From eating dairy and spicy food to doing squats simple steps to speed up metabolism 

People often tell me that despite eating healthy they keep gaining weight – and they wonder if it’s because their metabolism has slowed down.

While I’ve long been skeptical about this, a remarkable new study published in the journal Nature suggests there really is something to that claim.

Using an accurate way to measure metabolic rate, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have shown that average metabolic rate has slowed over the past 40 years in the UK and elsewhere.

In fact, according to the researchers’ calculations, men burn about 220 fewer calories per day and women 122 fewer calories, compared to what people of the same size and shape would have done in the 1980s.

That’s a huge drop, big enough to explain most of the weight gain in those decades. But why has the average metabolic rate slowed down so dramatically?

Your metabolism is a measure of how many calories you burn each day to keep going. It’s made up of two parts: your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the amount of calories you need to keep vital functions like breathing and blood moving through your body. This accounts for about 70 percent of the calories we burn each day.

Then there’s total energy expenditure (TEE), the energy you expend during physical activity — such as running, vacuuming, walking the dog, or just plain fidgeting — added to your BMR.

Scientists measure TEE using the ‘dual labeled water’ method. You start by asking people to drink a special kind of water, where the hydrogen and oxygen molecules have been replaced by naturally occurring ‘heavy’ forms.

You then collect urine samples, and using some advanced math, it’s possible to estimate how many calories that person burns on a typical day.

For the latest study in the journal Nature, the British and Chinese scientists looked at data collected using this method from more than 4,000 people in the UK, US and Europe since the 1980s. And they had some remarkable findings. For starters, there’s a widespread belief that the rise in obesity over the past four decades is due, at least in part, to us becoming lazier, spending more time in front of screens, and burning fewer calories as a result.

But this study found just the opposite: People have at least become more active and burn more calories than they did in the 1980s.

Instead, much to the scientists’ surprise, they found that basal metabolic rate (i.e. the calories we expend just to stay alive) had dropped, explaining the large drop in total energy expenditure.

They believe one of the reasons for this is the major change in what we eat, with a decrease in consumption of meat and dairy products (which are high in saturated fats) and an increase in ultra-processed foods high in sugary carbohydrates. For years we were urged to reduce our consumption of saturated fats as it would reduce our risk of heart disease, although the evidence for this has never been stronger.

As the researchers point out, an unintended side effect of following this advice may have been a drop in average metabolic rate.

Studies in rats have shown that when you lower the levels of saturated fat in their diets, their metabolism slows down.

Similarly, there is some evidence in humans that switching to a ketogenic diet, which is higher in fat and low in carbohydrates, leads to a smaller drop in your metabolic rate than switching to a low-fat diet.

In a 2012 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, 21 overweight or obese adults were instructed to follow a ketogenic diet followed by a low-fat diet for a month, or vice versa. Although they experienced a drop in metabolic rate no matter what diet they followed (as you would expect, since they lost weight and people who lose weight have slower metabolisms), this was significantly greater when they followed a low-fat diet.

On the ketogenic diet, the amount of calories they burned only dropped by 95 per day, compared to 423 calories per day on the low-fat diet (one reason, I think, why keto may be a more effective way to lose weight and maintain it). ). it out).

Another possible reason why our basal metabolic rate has dropped is that we now heat our homes more. Before the days of central heating, our homes were much colder in the winter months and so we had to burn a lot of calories to keep our body temperature in a healthy range.

On the plus side of this, one of the adaptations that naturally occurs when you live in a colder home is that your body produces more brown fat – this type of fat is packed with mitochondria, tiny structures in your cells that act like mini powerhouses. convert food into energy. The more brown fat you have, the higher your metabolism.

So is there anything you can do to speed up your metabolism?

Aside from eating more saturated fat and turning down the thermostat a few more degrees, as I’ve gotten older I’ve started doing more resistance exercises, like pushups and squats, because muscle burns energy even when you’re asleep.

I’ve also been eating more spicy foods and drinking green tea, both of which have been shown to help metabolism.

Eating more protein, which is recommended as you age because it helps maintain muscle and bone, will also boost your metabolism, as your body uses more energy digesting and absorbing protein than foods that are high in carbohydrates.

And finally, drinking plenty of water and caffeine will also give your metabolism a little boost.

New gene test for postoperative painSeveral years ago I decided to test the power of hypnosis to curb pain by letting myself be hypnotized and then trying to stick a needle through the fleshy part of my hand.

The genes this test looks for include those that control the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that makes you feel good

This was unsuccessful as I couldn’t push the needle in very far before the pain meant I had to stop.

So I was surprised to see hypnosis being used more and more in hospitals, before and after surgery, to reduce pain.

This suggests that the hypnotist I used was not good, or that I am one of those who do not respond to this approach.

Now a team from Stanford University in the US has developed a genetic test to identify the patients who would benefit most from hypnosis.

The genes this test looks for include those that control the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that makes you feel good.

The idea is that having a simple blood test can help determine if being hypnotized before your surgery is worth it or not.

Beware of the scorching rays of the British sunI’m not normally that interested in celebrity life, but I was struck by a recent photo of Khloe Kardashian’s face after she had early melanoma removed.

In the UK there has been a huge rise in the incidence of melanoma and other skin cancers. This is almost entirely due to too much sun exposure

This is a dangerous form of skin cancer and it is the second that 38-year-old Khloe has had removed. Presumably she has some genetic predisposition or she’s just unlucky. I applaud the fact that she goes out and warns her young fans about the dangers of overexposure to ultraviolet light from the sun.

In the UK there has been a huge rise in the incidence of melanoma and other skin cancers. This is almost entirely due to too much sun exposure. Although we don’t get as much sun in the UK as people in say California, you can burn here.

Having fair skin is a major risk factor, which may explain why my wife, Clare, recently discovered skin cancer, a basal cell carcinoma (BCC), just below her lip.

BCC usually appears as a small, shiny pink or pearly white lump, or a red, scaly spot (Clare had it removed – you can find pictures on her Instagram page, @drclarebailey).

Keep in mind that while it’s vital to get some sun to boost your vitamin D levels, it’s just as important to avoid burning.