How To Speed Up Your Metabolism After 40
If you have turned 40 you most likely would have noticed that your metabolism has started slowing down. This is one of the most dreaded thoughts, especially for women. Most women will notice the slow down between the ages of 35 to 40 years. This is where you need to know how to speed up your metabolism after 40 so you can keep your weight under control.
Everyone’s metabolism is different, unfortunately, the older you get the slower it will become for most people.
What Is Metabolism?
Your metabolism is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms.
It consists of anabolism which is the build-up of substances and also catabolism which is the breakdown of substances.
In basic terms, it turns food into energy. As you get older this process slows down and may not be as effective by turning food into energy. This is where some foods turn into fat storage and causing you to put on weight.
How To Speed Up Your Metabolism After 40
Stay Hydrated – Drink Water 
Water is one of the most natural and healthiest things on the planet. Drinking water is a great way to flush toxins out of your system and stay hydrated.
Regardless of how active you are, you should drink at least 8 cups of water per day. This will help your metabolism and also burn off calories.
Ice water can be more effective than cold or room temperature. Tap water is expected to burn off around 50 calories per day, whereas ice water can burn off around 70 calories.
Drinking water during meal times are also very effective and should be done with every meal.
Red Tea – Rooibos
Most would have heard of a red tea detox before, also known as ‘Rooibos’.
This is one of the most effective teas for detoxing and has many health benefits. The red tea is full of antioxidants that aid in flushing out bad toxins from your body while boosting your metabolism.
This tea is just like a natural weight loss that has tonnes of health benefits and is scientifically proved to be effective for weight loss.
Eat Spicy Food Types 
Now not everyone likes to eat spicy food, but if you do……..get into it!!!
Spicy foods that contain chili peppers will boost your metabolism rate and will help assist in weight loss.
Peppers are known to contain a substance called ‘Capsaicin’. Capsaicin is the compound in chili peppers that make them hot. It is believed that this compound helps with weight loss. This can speed up your metabolism and lower your fat tissue. They say that capsaicin also reduces your appetite.
Try an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
An anti-inflammatory diet is rich in fibers from fruits, vegetables, and whole grain. This is a great way to give your metabolism a huge benefit and ramp things up!!
Protein
Always ensure that your diet contains some protein, especially in the mornings. You ideally want to have around 20 grams for each meal that you intake during the day. 20 grams is equivalent to 3 eggs.
Some protein-rich foods are: 
- Fish
- Meats
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Lentils
Beans and lentils are a good source of protein and are low in calories. These also lower insulin levels, therefore, you will store less fat.
These types of foods are guaranteed to increase your metabolism as they require more energy from your body to fully digest them.
Coffee
Studies have shown that if you drink 3 cups of coffee per day it can increase your metabolic rate by up to 11%. Coffee can boost the amount of fat your body burns per day, although everyone is not the same.
Keep in mind, some people become tolerant and it can stop the effect of weight loss and speeding up your metabolic rate.
Do Workouts/High-Intensity Workouts 
High-intensity workouts would be one of the best workouts to get the cardio up, increase your metabolic rate and turn your body into a fat-burning machine.
The high-intensity workouts use a short burst of energy which is very effective.
You can even do high-intensity workouts from the comfort of your own home without any equipment, these are affordable and easy to do.
Ensure You Are Getting Enough Sleep
Sure most of us love to sleep our life away, but if you sleep too much or not enough it could be affecting 
your health.
Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy metabolism.
You require an adequate amount of sleep. The recommended amount of sleep for an adult is at least 7 – 8 hours per night.
Try not to nap during the day as this can reduce your metabolic rate as you are having too much sleep, sleep should be done in 1 block in a 24 hour period, not several.
Having too little sleep can release a hormone in your body called ghrelin. When your body releases this hormone it can make you feel hungry and want to eat. This also decreases your leptin levels. When you have correct leptin levels, they will make you feel full.
Vitamin B
B Vitamins go hand-in-hand with your metabolic rate. B1, B2, and B6 vitamins are the most effective for your metabolism.
Try eating more:
- Baked potatoes
- Bananas
- Peanut Butter
- Eggs
- Spinach
- Peas
- Oranges & Orange juice
That’s just a few, but there are a heap more.
Eat Several Times a Day
You should be eating several small meals or snacks per day around 4 hours apart.
Doing this will prevent you from having a few big meals per day and slowing down your metabolism. If you only had a few big meals a day, this would slow down the burning of calories and your body will store more fat.
Pack Snacks When You Are Going Out
Whether it’s going to work, shopping or just visiting friends, always try to keep some healthy snacks on your work desk or in the car.
This way if you are busy and have to skip morning tea or lunch, you will have a healthy snack by your side and not tempted to buy junk food at the corner store.
Some healthy snack ideas are: 
- Apples
- Bananas
- Protein Bars
- Nuts
- Nut Bars
Green Tea
While green tea doesn’t have as many benefits as red tea, green tea can be beneficial to help lose weight and possibly boost your metabolism. Green tea is still packed with antioxidants.
Green tea contains caffeine which can also help with weight loss and exercising, although, some people don’t like having caffeine, especially at night time.
Stand At Work
If your day job is sitting at an office desk all day, see if you can get a work station where you can stand up for some of the days.
Just think, we sleep for around 8 hours per night, then go to work for around 9 hours per day. You don’t want to be immobile for that amount of time.
Stress Less
In today’s society, almost everyone has some sort of stress going on in their life. Whether it’s financial, relationships or just general day to day living, life seems to be more and more stressful.
The more you stress the more your body will become flooded with stress hormones, these stress hormones (also known as Cortisol) can actually lead to weight gain. Normal levels of cortisol are good for you, however when you are stressed your body will create too much
Foods To Cut Back On For Your Metabolism
Sugary Drinks
Sugary drinks could and can slow down your metabolism and cause you to store more fat cells.
Sweetened drinks are strongly connected to weight gain and it is recommended to avoid them.
This is where water, red tea or green tea can substitute these unhealthy drinks.
If you rely on sugar in your diet, you should perhaps look into doing a sugar detox. Eliminating sugar from your diet will help you to lose weight.
Alcohol
Most people like to sit down at the end of the day and relax with a few alcoholic beverages. This could be doing more harm than good.
It has been found that excessive drinking is associated with an increased risk of obesity.
If you are going to have a drink on occasions, limit the amount that you are drinking as you are only adding to your stored fat cells.
Refined Grains
You will find refined grains in white bread, pasta, processed food, packaged food, and rice just to name a few.
Try to avoid these foods or limit them as much as possible as they are only adding to your waistline.
Summary
I hope you enjoyed these tips for ‘How to speed up your metabolism after 40’.
To sum it up, we are all different and we all have a different metabolic rate. The older we get, the quicker we should jump onto eating healthy and doing what we can to maintain a healthy weight to prevent things like diabetes and heart disease just to name a couple.
There are a lot more side effects of being overweight, you can read more here.
