It’s a common story. A woman is physically active, has a nice figure, and has never had problems controlling her weight. She prides herself on having a high metabolism. Then, in her late 30s, early 40s, she suddenly has a belly. She tries dieting (code for trying to starve the belly fat away) and exercise, but it won’t budge. What’s happening to her, she wonders, as she struggles to zip up the jeans that fit her just fine last year.  Menopause is what is happening to her.

Hormones are Rough on Metabolism During Menopause

Though almost everyone gains some weight as they age due to hormonal shifts and age-related muscle loss, women face a double-whammy. The sometimes cataclysmic hormonal shifts women experience during menopause specifically foster weight gain, especially in the tummy region.

But there are ways to increase your metabolism during menopause, ways that will help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Before discussing those ways, however, it might help you to know what’s happening to your body during menopause.

Stages of Menopause

Menopause refers to the cessation of the menstrual period, but there is a turbulent hormonal period called perimenopause that leads up to it.

Perimenopause

Perimenopause typically begins in your late 40s, and can last two to eight years before your periods cease. During this stage, the amount of estrogen and progesterone your ovaries produce fluctuates wildly. This results in unpredictable periods. Sometimes your menstrual flow will be heavy, sometimes it will be very light. And sometimes, you will skip a period here and there.

The fluctuating amounts of estrogen and progesterone also cause many symptoms, including:

  • Rapid mood changes
  • Hot flashes
  • Night sweats
  • Disturbed Sleep
  • Weight gain

Menopause

To be considered officially in menopause, you must have gone 12 consecutive months without a period. If you go six months, and then have a period, you must start all over again, counting another 12 months. During this time, you are still fertile and could still become pregnant.

Although the wild hormonal fluctuation are behind you once you hit menopause, you may still experience some of the symptoms above.

Postmenopause

Postmenopause are the years following menopause, and although you may still experience menopausal symptoms for a few years, they will eventually fade away. But weight gain is one that doesn’t fade away so easily.

Metabolism and Menopause: Why the Slow Down?

There are a few reasons way menopause causes weight gain, and it’s not all about the metabolism — at least, not directly.

You see, research indicates that menopause actually changes your body composition. It takes away muscle, and gives women more fat. And that fat is redistributed around the midsection, that well-known “muffin top” that so many women try to get rid of. (If you’re looking for something to blame, the culprit seems to be estrogen.)

At any rate, this muscle loss slows your metabolism, leading to weight gain. In addition, before menopause, estrogen improves insulin sensitivity, and both estrogen and progesterone control the negative effect of cortisol. During and after menopause, when estrogen and progesterone levels drop, your cells may become resistant to insulin, a known risk factor for obesity. Plus, with cortisol no longer controlled, belly fat accumulates even more.

But despite all the changes of menopause, there are some changes you can make today to increase your metabolism and lose weight.

metabolism-menopauseWays to Increase your Metabolism During Menopause

Here are some easy ways to increase your metabolism during menopause.

Eat More Nutrient-Dense Protein Foods

Eating more nutrient-dense proteins is a proven way to increase your metabolism. You burn more calories digesting protein that any other macronutrient. For instance, beef or chicken uses 10 to 20 times more energy to digest than carbohydrates. This digestive process increases the metabolism. Additionally, protein is essential for muscle protein synthesis, which you’ll need to build and retain muscle.

Try some of these metabolism-boosting proteins:

  • Salmon
  • Egg whites
  • Non-fat Greek yogurt
  • Liver
  • Chicken
  • 100% pure, unflavored whey

Fill up on Non-Starchy Vegetables

Did you know research shows the act of chewing and digesting vegetables can increase your calorie burn (metabolism) by up to 30 percent? Non-starchy vegetables also fill you up quickly, preventing overeating, and they keep your blood sugar levels stable. This results in a higher metabolism, and weight loss.

Some vegetables that will pump up your metabolism include:

  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Peppers

Eat Whole-Food Fats in Place of Starches and Sugars

Contrary to everything you’ve learned in the past, eating fats (especially good fats) will not cause you to gain weight. In fact, just the opposite can happen. If you replace starches and sugars in your diet with whole-food fats, your body will start to prefer burning fat to burning its old fuel source. What does that mean? When it runs out of the fat you consumed recently, it will start taking some from your belly, and thighs, and anyplace else you have excess weight.

