24 Tools and Tips for a Younger Metabolism
Eating reasonable portions of nourishing foods, combating stress, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly are cornerstones of healthy weight loss, and they will all help counteract the natural slowdown in your metabolism as you get older. If you’ve adopted those behaviors and you’re still not seeing the scale budge, or if you’ve reached a plateau, some small tweaks are in order. These smart strategies can help you master your metabolism and stay healthy, fit, and trim for the rest of your life.
Track Your Midlife Body Fat Percentage
You know the importance of maintaining a healthy weight as you get older (
41, 53). But your scale doesn’t give you the full picture. Muscle burns up to three times as many calories as fat, so a 130-pound woman with 25 percent body fat (a healthy range) will burn about 200 more calories per day than a 130-pound woman with 40 percent body fat (a typical amount for midlife). Even if you are at a healthy weight, if your body fat is too high, you could have a condition called normal-weight obesity, which carries many of the same health risks as obesity. Since your body composition naturally shifts as you get older (12), it’s increasingly important to keep tabs on your body fat as well as the number on the scale.
Your mirror and the way your clothes fit are helpful gauges, but the most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage is to find an exercise physiologist or certified trainer who can perform a body fat analysis. Your local gym or a hospital-affiliated fitness center should have a person on staff or be able to direct you to someone trained to do the analysis. According to National Institutes of Health recommendations, the healthy body fat range for women between ages forty and fifty-nine is 23 to 35 percent, and 24 to 36 percent for those over sixty. The healthy ranges in men aged forty to fifty-nine are 11 to 22 percent, and 13 to 25 percent for those over sixty. Get rechecked every three months or so to track your progress. Handheld devices and scales with builtin body fat analyzers are generally not very accurate because they depend on so many factors, such as how hydrated you are when you take the measurement. They may help you spot general upward and downward trends, however, so they can be useful tools as long as you understand their limitations.
Track Your Diet and Exercise to Outsmart a Sluggish Metabolism
Your memory is notoriously unreliable when estimating your food intake. It’s easy to forget the handful of M&Ms you swiped from a coworker’s candy dish or overlook your “samples” while cooking dinner. But those little bites add up, and they’re especially critical to note because you need fewer calories now than you used to. Keeping track of your food intake in a journal or computer program can help you judge not only how many calories you’re taking in, but the overall quality of your diet as well.
In the same vein, logging your exercise might also reveal a few surprises. You may notice that you’re only doing one workout a week that’s longer than twenty minutes, for example, or that exercise is always the first thing to go when you’re under pressure. Seeing those patterns in black and white can help you pinpoint problem areas and brainstorm realistic solutions.
Set Reachable Anti-Aging Goals and Reward Yourself
Rewards are a powerful motivator, but they’re most effective when you break down your overarching goals into specific, doable steps, especially if you’re trying to overcome decades-old behaviors. For example, try eating one more fruit and vegetable a day or adding an extra ten minutes to one workout a week. Simply seeing a row of gold stars next to your food and exercise journal may be enough to motivate you to stay on track. External rewards can reinforce positive choices as well. Try setting aside $5 every time you work out. You can use the money to buy a small treat at the end of the week (new music, flowers, a book), or a larger reward at the end of the month (new exercise clothes, a course in something you’ve wanted to learn). If you exercise five times a week for a year, you’ll have $1,300—enough to take a vacation or invest in a piece of home gym equipment.
