I’m 53 but I have the metabolism of a 38-year-old. Here’s how I did it
Have you ever felt jealous of that slim person in the office who helps themselves to cakes and biscuits from the snack shelf, yet remains as thin as a rake? No doubt they’ll laugh about their “fast metabolism”, infuriating those of us who pile on the pounds when we even so much as look at a cream bun.
We tend to assume that a fast metabolism is simply a genetic gift bestowed at birth by a benevolent fairy godmother. But in fact, there’s plenty we can do to reset our metabolism, as I discovered in my 50s after struggling with my weight for much of my life.
What is our metabolism and how can we change it?
Sex, genetics, size and age do dictate our metabolism, but other factors also affect it, says Dr Sarah Berry, the chief scientist at personalised nutrition app Zoe. “Infections or illness, and menopause affect our metabolism. Body composition is also important – muscles need more energy than fat when you’re at rest, so people with more muscle have a higher metabolic rate,” she says.
Colloquially, we think of our metabolism as the speed we burn calories, but it’s a little more complicated, Dr Berry explains. “In short, ‘metabolism’ is the hundreds of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive and functioning. Metabolism underpins our health.”
It’s how we turn food into energy and repair our bodies. But if we consume more calories than we need to keep our bodies going, we store that excess as fat – and that’s when the trouble can start.
A catch-22 situation arises. Because when we have more fat and less muscle we become less efficient at processing food, which can lead to skyrocketing blood fats and more pronounced blood sugar highs and lows.
Dr Berry explains: “After eating, levels of sugar (glucose) and fat in the blood rise. This is normal. However, in people who are less metabolically healthy, their responses may be more pronounced or last longer. Zoe’s research has shown pronounced blood fat responses after eating are linked to increased levels of inflammation, which can cause damage to cells and tissue.
“Over time, this can increase the risk of heart disease and other metabolic conditions [such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity or cancer].”
In the summer of 2020, I realised that I was on the road to joining the ranks of the metabolically unhealthy – typically, warning signs are bulging waistbands (over 40 inches for men and 34 inches for women), high blood pressure and high levels of bad cholesterol.
After a month-long break in France full of boozy nights, brie and baguettes, I broke my toes on the final day of the holiday jumping into the nearby lake.
In the UK, locked in the house for a period of quarantine and hobbling around on one leg, I cheered myself up with wine o’clock and a fair amount of boredom grazing. Before I’d left for the holidays I’d invested in a snazzy new set of Tanita bathroom scales. Now after weeks of a sedentary lifestyle, I was dismayed to learn that my weight had crept up from around 11st 4lb to nearly 12st at 5ft 10in, but worse than that was my body composition.
My scales – which calculate body composition by sending an electrical pulse through your body – told me my body fat percentage had spiralled to 38 per cent from just over 30 in two months, visceral fat (that hidden fat which we can’t see or pinch but which wraps itself around your internal organs) had gone up, increasing my risk of heart disease and diabetes. I’d lost 4lb of muscle, even though I’d put on weight. I was in the metabolic danger zone – my scales told me my body was that of a 58-year-old. I was 49.
My daily resting calorie burn was estimated to be under 1,400 a day – compared to around 1,500 for an active woman my age or 1,745 for a man. It was time to take action.
How you can improve your metabolism
Aged 22, I’d rowed for Oxford and trained 12 times a week, becoming the proverbial lean mean fighting machine who struggled to keep weight on despite a diet heavy in white carbs. Could I kickstart my metabolism and return my body to its previous athletic state?
I’d started rowing again in 2019, but the pandemic had put paid to any proper training. Now it was time to take it more seriously – and overhaul my diet too.
I started training in earnest at the Lea Rowing Club, my local club on the River Lea in East London, fitting in sessions early on weekend mornings and in the evening after work. It was still a bit hit and miss due to lockdowns, but in March 2021 my rowing partner and I signed up for a summer season of racing – a sure way to motivate you to do some training!
