Get on the Wagon

When we come across the term lifestyle, we tend to think of the basic day-to-day habits that we rely on; sometimes without giving them much of a second thought.  And this is indeed the case when we talk about how lifestyle influences the speed of your metabolism.

Now, quite honestly, most of us live busy lives in one form or another, and therefore it’s challenging to really keep an eye on all of our habits. 

Balancing work, family, hobbies, and other commitments often means that our lifestyle isn’t so much of a choice, as it is a necessity.


Yet with respect to the fact that many of us face sincere limitations in our lifestyle choices, there are many things that we can do – little things, but important things – that can help speed up our metabolism.


Do you know people who carefully choose low-fat, low-calorie meal choices, are very disciplined when it comes to not ordering the Chef’s Special pecan pie for desert, yet order a glass or two of wine with their meal? 

Well, unfortunately, these people are really undermining their efforts to boost metabolism. 

Studies show that drinking alcohol with meals actually encourages over eating; which means more calories that need to be burned away (or transformed into fat!). 

Furthermore, many people are simply unaware that many alcoholic drinks are laden with calories; almost as much as sugary-rich soft drinks.


 A bottle of beer can deliver a few hundred calories, and most cocktails are in the same range.  Wine is generally considered to deliver the least amount of calories; but even this is a bit of a slippery slope. 

Three glasses of wine can be worth 300 calories that the body simply has to deal with in one form or another.

The tip here isn’t to stop drinking alcohol altogether (despite the title of this section).  If you enjoy alcohol then there’s no particular reason why you have to quit cold turkey, but you will save a bit of money and not consume as many calories.

Simply, the call here is that you become aware that it influences your metabolism.  If you consume excess alcohol (even without becoming inebriated), you force your system to deal with more calories. 

And unless you’re compensating for these added calories through exercise or muscle building, catabolism cannot occur.  Instead, anabolism will inevitably occur, and new cells will be created from those calories (mostly fat cells).