Welcome
Driving your metabolism involves the consideration of stress, sleep, movement, and nutrition. Ignoring one of these can undo the benefits of the others.
Step 1 of 6
In The Metabolic Method mini course: My failure to lose weigh and get healthier lead to my search for what drove metabolism (although I did not think of it that way until a quarter century later after the search began). Cutting Calories never worked for my mind or body; it just made me unhappy and eventually fatter. My personal journey therefore lead to considering how our body works to (in turn) understand how metabolism works. Going beyond the Calorie balance model to a metabolic model add the effect of stress, sleep, movement and nutrition, and in particular how they converge to drive cellular vitality as a basis for ours.
Step 2 of 6
In this Metabolic Nutrition mini course: Metabolic nutrition demands that we consider the flow of water, protein, and a stable blood sugar to facilitate basic cell function and recovery. Beyond this, we must nourish our cells, which involves food quality, particularly for the foods broken down fastest (vegetables and unsaturated fats). The macronutrient flow protects our lean tissue to facilitate metabolism, whereas nourishing our body goes a step beyond this, taking us from surviving to thriving.
Step 3 of 6
In this Metabolic Nutrtion mini Couse: Metabolism is facilitated by our cells receiving what they need to keep going. The National Institute of Medicine (in the NIH) and the World Health Organization (in the UN) provide nearly identical recommendations on basic human nutrition. The minimum amounts of the macronutrients only add up to 1/3 of our daily needed Calories, and therefore only 42% of our needed daily Calories even if we are restricting Calories by 25% (the maximum Caloric restriction before metabolism is shutting down, ultimately reversing the benefits). The remaining 2/3 of what we eat for energy needs can be ANY FOOD so long as it digests slowly enough to not chronically overflow the bloodstream into body fat (which is burned slower and therefore accumulates, ultimately contributing to inflammation that exacerbates disease risk). We have the freedom to choose whatever foods we want from within the food groups to meet our macro needs, and the freedom to choose any foods for energy needs, as well as the freedom to choose how we can slow down any processed foods we want. Absolute freedom within the parameters of what works for human physiology
Step 4 of 6
In this Metabolic Nutrtion mini Couse: Metabolic exercise, as with metabolic nutrition, considers what is MISSING in your metabolic flow so that you can focus on filling a gap to eliminate a bottleneck. The intensity zones of endurance exercise address the aspects of nutrient and oxygen supply within your body, whereas intensity zones of strengthening address aspects of the demand on those nutrients. Moving regularly throughout the day, as opposed to exercise, provides a much greater metabolic benefit than the same number of Calories of exercise, which is why exercise and regular movement are both important.
Step 5 of 6
Step 6 of 6
Charting out your program is simple once you understand your metabolic levers. Protect your lean tissue with stress management and nutritionally with an even flow of water, protein, and a stable blood sugar. Nourish your lean tissue with quality sleep and nutritionally with quality fats and veggies. Drive your metabolism with movement, keeping in mind that you only benefit from what you can heal from. List your likely biggest metabolic bottlenecks in order and grade them by how hard they might be to fix in the long-term. How important and difficult changes are determine how they rank with respect to each other in terms of your metabolic priorities.