5 Steps to Reset Your Metabolism
Why the holidays leave your whole system feeling sluggish, and five routines to reset it: quit sugar, eat and sleep on a schedule, stay hydrated, and move.
Most of us exit the holiday season feeling like our system needs a reset. Even the best intentions of portion control and selective sugar can still leave you feeling bloated and in need of a cleanse. Besides, what better time to give your body a metabolic reset than at the start of a fresh year?
“Metabolism” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the sum of the processes by which a particular substance is handled in the living body.” The biggest process we think of is converting food to usable energy, but it also covers everything the body does that uses energy: breathing, circulating blood, controlling body temperature, contracting muscles, eliminating waste, and the functioning of the brain and nerves. The point is, a slow metabolism means a slow everything. Every process internally suffers.
If your metabolism is slow, you are going to feel slow.
Along with regular wear and tear that lowers metabolism, a few other things often add up during the holidays: poor sleep (anybody travel and miss your own bed?), lots of sugar, an irregular eating schedule, being sedentary (some of us ski all day, but many are just sitting around with family), and stress. So here are five things to reset your metabolism as you jump back into a regular routine.
1. Quit the sugar
Like full on, hard pass, not a bite, at least for 2–4 weeks. This is the single biggest thing you can do to help your immune system function properly and devote its energy to fighting off bugs instead of processing sugar. Sugar “clogs” your metabolic system.
A 2015 study found that while purchases of healthy foods go up in the first quarter of the year (an 18.9% increase), purchases of less healthy foods stay exactly the same as during the holidays, 75% more than in summertime.1
It seems people are hooked and have a hard time letting go until the pressure of summer outfits becomes too pressing to ignore. Do yourself a favor and don’t put it in your shopping cart. You will feel better, and there is less chance of you and your family getting sick.
2. Eat on a consistent schedule
Variations in eating patterns result in “metabolic jetlag.”2 Eating on a schedule helps in three ways:
- It keeps your blood sugar steady. Avoiding spikes gives your body more consistent energy, a steady metabolism. The opposite is not eating all day, then binge eating whatever is readily available when you get home from work.
- It helps your stomach digest optimally. Eating only within a 6–8 hour window (intermittent fasting) is like rocket fuel for your metabolism. It’s all about the right balance of “fasting” and “intake” periods. Everyone fasts while they sleep, but with easy access to food we tend to eat constantly while awake, with 35% of intake after 6 p.m. Limiting the hours you eat (say, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.) results in reduced body weight, more energy and improved sleep.3 The more hours you give to fasting, the more time your body has to process, build and repair. (Just don’t go to the other extreme and eat all your calories in a single sitting.)
- It helps you avoid overeating. Knowing when you can count on eating helps prevent overeating, which leads to bloating and indigestion.
3. Sleep on a consistent schedule
The body has two natural regulators of sleep: circadian and homeostatic. Homeostatic sleep drive builds throughout your waking hours until it reaches a critical threshold, making sure you get the non-REM sleep your body needs to repair damage from active periods (prolonged sleep deprivation has been shown to lead to brain damage in rats).4 But that only ensures you get enough sleep, not sleep on a consistent schedule.
Circadian refers to the body’s internal clock, which tends to align with environmental cues such as daylight. Disturbing the natural circadian rhythm (circadian misalignment) can lead to insomnia and sleep disorders such as delayed sleep phase disorder, shift work sleep disorder and jet lag disorder. Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are all correlated with circadian misalignment, which fits with the fact that poor sleep prevents the metabolic processes needed to work against these conditions.5
4. Stay hydrated
You’ve probably heard that 60% of the body is water. It permeates every part of the body, so keeping it hydrated keeps things functioning. Water helps flush out waste and powers the metabolic system. In fact, drinking 2 cups of water before a meal can increase your metabolic rate by 30%.6
How much water? Take your body weight in pounds and divide by 2. That’s how many ounces to drink each day: a 200 lb person needs about 100 oz.
(We’ve covered this in more depth in Are You Staying Hydrated?)
You can increase the benefits of hydration by drinking clean water. We recommend reverse-osmosis, carbon-filtered water. Carbon is very effective at removing impurities such as chlorine and fluoride, and reverse osmosis is a membrane process that filters non-water particles down to .001 micron. Used together, the two technologies are highly effective.7 Two local resources are The Water Tree in Nederland and Orange, or you can purchase a Berkey filtration system and use both the carbon (black) and chloride/fluoride (white) filters. A bonus at The Water Tree is that they also offer alkalinization, which augments cellular hydration.
5. Move!
The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate will be. Period.
Aerobic exercise is associated with improved cardiovascular endurance and lung capacity. Strength training builds muscle that equips you to serve your family and community. Both are proven to increase your metabolic rate for hours after a workout,8 and both increase human growth hormone, which maintains organs and tissues and regulates body composition. (Side note: sugar suppresses the release of growth hormone.)
It’s better to do something than nothing. Pick something you can maintain in your lifestyle, maybe a short walk on your lunch break, and build it into your regular schedule. For maximum benefit, we recommend a HIIT-style workout, which has been found to produce up to a 450% increase in human growth hormone.9
Where to go from here
The human metabolic system is complex, and factors like genetics and age can’t be controlled. Chronic disease also slows metabolism, and there may be factors in your life that need a deeper dive, so please come see us to start digging into how your body functions. But these five routines are things you can start today, and hopefully continue for a healthier future.
If you’re looking for a weight loss protocol (maybe a change has been needed for longer than just the holiday season), ask us about a free consultation for our Reforming Life weight loss program.
References
- Pope L, et al. New Year’s Res-Illusions: Food Shopping in the New Year Competes with Healthy Intentions. PLOS ONE.
- Gill S, Panda S. A smartphone app reveals erratic diurnal eating patterns in humans that can be modulated for health benefits. Cell Metab. 2015.
- Ibid. (Gill and Panda, 2015).
- Ramanathan L, Gulyani S, Nienhuis R, Siegel JM. Sleep deprivation decreases superoxide dismutase activity in rat hippocampus and brainstem. NeuroReport. 2002;13(11):1387–1390. Link.
- Sharma S, Kavuru M. Sleep and metabolism: an overview. Int J Endocrinol. 2010;2010:270832. PMC2929498.
- Thornton SN. Increased Hydration Can Be Associated with Weight Loss. Front Nutr. 2016;3:18. PMC4901052.
- H2O Doctors: Reverse Osmosis vs. Carbon Filtration.
- Knab AM, et al. A 45-minute vigorous exercise bout increases metabolic rate for 14 hours. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011;43(9):1643–8. PMID 21311363.
- Stokes KA, et al. The time course of the human growth hormone response to a 6 s and a 30 s cycle ergometer sprint. J Sports Sci. 2002;20(6):487–94. PMID 12137178.