Metabolic age is different from chronological age. Your chronological age is your age by calendar years. Your metabolic age depends on your activity level, gender, family genetics, height, weight and actual age. If your metabolic age is lower than your chronological age, your body is in better health than average. If your metabolic age is higher than your chronological age, you are less fit and healthy than average, and you need to change your eating and exercising habits.
Finding out your metabolic age can be a real shocker, sometimes leaving individuals upset because their metabolic ages are considerably higher than their chronological age. During fitness challenges in Galva, we have had thirty- and forty-year olds with metabolic ages in the eighty or ninety year ranges. These people don’t feel good, are fatigued, have joint pain, and they struggle to lose and keep weight off. They have work to do.
I frequently get asked if individuals can lower their metabolic age. The answer is YES. Dropping excess pounds, eating nutrient-rich foods, staying away from fast food, exercising daily, and drinking eight plus glasses of water a day all go hand-in-hand with fixing a high metabolic age.
If you would like to know what your metabolic age is, call your doctor’s office or contact a local fitness center and ask if they have a body composition scale that can calculate this. What is your metabolic age, and do you have work to do this Fall?