Metabolic health encompasses more than the speed of your metabolism, or how quickly you burn calories. It’s about how your body uses energy to breathe, move, heal, and function in general, and it plays a large role in your overall health.
Metabolic problems can contribute to health issues including type 2 diabetes, obesity, thyroid diseases, and heart disease. These can come about because of nutrient deficiencies, too many or too few calories, hormone imbalances, enzyme issues, medications or substances, and a host of other factors.
“Maintaining good metabolic health is therefore critical for overall long-term health and cardiometabolic disease prevention,” says Vallari Kothari, MD, an endocrinologist at Montefiore Einstein in New York City.
Here are five ways to improve your metabolic health.
1. Fill Your Diet With Protein and Fiber
When consumed in food, protein has a higher thermic effect than other macronutrients, which means the body requires more energy to digest and metabolize it. The body burns 20 to 30 percent of protein calories as part of the digestion process, compared with 5 to 10 percent for carbohydrates and 0 to 3 percent for fats.
A protein-rich diet also builds muscle, a metabolically active tissue. That means it helps raise the body’s resting metabolic rate so it burns more calories at rest.
Soluble fiber, found in foods such as apples, bananas, and oats, also can benefit the metabolism by slowing digestion and keeping blood sugar in check.
One review found fiber can improve insulin sensitivity among people with type 2 diabetes.
Insulin resistance is a marker of metabolic dysfunction, so improving this improves your metabolic health overall, says Silvana Obici, MD, the chief of the division of endocrinology at Stony Brook Medicine and the medical director of the Stony Brook University Hospital Diabetes Center in Center Moriches and Lake Grove, New York.
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