7 Metabolism Boosters for Women
**This blog content is transcribed from this YouTube video**
What's up you guys? Welcome back to my blog. Today we're talking all things metabolism boosters.
Things that as women will boost our metabolism. If you're new here, my name is Sara Childers. I'm a registered dietitian and personal trainer and I work with women in their 20s, 30s and sometimes 40s to heal their hormones from the ground up so that they can lose weight and feel their best and no longer feel that burnout that we all feel as women who are trying to do it all and be it all.
and I'm so excited about this video because it's a much needed video. I get so many questions about what can boost women's metabolism, what should be the first thing they focus on if they want their metabolism to be faster, and so in this video I'm going to share with you my top seven things that boost your metabolism. So I guess to start out let's talk about what the metabolism is. So
When we're talking about your metabolism, we're talking about how many calories you burn at rest. That's traditionally what people kind of refer to when they talk about the metabolism.
When I talk about the metabolism, ⁓ of course in this video it will be about how many calories you burn at rest, but your metabolism is so much more than that. When I talk about metabolism, I'm really talking about how fast does your body just work in general. Like we're not even talking about weight and calories here.
We are, that is included, but I'm talking more so about like, does your hair grow or does it fall out? Do you have beautiful skin? Do you have energy in the morning when you wake up? Are you able to go to sleep? How quick does your digestion occur? Cause that has a lot to do with your metabolism. How's your thyroid looking? Are we able to get rid of all the toxins in our body that have gone through us, through the food that we eat or the environment that we live in? Like how well...
our body working like as a machine to support us and that has a lot to do with weight but I find that weight is usually like the last thing that changes usually first when women have a slow metabolism they'll start to feel burnt out they'll start to see differences with their hair loss they'll start to see differences with their skin maybe they're aging quicker or they might not be able to get a lot of sleep and have a lot of energy dips ebbs and flows during the day. And so that's always something I like to share is that it is way more than weight and your body always is trying to tell you a story and it will always try to tell you when something deeper is going on.
SLEEP
So the first thing that you need to do in order to support your metabolism is sleep. We need to sleep at least eight to 10 hours a night as women and this is important.
that we have regular sleep patterns so we go to sleep at a decent hour and wake up at a decent hour and we're not on some sort of weird sleep wake cycle throughout the day. Of course if you're a new mama that is different but if you are somebody who can control your sleep you need to be going to sleep around nine or ten o'clock at night and then waking up eight to ten hours later and if you are somebody who has a poor metabolism you probably need to sleep more because you are probably really burnt out.
and that might be why you have gotten to where you are. My biggest sleep tips, which I'll make an entire video about this, but my biggest sleep tips are to wake up with the sunrise, get natural light, go out as much as possible in the day, and then when it time comes for the sun to set, that you are also lowering your light exposure as the sun sets so you can make more melatonin to sleep better. That is a sleep hack.
STRENGTH TRAINING
The next thing you need to do to support your metabolism, the biggest metabolism booster is strength training. So lifting weights and no, lifting heavy is not going to make you bulky. I have tried it all, I've done it all and the fittest, thinnest, best shape I've ever been in my life is when I was lifting the heaviest that I ever had been, but I was also doing some cardio with it and eating in a deficit. So that's how you do that. But if you want to speed up your metabolism, a huge part of that is battling insulin resistance.
So making sure your insulin is super sensitive and that your blood sugar is super balanced and one of the best ways to balance your blood sugar other than diet is to make sure you have muscle tone because there are four different places where sugar goes in the body. It'll either be stored in the cells to be used by the body. It'll be stored as fat or if you have muscle, it'll be stored in the muscle instead of fat and then it might be stored in the liver if you have eaten so many sugars that your body just doesn't know what to do with them.
EAT YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN PROTEIN (lbs = grams)
The third thing is protein. So if you're not, if you're strength training but you're not eating protein you're not going to get those gains therefore strength training and protein go hand in hand. You have to have protein in your diet and I will say I've had clients who don't even strength train and they don't even work out and they've lost tons of weight just by upping their protein and us focusing on their protein count and that is so so so important and so underrated and I know what everyone says on Instagram, "have 30 grams of protein in the morning, I have 30 grams of protein, I 30 grams of protein." That's not gonna work for everybody, that is actually going to be too low for some people. I'm a tall girlie, I'm 5'9", 5'10", and I need at least 140 to 160 grams of protein a day and eating 30 grams of protein for three meals is only gonna get me to 90 grams and that's not gonna be enough for me and so you need to really calculate your macros well and work with a professional to figure that out.
