You’ve probably heard the term metabolic age before but might not be sure what it is or why it matters. Metabolic age is a measure of how well you are aging metabolically. The higher your metabolic age, the greater the risk associated with many chronic diseases and conditions that tend to come with an increase in age.
While some aspects of metabolic health cannot be controlled (such as family history), others can (such as diet and exercise).
Metabolic age is an indicator of overall health status. In fact, it’s a predictor of overall mortality (that is, your chances of dying early from any cause). By comparison, your chronological age is simply how old you are on paper. It doesn’t tell you if you’re at risk or not for chronic illness and death.
How to find out your metabolic age
If you want to find out your metabolic age , you’ll need to get your metabolic age score (or MAS). Your MAS compares your ‘actual’ age against an expected, or theoretical, age for someone of your gender and weight.
The greater your metabolic age, the more ‘at risk’ you are for developing chronic disease or dying from it. The lower your metabolic age, the healthier you are likely to be and this means a reduction in your chances of early death.
How do I reduce my metabolic age?
There is no easy answer to this question but the most important and easiest way to lower your metabolic age is by taking care of your overall health.To do this, you need to focus on reducing health risks by improving your diet and increasing physical activity levels. In many cases, small, simple lifestyle changes can have a big impact in terms of lowering your metabolic age. Increasingly, newer research suggests that eating healthy foods has an almost immediate effect on your body’s ability to heal itself.
Another popular lifestyle choice that has been shown to improve longevity and overall health is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is simply where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting, without going into a state of starvation.
Proponents believe it is the easiest way to virtually guarantee health improvements in your body within weeks. If you’re interested in intermittent fasting, you must take advice from a qualified professional and start with low intensity, shorter fasting. When starting out this would either be 13-16 hours per day of fasting, or 2-3 days per week with a caloric intake of around 500 kcal, with the remainder of the week a balanced, full diet.
