Growing older has many benefits. You tend to be more stable financially, you become more comfortable with who you are as a person, and you start to understand what is most important to you, spending more quality time with the people you love. But there is one negative that comes with aging and that is a slower metabolism.
You may notice that the more candles you have on your birthday cake, the harder it is to lose or even maintain your current weight. You tend to get thicker around the middle and your energy dwindles, making it harder to get through the day. When does this process begin to occur?
According to WebMD, metabolism starts to slow once you’ve hit the age of 40. Before you resign yourself to a life of weight gain and lethargy though, you must understand that there are things you can do to raise it, minimizing and even eliminating this effect on you.
For instance, if you add some resistance training into your workouts, you will build muscle which increases your metabolism because it takes three times more energy to sustain muscle than it does fat (6 calories per day for muscle versus only 2 for fat). Therefore, adding this type of exercise to your workout regimen will keep your metabolism stoked.
It also helps to drink enough water so you aren’t dehydrated, which can slow your metabolism. Eat something every few hours and get enough protein in your diet as that gives you more energy than other food sources.
Another option is to drink a cup of coffee or sip on green tea a couple of hours before your workout. Both of these will give you the oomph you need to make it through your exercise session, which raises your metabolism as well.
Aging doesn’t have to be a negative and these are some ways to make it so it isn’t. What do you do to keep your metabolism stoked, no matter what your age?
