Five simple strategies to optimise your health and fitness
Five simple strategies to optimise your health and fitness
Biohacking, the practice of optimising your biology, has gained widespread popularity as a self-improvement trend. According to an article by Dischem, while some approaches may seem peculiar or even absurd, others are firmly rooted in scientific principles, providing genuine benefits when incorporated into a comprehensive approach to well-being.
Although not instant solutions, these five hacks have the potential to enhance your outcomes and maximise the advantages of your diet and exercise routine. Consider these strategies as valuable tools in your journey towards a healthier and more optimised lifestyle.
1. Optimise Your Protein Intake
When it comes to healthful eating or dieting, most people fixate on the carbohydrates or fats in their diet. While many people understand how important protein is to the muscle-building and repair processes, there are other potential benefits from this important macronutrient.
For starters, protein is more satiating than carbohydrates. That means you can eat less and still feel full and satisfied. Importantly, adding protein to carbohydrate reduces the glycaemic response by delaying gastric emptying and stimulating insulin secretion.
These effects have numerous possible implications for our health and nutrition, such as supporting the role of high protein diets to help manage diabetes by lowering the glycaemic load of meals.
Increasing your muscle mass, which requires adequate protein, can also help you lose or maintain your weight by increasing your resting metabolic rate.
2. Eliminate Added Sugars
Added and processed sugar is highly addictive and can damage our health and body in numerous ways when consumed in excess. For instance, an excessive sugar intake is linked to conditions such as obesity, chronic systemic inflammation, hormonal imbalances, metabolic syndrome, various cancers, numerous cognitive diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, high cholesterol and fatty liver disease.
Thankfully, it seems you can start to reverse the negative effects of sugar consumption relatively quickly. A study found that a 12-week intervention focused on decreasing added sugar intake had “the potential to reduce type 2 diabetes risk in overweight youth”.
Other short-term benefits reported by people who quit sugar include better sleep and more stable energy levels throughout the day, enhanced cognitive function and reduced brain fog, and better skin health.
3. Optimise Your Daily Movement
The key to staying healthy is to rethink the idea of exercise. In addition to a designated workout slot, aim to get active as often as you can, including during downtime.
For example, consider turning off the TV and going for a walk around the block to relax. Making movement part of your daily routine is an easy yet effective way to boost your fitness, metabolism and overall health.
According to Dr James Levine, everyday activities that are unrelated to exercise can burn an extra 2,000 calories a day when comparing people of similar sizes.
Dr Levine defined this phenomenon as non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and continues to study it. Research suggests that burning more calories throughout the day and eating more food but remaining in a slight calorie deficit is a more effective way to lose weight.
4. Optimise Your Workouts with Micro Sessions
If your office job and daily schedule are too busy to keep moving around to boost your NEAT, try micro workouts. These short bouts of easy activity or intense exercise performed periodically throughout the day, rather than in a single session, can also deliver health and fitness benefits.
A growing body of research suggests that micro workouts can certainly deliver benefits. For example, a study published in 2022 determined that performing short ‘exercise snacks’ every day, rather than longer exercise sessions, was enough to improve metabolic health.
Another study determined that 20-second bursts of intense stair climbing offered “a practical, time-efficient strategy” to boost fitness levels and improve cardiorespiratory function (in previously untrained women). The key is to vary the intensity and the total volume and frequency of these exercise snacks throughout the day.
5. Optimise Your Appetite Control
For many people, sticking to a diet is the hardest part of a body or lifestyle transformation, particularly due to the hunger that accompanies a reduced calorie intake. You can make this a less daunting task with simple diet hacks that help you suppress your appetite.
Adding a supplement like an appetite suppressant can help to temporarily dull your hunger and increase the feeling of fullness.
You can also try one of the oldest hacks in the book – drinking a glass of water before a meal. A study confirmed that drinking water before eating reduced the amount of food consumed.
These results prompted researchers to conclude that pre-meal water consumption “may be an effective weight control strategy”. Another study showed that drinking 568 ml of water before a meal decreased calorie intake and hunger while increasing fullness and satisfaction.
In conclusion, biohacking can be a powerful tool for optimising your health and fitness. By incorporating these five simple strategies into your daily routine, you can enhance your outcomes and maximise the advantages of your diet and exercise routine.
From optimising your protein intake to eliminating added sugars, optimising your daily movement, workouts, and appetite control, these biohacks can help you achieve your health and fitness goals.