down more and more over the years as those quick fix practices add up.
Break the cycle.
Focus on these first 6 tips to make true and lasting changes that will help your body function optimally. They’re not sexy. Some are super basic.
But they’re key.
When we give our body what it needs, it will heal and adapt to the amazing new training and fueling practices and we’ll see our body composition improve!
Ready to kickstart your results with a custom plan and guidance?
