How Do I Eat to Change My Metabolism?

I have brought on someone that can answer this question with experience and expertise beyond myself, so lets turn it over to Jessen Houston, MS, RDN, ATC, CSCS

“There are a number of ways you can experiment with changing your metabolism.  Let’s start by defining metabolism. Metabolism can be described as the total amount of physical and chemical processes that take place in the body. It can be measured in kilo calories(kcal/calories). Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is what you burn at rest and the amount of calories you burn throughout the day with normal chemical processes.  Estimated Energy Expenditure (EEE) is amount of energy you burn with physical activity and exercise.  For your total metabolic rate, simply add the two together. This number is a quantitative way to assess and measure your metabolism.  However simple addition is, identifying EEE can be difficult and it’s the most controllable and variable aspect of changing your metabolism. Metabolic carts and other calculations can be used to estimate your BMR(Krause).

Quite obviously, the simple answer to changing how you eat is to eat in ways that enhance your ability to exercise more and be more physically active, since this is the most variable aspect of metabolism. Finding a balanced, healthy fitness or performance program you can do consistently, enhances your metabolism. For example, both carbohydrates and fats are primarily used for long distance running (Achten and Jeukendrup). To optimize your run, ensure your pre-activity meal consists of the appropriate amount of both nutrient dense carbohydrates, such as sweet potatoes, and healthier fats like almonds. The other macronutrient protein, along with carbohydrates, is required to optimize benefits of resistance training and enhance muscle synthesis. This type of training is a great avenue to increase both BMR and EEE. The required amount varies based on individual dynamics and the type of training. In general, we advocate for a carb to protein ratio of meals after workouts to be at 4:1 ratio (Williams).  Men typically have higher BMR due to the ratio of fat tissue compared to adipose tissue. Resistance training is one of the best methods to enhance this ratio to your benefit.  Finding reasons to increase activity like parking further away during grocery shopping all add to enhance EEE and metabolism.

Another healthy eating habit to increase your metabolism is to increase the number of meals you consume. Ideally, eating 4-6 snacks, or smaller meals each day, will force your digestive system to become more efficient at metabolizing your food. Our digestive systems prefers this methodology over eating 3 large meals a day. Smaller, more frequent meals, help regulate your blood glucose which can allow you to be more productive at work and in the gym.  To the notion of gut health, probiotics enhance the ecosystem of the digestive tract, which can allow nutrients to be absorbed more efficiently. The more efficiently you can absorb and utilize macro and more specifically micronutrients the better you can exercise and metabolize foods. Among other things, enzymes are key to metabolism and enzymes are derived from efficiency of nutrient absorption. (Williams)”

1. Mahan, Kathleen et al. Krause’s Food & the Nutrition Care Process 13ed. 2015
2. Phd Juul Acten and PhD Asker E. Jeunekdrup. Optimizing fat oxidation through exercise and diet. 2004, Nutrition Volume 20 #7/8
3. William, Melvin. Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Sport. 11ed. 2017

Meet Jessen Houston

Jessen Houston is a Registered Dietitian Nutrition, Certified Athletic Trainer and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who serves as a Director of Nutrition and Performance at a K-12 Independent school in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also the owner of Comprehensive Nutrition Performance & Wellness Consulting LLC, where he works with professional athletes, student athletes and general population designing healthy eating plans around their exercise and performance training. He specializes in providing holistic performance, wellness and nutrition programs. Some of the services he provides are, virtual nutrition counseling, exercise performance program design and instruction, body composition assessment, resting metabolic testing, sports nutrition presentation, chronic disease education, disordered eating counseling, biochemical analysis, customized meal planning, meal planning education, nutrient analysis, medical nutrition therapy, fueling station design, injury assessment and functional movement analysis. Contact Email: jessen