FORGET BMI—HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON “METABOLIC HEALTH”

We’ve all heard of the metabolism: how well—or poorly—your body processes energy. Metabolism is often talked about in terms of weight loss or gain, but fundamentally, metabolism is about “converting the potential energy in food to a usable form of energy that powers our cells,” says Casey Means, MD, best-selling author of Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health and a co-founder of Levels, a metabolic health tracking device. Your metabolism dictates a lot of things (weight included, but not exclusively), and when it’s unhealthy, it can lead to a range of diseases from type 2 diabetes to Alzheimers to behavioral disorders to cardiovascular issues to autoimmune diseases.

Metabolic health, on the other hand, is about far more than your BMI—which is an outdated metric. It refers to the optimal functioning of the entire metabolic system, including blood glucose, blood pressure, blood lipids, history of cardiovascular disease, and adiposity. According to a recent survey, 93.2 percent of Americans aren’t metabolically healthy.

This term is not really in our everyday vocabulary and is even relatively new to the medical field—partly because it requires a holistic look at our bodies, which Means says is lacking in our current healthcare system. “There's this interesting phenomenon happening where the more we actually spend on healthcare in the United States—now 4.5 trillion dollars per year—the sicker Americans are getting,” he says. “It's much more profitable to wait for people to get sick and then treat their various symptoms and conditions with whack-a mole medicine and chronic disease management for life.”

But failing to take a holistic approach is impacting people’s quality of life. “Metabolic health controls everything,” says Dr. Mariyka Nichols, MD, chief medical officer at Ciba Health, a root-caused healthcare organization. “It’s really maintaining the overall balance; it affects every system of the body.” When metabolic health is optimized, people often experience increased energy, improved mental clarity, better physical performance, and even an increased feeling of well-being. Conversely, poor metabolic health can contribute to chronic fatigue and brain fog, making it harder to engage in everyday activities and fully enjoy life. Plus, “if you get your metabolic health under better control, it’s slashing the risk of almost every chronic symptom and disease,” says Means.

Now, medical providers have more tools at their disposal to get a comprehensive look at your metabolic health through a detailed lifestyle questionnaire, blood glucose monitoring, wearable data tracking, blood work panels, blood pressure testing, and weight circumference measurements. These assessments help identify underlying issues that might not be apparent through traditional health metrics like weight or BMI alone. If testing comes back outside of optimal ranges, Nichols and her team would dive in to find the underlying triggers and influences based on lifestyle. “We’re not just treating one symptom, we’re really looking at it all,” says Nichols. Even if you can’t see a root-cause or preventative healthcare provider, you can get most of these lab tests covered by insurance—you just may need to be proactive and ask your doctor.

If you’re not already metabolically healthy, not all is lost: You don’t just naturally have “fast” or “slow” metabolism, as we once assumed. “The empowering part,” says Means, “is that there is so much we can do to improve our mitochondrial function.” According to Michal Mor, cofounder of Lumen, a metabolic tracking device, we can influence our metabolic health by prioritizing four lifestyle categories: Nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress levels.

Ultimately, the most powerful things you can do to optimize your metabolic health aren’t novel—they’re pretty on par with recommendations from nearly every health and longevity expert. Get enough sleep, eat a nutrient-rich diet of real foods, incorporate daily movement (with at least some of it strenuous), and keep those damn stress levels under control.