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Writer's pictureSara Childers, RD, LDN

The Ultimate 10 Step Guide to Healing Your Metabolism

Updated: Aug 11, 2023

10 Steps to implement into your daily routine to help fix your metabolism, restore a healthy weight, gain energy, and age well!


Want to go deeper to have more guidance on how to implement these steps in to your own life?–download my freebie on healing the metabolism or book a consultation with me and see if 1:1 coaching is right for you!.


Over the past many thousands of years, our bodies have biologically adapted to famine, fasting, danger, and starvation. When we lose weight, our bodies train themselves to do more with less energy. Queuing hunger when we start to lose weight so that we can replenish our stores and restore to the weight we were beforehand. In many cases, we should be thankful for this. Nonetheless, we have control over what we consume and there are ways to get around the fight against our body’s instincts.


But how? There are so many diets, hacks, and pills to take in order to fight the fat, lose weight, and hopefully, maybe, possibly, keep it off.

The diet industry is a billion dollar industry. They will tell you anything and everything that they can in order to get your business. We have seen a million times where someone has “finally cracked the code” or “discovered the secret” to weight loss. The mouse and the cheese. A tail as old as time.


Consistency, habit formation, and lifestyle changes are the only true way to sustainable weight loss that is healthy, economical, long-lasting, and somewhat enjoyable.

Calories in < calories out = weight loss. This has been the equation for far too long. This is an oversimplified view to weight loss. This equation does not take into account psychological stress, exercise history, dietary restraint, hormone imbalances, exposure to toxins, or sleep quality. All of these either have a direct or indirect effect on weight loss that is sustainable.



Diets that tend to fail our metabolism in the long run:
  • Very low fat or low fat diets with high carbohydrates

  • Low carb or no carb diets

  • Eating disorder history or crash dieting

  • Yo-Yo dieting, under-eating vs high consumption of highly processed foods

  • Chronic under-eating

  • Fasting with no breaks to throw off the metabolism

 

The metabolism must be healed in order for sustainable weight loss to occur.

 

Components of the Metabolism:

  1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - Determines 60% of our overall metabolism. This is the calories you burn in order to support essential bodily functions such as breathing, circulation, and organ function. Things that affect this include age, genes, diet, thyroid function.

  2. Active Energy Expenditure (AEE) - 25% of your metabolism. This includes planned exercise and NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), which include involuntary movements, standing, walking, posture.

  3. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - 15% of your metabolism. The calories you burn when your body digests foods. Some foods have higher TEF and burn more calories than others. Protein is higher than carbs and fat.

These factors are highly influenced by our habits and daily intake. So, I am going to give you my TOP 10 TIPS FOR HEALING THE METABOLISM!


Tip #1: Change Your Mindset


This may seem a bit frivolous and something you hear people on the internet saying all of the time, but mindset matters. Probably more than anything. And it is the most challenging hump to get over when achieving any sort of goal. You can't just want it. You have to decide and let that decision drive you to take massive action. You need to have the mindset as though you are already the healthy person that you want yourself to be and think: what would "healthy" me do?


If you are conscious about making even the smallest of decisions with this mindset, you will wake up in just a few weeks and be able to see results. This is because the smallest decisions add up over time to make a huge difference. When we track and keep up with all of our food, exercise, thought, and habits.. we may end up finding out that we weren't as healthy or consistent as we thought we were. That can often be the difference between keeping weight off and always feeling the need to crash diet.


Tip #2: Intake matters-- Find healthy foods that you enjoy.

It's so hard for me to say that if you don't like fruit and vegetables, that's okay and you can still be healthy. Because that's honestly not true. I am a no BS dietitian. Holistic approaches to health are of the utmost importance to me and, what I believe, to be the most sustainable way to become and stay healthy over a lifetime.


If you are someone who only enjoys fast food, processed meats, chips, cookies, crackers, and no vegetables, how do you think your health will be effected over your lifetime? God gave us vegetables, fruits, and animals for food. There is a reason that Chick Fil A was not in the Garden of Eden (sorry to my fellow Christ following friends). Metabolism is so much more than just calories and burning fat. It is how our body takes the nutrients that you eat, and uses it to fight infections, prevent disease, repair and rebuild cells, and control bodily functions. If you are continuously eating foods that have ingredients that you can't pronounce and is manufactured in a lab, how do you think that will affect your health? I am talking about things that are even labeled as healthy in the stores! Granola bars, sausages, pre-seasoning box meals, and sugar free foods! Natural. is. best.



Tip #3: Exercising for the long run does not mean you only go on long runs.

The title is mostly just a play on words, but it is honestly true-- most people turn to running or heavy cardio when they want to lose fat. As someone who has always been a runner/cyclist and just naturally enjoys cardio-- this is not the way to fat loss. The best I have ever looked and felt was when I was going 2-3 cardio sessions a week with 4-6 lifting sessions per week! Lifting is the magic ingredient! You don't have to do heavy weights, simply doing any sort of resistance training that builds muscles, like yoga or bodyweight exercises, are good for the metabolism as well. You have my permission to not run on a treadmill or kill yourself at a spin class if you don't want to!