Here are some great whole-food fats that can make your body a fat-burning machine:

  • Almonds
  • Avocado
  • Coconut
  • Flax Seeds
  • Walnuts
  • Whole Eggs

Drink Plenty of Water

Drinking plenty of water is essential to successful weight loss, for a number of reasons. Studies have shown that drinking water raises the metabolism; this effect is doubled if you drink ice water because your body has to use energy to warm the water up. Studies have also shown that drinking water improves the rate at which the body burns fat. Drinking water before each meal will make you feel full and prevent overeating, which is one more weight loss benefit of H2O. By the way… if you don’t like plain water, try putting a squeeze of lemon in it. You can also drink green tea, which has a metabolism-boosting effect of its own.

Perform Eccentric Exercises

Eccentric exercises are ones where you focus on the downward part of the movement. For instance, when you stand up, that’s a concentric movement. When you squat to sit down, that’s the eccentric part of the movement. Studies have shown that eccentric exercises increase the metabolism. In fact, one study showed that participants who emphasized the eccentric portion of the rep in leg presses, experienced an increase in metabolism that lasted for up to 48 hours after the workout.

Welcome back to the Metabolism Info Blog, covering all the important info related to metabolism, metabolic disorders, and more – heck, we even took a look at smoothies and their application for weight loss! Elsewhere on the blog we recently looked at what makes for a good BMR and discussed that BMRs of all ranges can be ‘good’ so long as you are adapting your lifestyle choices to it. Your individual BMR is essentially the base fuel system of the body and here is how to increase BMR!

To increase BMR is a goal of many on the weight loss kick and it makes sense. In the most basic of terms, a higher basal metabolic rate essentially means more calories burned, more calories burned means more weight loss.

Well, if that question is on your mind ‘how to increase my BMR,’ then this blog is for you.

First, what goes into calculating your BMR? There are several basic ways to find an estimated BMR to get you started. There are several more factors that determine what a person’s individual BMR is. As with anything medical, there is a wide range of ‘normal’ and your BMR may be anywhere from the low end to the high end. Men, for instance, tend to have a higher BMR than women because of their generally larger frames. Here is a full break down of the factors involved in determining BMR.

Factors Affecting BMR

  • Gender
    • As mentioned, gender plays a role in the basal metabolic rate.
  • Age
    • Generally speaking, as you age your body slows down, due to hormone changes as well as a decrease in muscle mass. So too does your metabolism.
  • Muscle Mass
    • Speaking of muscle mass, the more you have the more increased your BMR. Muscle tissues require more energy to function than fat and so create a higher BMR.
  • Genetics
    • Whether through genetic predisposition or disorders, your BMR can be higher or lower than averages for otherwise similar bodies.
  • Hormones
    • As mentioned underage, hormone changes can affect a huge host of bodily functions. Disorders linked to hormone imbalance, like thyroid issues, for instance, can raise or slow your BMR.
  • Chemicals
    • Caffeine or nicotine can increase our metabolic rate, while drugs or medications can have an inverse reaction.

So, knowing what factors play a role in BMR, how can you speed it up? Here are some tips from Heatlh.com if you’re looking for how to boost your metabolism now. Keep reading to see how to raise your BMR.

How to Increase BMR

Increasing BMR can be done in a number of ways, most fall into two camps. Eating and exercise.  Approaching it from those two avenues will see your BMR increase and, if all is done correctly, the weight comes off.

Eating

  • Eat Breakfast
    • Eating breakfast in the morning is important for jumpstarting your metabolism for the day. Sure, this doesn’t affect your basal rate, but it will see your everyday metabolism elevated throughout the day.
  • Regulate Meals
    • Eating meals paced throughout the day can net you an increased metabolism. Your metabolism operates when it has fuel to convert, so keeping it regularly (but not too heavily) engaged will have it high.
  • Don’t Crash-Diet
    • Crash dieting throws your body out of whack. As it crashes and tries to adapt to the sudden lack of fuel sources and energy the body will begin to slow its BMR to match the change.