Having the protein even if you're not working out will help you build that lean muscle mass and will help you have better blood sugar control overall therefore have a better metabolism because if sugar is getting stored in your muscles instead of your fat cells then your fat cells will eventually starve and then will go away just like you want them to. And that brings me to my next thing.
COUNT YOUR MACRONUTRIENTS!!!!
Counting macros. Now protein is important and it's probably the most important but you really actually need to count your macros and see at least where you're starting out from when it comes to fat and carbs because you don't want to be eating too many carbs but you don't want to eat too much fat because fat is good for us but we don't need to eat way too much of it because that can be hard on our digestion as women and also it really is hard to metabolize and it's more than twice the amount of calories as protein and carbs.
Fat is nine calories per gram. Protein and carbs are four calories per gram. So more than twice the amount of calories per gram. So super dense. And it is about calories and calories out when you're trying to lose weight, but the quality of calories is what's more important. So counting macros. I love to make my clients count macros and they never regret it that's how they get the quickest results. But what I do as a calorie breakdown, is I'll make sure I'm in a calorie deficit and I will do 35 % of my calorie protein, 40 % of my calories carbs, and 25 % of my calories fat. If that's helpful, I use my fitnessPal.
CONTROLLING STRESS (cortisol)
Number 5 is de-stressing. So cortisol. Cortisol is your most foundational hormone next to insulin and oxytocin. And you need to balance your cortisol levels. You need to support your stress levels by de-stressing every single day, even if it's just five to 15 minutes a day, whether it's going on a walk, journaling, having a swig of some ashwagandha tea, or maybe doing some meditation, yoga, or something like that. But you need to be supporting your stress levels every day.
SUPPORT YOUR THYROID!
Because stress levels and high cortisol levels suppress your thyroid. This is a butterfly shaped gland around this area of your body and your thyroid as a woman is one of the most essential organs in your entire body, especially for your metabolism. So your thyroid is like your metabolism organ. It's like your body's powerhouse. And when the thyroid slows down, that is when everything else slows down. So when you're losing hair, when you're having poor digestion, when things are just another thing that really supports women's hormones as I mentioned before, but didn't really iterate on is supporting your thyroid.
So that has to be probably the biggest thing. And this is important whether or not you want to lose weight or not. Like even if you don't want to lose weight, if you're a woman and you want to have that vitality, you want to have full lips, feminine features, beautiful skin, hair and nails, it's so important that you support your thyroid because your thyroid is really the ⁓ feminine powerhouse of your body and when our bodies are constantly under stress and we're constantly in fight or flight our bodies go into survival mode and that slows our thyroid down because stress and cortisol suppress the thyroid as I mentioned before... but also our adrenal glands are what really end up doing a lot of the work when our thyroid slows down, when our powerhouse goes out, the adrenal glands being kind of like our houses, our bodies, generators kind of kick in. And we were never meant to live off of our generators and that's what a lot of women are doing.
The thyroid is super susceptible to a lot of different things such as stress, being in a calorie deficit for way too long, having like gut issues, and nutrient deficiencies. So that's why it's so important to stay nourished all the time and to always have enough food in your diet. Even if you do go on a diet, making sure that your ⁓ calorie deficit is not too low. Because most women who have been on a 1200 calorie deficit for years and years and years are usually the ones who have the worst time losing weight... because their thyroid is slowed down.
That's why you see a lot of times we develop hypothyroidism in our it used to be 40s but now it's getting younger and younger and younger and I think it's because of diet culture and I think I have so many honestly so many opinions around this I think it's not just diet culture but also just our society having so many pressures like I work with a lot of ⁓ but I do work with some teenagers like I've worked with high school girls I've worked with girls in college and there is so much pressure and like a lot of the girls that are having PCOS at such an early age I think probably have it because of maybe some gut health issues but mostly because they have an overpacked schedule and all of these unrealistic expectations on them when they are children.
They can't hold all of those expectations. But that's another topic for another day.
BALANCE YOUR MINERALS
The next and last thing that you need to know about what will boost your metabolism as a woman is something that is so underrated but makes the biggest difference ever. And it's been making the biggest difference ever with me. It's been making the biggest difference ever with my clients. And it's been such a game changer. is.
Probably one of the most important things if not the most important thing that I'll mention today and that is minerals so Our mineral balance. I know you're probably thinking, "I have never heard that before", but when I say minerals I mean minerals the electrolytes in your body the things that help make up vitamins. They are the spark plugs of your body and help your body do every process so you may or may not know this if you didn't take biochemistry or anything in college but I'll give you a little simplified rundown.
