Let’s start with a brief and simple explanation of what the Metabolic age is. This is based on our basal metabolic rate, commonly known as BMR, the amount of calories you burn a day at rest to keep your body functioning. This number of calories reflects how much energy your body requires to support vital body functions if, hypothetically, you were resting in bed for an entire day. In fact, the BMR accounts for about 60 to 75% of your total energy burned each day and the physical activity is accounted for after calculating the BMR. It is influenced by several factors, including weight, height, age and gender, as main examples. Heavier and taller individuals have a higher BMR, because the more mass you have, the more fuel you need to sustain larger organs. So basically, Metabolic age is a fitness term used to compare your Basal Metabolic Rate to other people in your age group.
From time to time the BMR fluctuates. When you lose weight in general, your BMR decreases and you require fewer calories per day. In contrast, when you gain dense, heavier muscles, your BMR will increase. Also, metabolic rate decreases as you age because muscle mass declines by five to 10 percent each decade after the age of 30.
As by now many of us know, the best way to stay healthy is through a combination of exercise and dietary habits. If you cut down on calories, even without increasing physical activity, you’ll probably start losing weight. But, when you lower the calorie consumption without consuming the necessary caloric intake, your body starts to prepare for the possibility of starvation by slowing your metabolism. Slower metabolism results in burning calories more slowly and therefore the weight you lost will likely find its way back. On the otherhand, if you don’t adjust your caloric intake but increase your physical activity you may lose weight with a much slower pace.
By consuming the right amount of calories and increasing your physical activity, you can avoid the metabolic slowdown that keeps you from losing weight. Regular exercise doesn’t just help you burn calories in the moment but it also improves your BMR, so you burn also more calories while you’re resting. High-Intensity-Interval-Training and resistance training are great for preventing a slowing metabolism. These offer the benefits of exercise while preserving muscle mass, which are the two factors that affect the speed of your metabolism.
Research shows that lack of sleep can slow down your metabolism but fortunately, a good night’s rest can reverse this effect. If you’re struggling to sleep, try unplugging from technology for at least one hour before bed. Alternatively, discuss your issue with a professional as poor sleep is bad for your overall health and wellbeing.
What’s crucial to avoid slowing metabolism however, is to make sure you’re eating enough, namely protein-rich foods. That’s because your body burns more calories while consuming, digesting and absorbing protein-rich foods than carb or fat-rich foods. Avoiding foods that slow metabolism is as important as incorporating ones that improve it. Some of these foods include: Refined grains, alcohol, contaminated food (such as pesticides for ex: in fruit & veg, or antibiotics for ex: non-organically farmed cattle are often treated with antibiotics, which can have a profoundly damaging effect on our gut bacteria.), soft drinks and fried food.
Metabolism slows down as a person ages, so it’s vital to approach this hurdle as early as possible and start doing what’s required to improve our metabolism as much as possible, especially now that you are aware of what’s going on and the best ways to go about it.
I am not ending the year with this blog post to help you with the prepositions list for the new year, but to provide you with the necessary tools and information to keep on creating more and more awareness and eventually POSITIVE CHANGE in one’s life. Actually, I do not believe in goals based on calendar events, such as a new year, but rather based on feelings. Feelings oriented goals are those that are always achieved!
If you had the choice, would you rather be smarter than you are or more aware? Or let’s go a step further. If a wizard came to you and said you could be either the smartest person in the world or the most aware, which would you choose? It’s a symptom of the times, I think, that most people would choose to be smarter. But, being smart, even very, very smart, doesn’t immunise you from living unconsciously. An unconscious life is driven by habits, fixed beliefs, second-hand opinions, social pressure, peer-group values, and old conditioning. To realise this, and then to escape its grip, requires awareness, not IQ. A high IQ can even lead you deeper into an unconscious life, because very smart people generally believe they are right, so they strongly prefer their version of reality. This reduces the motivation to be open to new and unknown possibilities. It cements fixed habits and beliefs in place.
What about your emotional awareness? how do you cope with your emotions? being able to experience a full range of emotions and express them appropriately; enjoying positive emotions and managing negative emotions is the solution for many issues we encounter.
This is what I personally will be focusing on during the coming year. Being as aware as possible of my decisions, actions and reactions. You are welcome to join me :) The New Year is the perfect occasion to appreciate all the good things that the past year has given you and all the good things that are yet to come.
In name of all our team, we thank you for the confidence you have placed in us & the pleasant working relationship we enjoy with you and wish you a year fully loaded with love, health and happiness.
Mariano.
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