Exercise

  • Add Muscle Mass
    • As mentioned earlier in the factors that affect BMR, muscle mass requires a higher base level of energy expenditure. As such, bulking up and adding on lean muscle will raise your BMR.
  • Add More Activity
    • BMR is all about the body at rest, using no excess energy. Obviously, that is a bit out of the realm of normal possibility. As such, raising the activity levels in your average everyday routine will see your ‘BMR’ (here in quotes because it’s really just your adjusted average metabolic rate) raising.

Misc.

  • Address Hormone Imbalances
    • If you suffer from a hormone imbalance such as hypo- hyperthyroidism, get treatment to bring your body under control. With balance restored, your BMR will be able to function how it should.
  • Avoid Chemicals that Lower BMR
    • If you are taking medications that slow your metabolism, you may be able to speak with your healthcare provider about other options, but only if you can do so in a healthy manner!

By understanding and addressing these factors, everyone has the know-how to increase BMR. Much of it is simply getting your basal metabolic rate up to the speed it should be functioning at, as unfortunately due to various illness and health problems many of ours are hindered.

Here at the Metabolism Info Blog Metabolism is king. We recognize that it is the foundational function of our bodies. Many think of it as just the way your younger sister-in-law can eat absolutely anything she wants and never gain a pound, ‘I just have a high metabolism!’ she says.  But metabolism doesn’t quite work that way and it means a whole lot more than just how your body burns calories. If metabolism is so vital, so crucial, what’s a good BMR? What makes metabolism good or bad?

Metabolism is literally the function of life. Some biological functions can be considered non-vital, say the ability to distinguish between reds and greens, or even the senses! No matter how important we feel they are, the truth is our bodies can keep chugging along, keep living without some of them. The same cannot be said for metabolism. If you didn’t have a metabolism you would not be alive, it is as simple as that.

Metabolism is the process by which your body breaks down energy and converts them into usable fuel for the body. Breaking down, say eggs, into their base level components, then sending those bits of fuel to the systems in your body that need it.

Before we answer that let us look at one more piece of the metabolism puzzle. You may have heard the term BMR thrown around in your time on the web, heck it is probably what lead you to search ‘What is a good BMR’ on Google.  BMR, meaning basal metabolic rate, is a measure of how many calories the body would burn in a day of inactivity. Meaning, with no other external factors such as exercise, what’s the baseline for calories burned in a day. If you’d like, there are various good BMR estimate tools on the web.

This rate is not static of course. It fluctuates from person to person with, men on average have higher BMRs than women for instance, and then within each of those larger groups there is more variation based on numerous things, muscle mass, age, body size, even environmental factors can play a role.

So then, with all these variations what is a good BMR? The truth is there is no such thing as a perfect basal metabolic rate. You might say having a high BMR is better, it does mean your body burns more calories in an inactive state but that does not make a lower BMR worse. They just are.

Any BMR can be good, so long as you adapt your lifestyle to it. If your body has a lower BMR but you ingest fewer calories throughout the day, then you have a good BMR, because you are working with your body ensuring that you are using energy efficiently. That is the most important, and yet most often confused aspect of metabolism and BMR, ‘good’ is entirely subjective.

Let us say, after all, that you are still thinking ‘Well, whatever Metabolism Info, I want a high BMR!’ To which I would say, I understand the desire completely. It feels like a superpower, being able to burn through more calories in your day-to-day. There are in fact some things you can do to try and give your metabolism a boost.

This is a subject for its own blog really, but we will give a quick overview here. There are two principal areas of improvement if you want to see your metabolism spike, improving what and how you eat and improving your exercise. Diet and exercise, go figure, right?

When it comes to metabolism, it should be no surprise that food plays a huge role in it. To see your metabolism get a jumpstart in the morning, eat breakfast every day. The introduction of food will cause your metabolism to start up early and get to work. Likewise, the timing of meals can help your metabolism stay at peak performance. Pacing your meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism constantly burning at its best, with no time to slouch or slow down.

If your meals are timed right, healthy and properly portioned, the next thing to hone in on is exercise. By burning more calorie throughout the day via exercise, you are increasing the need your body has for energy, which in turn sends signals to your metabolism to get cooking! If you specifically train for muscle building, you can ever increase your BMR! By adding on a solid frame of muscle, your body will have a higher base need of calorie and energy to maintain it.

To reiterate, any BMR can be a good one, so long as it works for your lifestyle, diet, and activity levels. Too often, unfortunately, that isn’t properly addressed and the metabolism takes the blame.