As the weight came off and my muscle mass increased, I decided to prioritise sleep as well, turning in by 10pm and aiming for eight hours a night. Sleep has an important role to play in regulating our metabolism – especially at breakfast.
Dr Berry says: “Zoe’s research has shown that after a poor night’s sleep, we have a less healthy blood sugar response to breakfast the next day. The same is true if we have an irregular sleep-wake cycle and go to bed later.”
When it came to my diet, I made sure I ate sensibly, with a good balance of protein, carbs and healthy fats. I’m a fan of an 80/20 approach to eating, so I don’t cut food groups out and always allow myself treats. I know that drinking lots of alcohol leads to carb binges the next day, so I try to have at least three alcohol-free days a week.
The biggest change has been eating more lean meat, as I naturally lean towards carbs. Studies have shown protein helps build muscle in conjunction with resistance training – plus, I’m not a fan of crash diets or calorie counting, as I know from following excessive 1,000-calorie-a-day diets as a teenager, you just put more weight on afterwards once you start eating normally again.
That’s because the body has an amazing ability to adapt to lower food intake or indeed, excessive amounts of exercise. Berry explains: “When you reduce your calorie intake, your metabolic rate also reduces by a small amount, this is one of the reasons that calorie restriction rarely produces sustained weight loss.”
I realised hormones were probably playing a role in my weight gain too. The Swan study suggests midlife women can put on around 1.5lb a year. As oestrogen levels decline, lean muscle mass reduces and metabolic rate slows down, while fat tends to be deposited around the middle. To counteract this, I started taking HRT. Research by Zoe has found women on HRT had better blood sugar and blood fat responses to food, and lower body fat.
Reducing my metabolic age
Now, four years on after that fateful summer, I’ve managed to completely alter my body composition. I’m now firmly in the category of the metabolically healthy – my BP is normal and my waist is under 30 inches.
In my midlife health check last year, I came away with a clean bill of health, with my blood fats (cholesterol and triglycerides) and blood sugar all normal.
As for my body composition, my scales tell me that my body is a bonafide furnace, burning around 1,500 calories at rest – and once I factor in my training schedule, I should be eating at least 2,500 calories a day. Visceral fat levels have gone down – the scales give a number between 1-59 and while mine has always been in the healthy range, under 12, it’s now five rather than six or seven.
Meanwhile, my body fat is now a healthy 25 per cent. And, please don’t hate me, I actually struggle to keep weight on, and to that end, I have a normal diet which, as my husband is French and does the cooking, is heavy on meat and dairy. If I need extra calories, homemade chocolate milk is my go-to.
Best of all, because I’m actively engaged in a sport – which I’ve got my kids into as well – I don’t get bored with my training. I know that if I gave up tomorrow, I would quickly find myself back in the same state I was in in 2020. So for me, there’s no option but to continue getting back in the boat.
My training regime
I train five to six times a week, including at least one 60-90 minute session paddling at 65 per cent of my max heart rate. We call it UT2: training you could do while still being able to hold a conversation, like a power walk or slow jog. It burns fat but builds aerobic capacity.
Then I’ll add some HIIT or anaerobic training which could be 6 x 500m on the rowing machine with two minutes rest in between, 10 x 1 minute sprints with 1 minute rest or a body circuit session. A 2020 study showed this type of exercise improved fat oxidation – the process of breaking down fat to get energy.
But you don’t have to train six times a week to reset your metabolism. As evidence suggests that resistance training can lead to an increase in resting metabolic rate, make sure you include one weight training session a week. Add to that one high intensity HIIT session – which may lead to raised post-exercise energy expenditure – and one fat-burning long walk of at least 30 minutes, and you’ll be on your way to boosting your metabolism.
As we age, muscle mass decreases 3-8 per cent per decade, which can correspondingly lead to increased fat mass. To counter this I mix up hypertrophy training – doing more reps at a lower weight with less rest in between sets, to increase muscle size – with strength training – fewer reps at a higher weight with more rest in between sets, to increase muscle strength.