Everyone wants to keep her metabolism burning hot, but as we age, our metabolic rates naturally slow down. Here, Diane Kress, bestselling author of The Metabolism Miracle, offers her top tips on counteracting age-related metabolism changes and keep burning those calories.
Factors that affect your metabolism
SheKnows.com: What do we need to know about the metabolic rate?
Diane Kress: The basal metabolic rate measures the calories needed to maintain all body processes, including heartbeat, respiration, kidney function, digestion and brain function. Every body burns a certain number of calories just to stay alive. Basal metabolic rate is made up of only a handful of factors:
- Gender: Men have higher basal metabolic rates than women.
- Height: Tall, large-framed people have higher basal metabolic rates than short people.
- Present weight: Contrary to popular belief, heavier people have higher metabolic rates than thinner people.
- Age: Younger people have higher metabolic rates than their older counterparts.
Therefore, a young male who is tall and heavy has the highest basal metabolic rate; a female who is short, thin and older has the slowest metabolic rate.
Only two factors can increase calorie requirements and therefore allow you to eat more and maintain your weight, or eat the same amount and lose weight: physical activity and artificial stimulants.
How to Boost your metabolism
SheKnows.com: We know the metabolism slows with age. So if you’re older, do you have to work out more to boost your metabolism?
Diane Kress: You should definitely increase your physical activity, in incremental amounts or over very long periods of time. For example, an older person can do 15 minutes of increased physical activity three times a day instead of 45 minutes in one stint.
SheKnows.com: What are your top metabolism-boosting tips?
Diane Kress: Here’s how to boost your metabolism:
- Exercise: Increase physical activity either by increasing how many times you exercise per week, the duration of a workout or your workout routine.
- Snack: Have a snack containing 11 to 20 grams of carbohydrate before exercising in the morning to tell the body that you are awake and provide sustenance for a workout. If you don’t, the body will continue to “run off” liver glycogen release.
- Mini-meals: Consume several small meals throughout the day instead of two large meals. A meal/snack/meal/snack/meal/snack [eating regimen] will keep the digestive system stoked at a higher rate.
- Caffeine: Consider, with your doctor’s approval, drinking a caffeine-containing beverage in the morning and late afternoon to slightly increase metabolic rate. It acts as a stimulant.
- Supplement: Take a daily multivitamin as insurance that you are getting the vitamins and minerals that allow you to process food properly.
- Hydrate: Increase fluid intake to a minimum of 64 ounces of water or decaf fluid every day.
For more information on your metabolism, visit www.themetabolismmiracle.com.
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