The 7 Ways to Fix a Slow Metabolism

hey everybody welcome to my weekly house call your chance to ask me your questions and this week's question is about metabolism one of my eat fat get thin challenge participants asked hey no matter what I do I can't seem to lose weight I think I'm cursed with a slow metabolism help ok well this is a common problem but there are ways to fix your metabolism you see each of us was born with these little energy factories that provide the fuel to run everything in our body these energy factories are called mitochondria and each cell in our body has hundreds to thousands of them and they convert oxygen that you breathe and the food that you eat into energy that's used by your body it's like having trillions of little combustion engines in your body now when scientists talk about metabolism we're often talking about the mitochondria and if your mitochondria are effective while they are burning calories and you have a fast metabolism and if they're ineffective they're not burning calories and you have a slow metabolism now some of this is genetically determined if you have a parent or sibling with type-2 diabetes then your mitochondria are 50% less effective at burning calories in the average person I'm sorry even if you're thin this predisposes you to weight gain and eventually type-2 diabetes now the good news is that you can increase the number and the function of your mitochondria now there are many things that can affect the number and the functioning of your mitochondria that you actually can control the biggest damage to your energy system comes from your diet when we lots of sugar and processed and inflammatory foods or refined vegetable oils or we simply consume too much food we overload our energy factories and they get damaged the environmental toxins also hurt them like pesticides and mercury they're hit infections that can hurt them stress can hurt your energy system even your gut microbiome can be a problem if the unhealthy inflammatory bugs outweigh the good bugs these bad bugs release toxins called L PS or lipo polysaccharides I know that's a big word but LPS you can remember and those get absorbed because inflammation the body and that inflammation damages the mitochondria essentially anything that causes it inflammation which also causes oxidative stress damages the mitochondria aging itself and most chronic diseases are related to mitochondrial dysfunction including obesity diabetes heart disease dementia more in fact all the tricks and studies that have shown increased longevity log taking people up to 120 years like an animal studies are all based on helping the mitochondria work better now luckily we know a lot about how to keep your mitochondria healthy again overeating processed food not eating enough powerful plant-based fighting nutrients these are all bad habits for a good mitochondria so over eating the wrong foods or under eating the right foods can damage your metabolism but if your body is constantly in starvation mode it's going to hold on to fat something our bodies are very good at doing and if you've been yo-yo dieting or under eating or doing any calorie restricted diets this can cause your body to store fat you need to make sure you're eating enough of the right kinds of foods so eating plenty of healthy fats like wild avocados and nuts and seeds and wild fatty fish these fats are actually the preferred fuel for your mitochondria and there's a super fuel for your mitochondria and it's called MCT oil or medium chain triglycerides and it comes from coconut oil be sure to consume lots also of colorful antioxidant rich plant foods and lots of good proteins but avoid sugar and flour they're toxic to the mitochondria also high glycemic high carb foods of any kind stress your mitochondria the biggest driver of damage to your energy system is quickly absorbed carbs and if you want to know how much you should be eating in a day you can easily calculate your rmr which is your resting metabolic rate this is the total number of calories your body needs to survive if it's a complete rest that's it you're asleep or in a coma the reason this number is important is simple if you eat fewer calories then you are Mar then your body actually needs and your body thinks you're starving it and it starts to shut down so calculating your arm R is also fairly simple if you're the average size you take your weight in pounds and you multiply by 10 so I'm 180 pounds my arm R is 1,800 calories now if you're very muscular then you should multiply by 13 like if you're arnold schwarzenegger ins prime and you're like have big muscles you multiply by 13 if you're very overweight then you probably multiply by 8 because you have a lot of fat and not a lot of muscle which burns hotter now if you eat less than your arm or your body goes into starvation mode also move more and move faster and here's why interval training which is high-intensity interval training and strength training are the best ways to make new and better mitochondria see by boosting your exercise especially this interval of burst training everybody's talking about where you go all-out for 30 to 60 seconds and then you go slow for a few minutes and use strength training you can actually increase the number and the function of your mitochondria when you do strength training you build muscle and you create more mitochondria and when you do interval training you improve their functioning which is how fast they burn oxygen and calories that's called your vo2 max super important finally you should take energy boosting nutrients that help your mitochondria things like Co Q 10 alpha lipoic acid and it's needle cysteine b-complex vitamins omega-3 fats like EPA and DHA these supplements can aid in speeding up your metabolism and lowering inflammation so that's how to boost your energy metabolism love your mitochondria now I don't want you to think you're stuck there's always something you can do I want to hear from you now have you tried anything that I said what does exercise done for you what's worked what hasn't worked I wanted to share your thoughts on our Facebook page below and if you like this video be sure to share with your friends and family on Facebook and submit your questions to dr. Hyman calm and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you you

Channel: Mark Hyman, MD

Views: 136,360

Keywords: metabolism

Id: ib8sxPJPra0

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Wed May 25 2016