Your body is made up of organs and organ systems and those organs are made up of tissues and those tissues are made up of cells and your cells make up your entire body and your cells do things like the Krebs cycle it makes ATP which is cellular energy and that cellular energy allows your cells to be healthy and not be ⁓ dysfunctional and to rapidly ⁓ reproduce and a lot of people don't realize this, but the main thing that actually helps us to have cells that work correctly and to have energy and to be resilient to aging and stress and all the things, the thing that helps our bodies and our cells do that is minerals.
Minerals are like a lock and key for your cells. Consider your cells like cells, cells in a corridor.
Think of your body as a building and your cells are different rooms that have different Machines and processes and stuff in them consider minerals the key to all of those rooms like your janitor with like the big key ring ⁓ Your minerals unlock all of those different bodily processes in cells so that your Body can work like a factory like a machine like a well oiled machine and when we don't have minerals in our diet we are not as resilient to stress, we don't have as good of gut health, we don't have good nervous systems, it affects our hormones, all the things.
Our bodies are regulated by minerals, even our hormones, all the things. That is why I love the hair tissue mineral analysis that I do in my program and why I highly recommend it to so many people and why I do it every six months just as a baseline of health because your minerals for one when you measure hair. Hair is soft tissue and that measures what's happening in your cells.
So your, your blood test really wouldn't tell this, but when we're wanting to like measure out the minerals in your body, and I do this with so many clients, I do it with most of my clients, honestly. ⁓ We're able to see a snapshot of like where we need to focus on the most. And I have found that most of the clients I've done hair, all the clients actually, that I've done hair tissue mineral analysis on. ⁓ have nutrient deficiencies, have certain imbalances with their minerals and that could be the root cause and reason why they might have hormonal imbalances or why they might be so burnt out from stress or whatever.
And so when we're able to see what minerals are missing and replenish those and flood the body with vitamins and minerals that are needed, you start to see a transformation.
The women that I work with, most of them are showing signs of burnout. Most of them need these certain minerals and nutrients to fight the burnout that they've had. So we're really just focusing on how can we replenish the body with the minerals it needs to have a good metabolism. And that's where like the metabolism comes from.
On my hair tissue mineral analysis test, we even have ⁓ a place where it tells what your metabolic type is, whether you're a fast or slow metabolic type, I'll leave all the information down in the description of this video, but it's so interesting. And if you don't have the raw materials to make energy, then you won't have a fast metabolism. Like your thyroid, your metabolic organ in your body needs a lot of minerals and nutrients in order to have the raw materials to make thyroid hormone, to regulate your hormones, to regulate your metabolism, to burn calories and all the things. And so when we give it the nutrients it needs, especially when you're deficient, then that's really where the magic happens. So that is the biggest thing because it's like making a cake.
Consider your metabolism, this big, beautiful cake that you're making and you want it to be big. You want your metabolism to be fast. You are just really set on having the best cake possible.
If you don't have eggs, you don't have flour, you don't have sugar, if you don't have ingredients to make the actual cake, there is going to be no cake. And that's the same way with your metabolism. If you don't have minerals, if you have too much stress, if you don't have good gut health, if you don't have probiotics, if you don't have nutrients and all the things to make a good metabolism.
So it's important that you really incorporate all of the different steps that I've talked about today. I hope this was helpful. I hope it was super helpful and that you got a little out of it. I will leave a description of the video down below. You'll also be able to read a blog description of this video. I'll leave the link, but I'll also link to my different programs and services that I have below if you're interested in working with me. And if you found this video helpful at all, please like and subscribe and I will be back.
with more videos soon but comment anything that you want to see next and I will see you in the next one. Bye!
TAKEAWAYS:
- Metabolism is more than just calories burned; it includes overall body function.
- Adequate sleep is essential for metabolic health, aiming for 8-10 hours.
- Strength training is vital for boosting metabolism and preventing insulin resistance.
- Protein intake is crucial for muscle maintenance and metabolic function.
- Counting macros helps in understanding dietary balance for weight loss.
- High cortisol levels from stress can negatively impact metabolism and thyroid function.
- Minerals are essential for cellular processes and overall metabolic health.
- Thyroid health is critical for maintaining energy levels and metabolism.
- Women often face unique metabolic challenges due to societal pressures and stress.
- A holistic approach, including diet, exercise, and stress management, is necessary for optimal metabolism.
