Hidden Factors of Metabolic Health
When most people hear the word “metabolism”, they think about how quickly they burn calories or how easily they gain or lose weight. However, true metabolic health goes far beyond weight management. It’s about how efficiently your body produces and uses energy at the cellular level. This affects everything from blood sugar balance to hormone regulation, brain clarity, immune resilience, and even longevity. The good news is that many of the factors influencing metabolism are within our control. If you have been struggling with your metabolism and can’t quite figure it out, check out some of the factors below that you may be overlooking!
Nutrition & Diet- this is the most obvious factor that affects how our bodies use and produce energy. Everything we eat influences how we process glucose, burn fat, and fuel our cells. If the fuel you are burning is highly refined, processed foods, then the energy output will likely be impaired and sluggish, contributing to weight gain and fatigue over time.
Tip: Prioritize nutrient-dense foods including lean proteins, colorful vegetables, fruits, healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, grass-fed butter), and high-quality carbohydrates like quinoa or sweet potatoes. This will help balance blood sugar and prevent spikes and crashes, especially by pairing protein and fat with carbs, limiting refined sugar, and considering lower-glycemic/higher fiber foods.
Physical Movement- Exercise isn’t just for burning calories, it improves insulin sensitivity, mitochondrial health, and fat metabolism. Specifically, strength training builds lean muscle, which ultimately increases your basal metabolic rate which is how many calories you burn just when you are sedentary. Cardio is also important, as it supports cardiovascular health and mitochondrial efficiency which helps strengthen the heart and fat burn at a faster rate.
Tip: Start slow and start by making small changes such as taking stairs, taking walking breaks in between meetings, add in some gardening, stretching, etc. Every bit of movement matters just as much as structured workouts.
Sleep Quality- Poor sleep is one of the most underestimated disruptors of metabolism. Just one night of restricted sleep can impair insulin sensitivity and increase cravings for sugar and processed carbs.
Tip: Aim for 7–9 hours of restorative sleep each night. Do your best to keep a consistent bedtime and wake-up schedule. Limit blue light at night and create a calming wind-down routine.
Stress- Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated, which raises blood sugar, impairs thyroid function, and promotes fat storage.
Tip: Find a daily stress relieving outlet such as adding in some deep breathing, meditation, prayer, journaling, or even stepping outside for 10 minutes during the workday.
Hormones- Your metabolic health depends on a delicate interplay of hormones beyond just insulin, including sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone), leptin & ghrelin (which affect hunger and satiety), and cortisol & adrenaline (which tie stress directly to metabolic outcomes), and thyroid hormones. If any of these are imbalanced, even the “perfect” diet and exercise routine may not deliver results.
Tip: Ask your medical provider to check all these different hormones above to target specific ones that may be out of balance and tipping the scale on your metabolic health.
Other Hidden Factors:
- Environmental toxins: Plastics (BPA), pesticides, and endocrine disruptors can impair insulin signaling and thyroid health.
- Gut microbiome: An imbalanced gut can alter how you extract calories, influence inflammation, and even affect appetite-regulating hormones.
- Hydration: Dehydration reduces mitochondrial efficiency and can slow metabolism.
- Circadian rhythm alignment: Exposure to natural light during the day and darkness at night regulates metabolic hormones. This also includes timing of meals and sleep/bedtimes as mentioned earlier.
Metabolic health isn’t determined by one factor alone and can be a complicated web. We recommend reflecting and looking at all these factors above to identify an area of need that can be tweaked to optimize your metabolic health. Just small, intentional changes in daily habits can profoundly shift how your body creates and uses energy.
If you’re struggling with fatigue, stubborn weight, sugar cravings, or hormone imbalances, it may be time to look deeper into your metabolic health. At our practice, we focus on identifying the root causes and creating personalized strategies to restore balance, helping you build resilience, not just manage symptoms. We are here to help! Please reach out to us to learn more and bring us into your healing journey by helping you restore joy through nutrition.
References
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Manoogian ENC, Panda S. Circadian rhythms, time-restricted feeding, and healthy aging. Ageing Res Rev. 2017;39:59-67.
DeFronzo RA, Ferrannini E. Insulin resistance: a multifaceted syndrome responsible for NIDDM, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Diabetes Care. 1991;14(3):173-194.
Spiegel K, Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. Lancet. 1999;354(9188):1435-1439.
Rosmond R. Role of stress in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2005;30(1):1-10.
Mullur R, Liu YY, Brent GA. Thyroid hormone regulation of metabolism. Physiol Rev. 2014;94(2):355-382.
Klok MD, Jakobsdottir S, Drent ML. The role of leptin and ghrelin in the regulation of food intake and body weight in humans: a review. Obes Rev. 2007;8(1):21-34.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
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