Tip #4: Surround Yourself with people that support you changing for the better

Have you ever heard the saying, "you become the five people that you spend the most time with?" Well, it's true. Even for health! There is nothing worse than friends who health shame or cause you to get off track from goals that are important to you. That actually doesn't sound like a true friend at all, in my opinion. Some people have low confidence and they don't like seeing other have the courage to change or work on themselves. It is a pride thing. Maybe it is family! Which is tough. This isn't Jerry Springer. So, I will give you some practical tips on choosing friends and acquaintances to surround yourself with when you want to change.


- Befriend someone in a workout class or at the gym

- Gravitate towards more positive and encouraging people when in groups

- Is there someone who is already where you want to be? befriend them! They can teach you.

- Is there someone who is right where you are and on the same journey as you? Encourage each other and be friends!


Tip #5: Eat more protein and build muscle

There is about a thousand reasons that you should focus on protein in your diet. When it comes to weight loss, protein is essential for building muscle. Muscle continuously burns fats. That is, again, why weight training and superior to cardio when it come to your metabolism and keeping fat off once it is lost. Protein also help with hormonal control, if you are a woman, which is great for weight maintenance. Especially during the menopausal years. Protein also keeps you satiated. Which means you will be fuller, longer throughout the day.



Tip #6: Stop crash dieting

I won't name names. Because I am a classy woman. But some of these diets out here are insane. If you are a full grown adult, you shouldn't be eating only a protein bar for dinner or cutting out entire food groups in order to lose weight. This is so unsustainable and unnatural. It does not support your metabolism in the long run. Oftentimes when people diet like this, they end up gaining the weight back within a few years. That doesn't work for us who are trying to live our best life, for a lifetime! Metabolism is so much more than just weight. It is how your body uses nutrients that you provide it with in order to maintain optimal health, fight disease and prolong aging. Cutting out essential food groups like carbs and fat by eating ultra-restricted diets is not how we support our bodies to be their best.



Tip #7: Fix your sleep

Bad sleep leads to stress, stress leads to spiked cortisol levels, which leads to cravings, which leads to spiked glucose, which then leads to too much glucose in the bloodstream, causing our bodies to store glucose in fat cells as storage--- making us fat and puts us at risk for all kinds of chronic diseases. Plus, lack of sleep is associated with poor mental and cognitive health. Need I say more?


Tip #8: Micronutrients matter

Vitamins and minerals. So essential, yet so unappreciated! As I have said before, the metabolism is so much more than burning and losing fat. It is how our body chemically breaks down and uses the nutrients that we provide it. Because of our ultra-processed American diets, most of us are deficient in at least a few vitamins or minerals. These micronutrients can make a mighty impact on health. I couldn't begin to tell you what all they do. Vitamins and minerals are like keys when unlocking the doors to healthy body function -- literally! That is how they work on a molecular level. From cognitive health, to blood sugar, energy levels, and heart health-- if you do anything for your health, PLEASE! Add in vitamins and minerals. Yes, they are available in supplement form and I love supplements. The truth is, though, that they are even more available in food and are absorbed better in the body when consumed through foods.


Tip #9: Establish a Routine

Supplements, healthy eating, exercise, personal work on your mindset --- Seems like you don't have time to work on all of these overwhelming factors! You do, probably. You just need a routine in order to simplify things and to make your habit building seamless. Most people don't care how they spend their time. They will scroll on instagram for two hours, stay in a fast food line for 20 minutes, and then watch TV for another hour and claim that they don't have time to do this and that. We have all been there! Just don't stay in that routine. Don't be afraid to break out of the same ole same ole. Use your changed mindset to remind yourself that you ARE a healthy person. Healthy people have routines. They are nothing crazy.


Maybe you wake up and workout in the mornings, then you get ready for work. Between that time, you take your supplements and jot five things down that you are thankful for in a gratitude journal-- Perfect! Maybe it looks more relaxed than a daily routine. Maybe you just have weekly routines of going to the grocery store and meal prepping for yourself. And then you exercise and get in movement whenever you can here and there during the week.


Evaluate your current days/weeks and see how you spend your time. Try different routines until you find something that works for you. Why not? There is nothing to lose and you won't regret it.


Tip #10: Find other reasons to be healthy aside from weight loss

Your "why" is just as important as your "how". How do you expect to stay motivated when your health journey becomes monotonous when the only reason you want to be healthier is to look better in your jeans? Most people have bigger reasons for health. Maybe you have genetic diseases that run in your family or you have an autoimmune disease! I love to be healthy because it drives me to be more creative (in the kitchen), gives me more confidence, shows me that I am somewhat in control of my health, and it supports me as I enjoy exercising, being outside, and training for sports with my husband.


Find your "why", get out there and make a decision to be healthy! Take massive action and don't let anyone stop you-- not even YOURSELF! Stay healthy, yall <3


Found this helpful? Sign up here to receive my FREE METABOLISM RESTORATION GUIDE! Or sign up for a 1:1 consultation with me! I am also taking applicants for my 12-week health kickstarter program. Let me help you crush your goals, feel your best, and be your most confident self!
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