What is Metabolic Health?

When you hear metabolic health, weight might be the first thing you think of. But your metabolism does so much more than influence the scale you want to chuck across the room every time you step on it. It isn’t just about calories in and calories out; it’s about how your body makes and manages energy.

It affects how clear your mind feels, how steady your energy stays, and how well your body handles stress. Even things like blood pressure, hormones, and mood are tied to metabolic balance. That’s why learning how to improve metabolic health is about more than weight; it’s about helping your body run the way it was designed to.

When metabolic health is off, fatigue creeps in, cravings take over, and motivation dips—even when you’re “doing everything right.” Maybe you’re cutting sugar, sleeping better, moving your body—and yet, something still feels off.

When most people think of “metabolic issues,” they think of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that includes high blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, and increased waist circumference. However, metabolic syndrome is essentially just one consequence of poor energy regulation. True metabolic health starts long before those markers appear — in how efficiently your cells make, use, and restore energy every single day.

Only about 12% of adults, or 1 in 8, are considered metabolically healthy, meaning most of us have room to improve the way our bodies produce and use energy. So what actually shapes metabolic health? Let’s take a look.

 

What Metabolic Health Really Means

Metabolic health is your body’s way of keeping the lights on. 

It’s how you turn food into fuel and make sure that fuel gets where it needs to go. Inside each cell, little “engines” called mitochondria create energy, and your hormones help direct the flow, deciding when to store it, when to use it, and when to recharge.

Your mitochondria are responsible for roughly 90% of the energy your body uses every day. That energy powers more than movement. It supports hormone balance, detoxification, digestion, and repair.  When any part of this system is strained, your body starts to let you know: afternoon crashes, brain fog, stubborn weight changes, or that wired-but-tired feeling at night.

If you’ve run a Full Scan with us, you’ve seen the dials at the top of the report. We test 14 body systems, and one of them is the metabolism dial. This highlights how your energy system is performing. When it shows stress, it’s your body’s way of signaling that something is overworked, undernourished, or energetically blocked. Each of the 14 system dials connects back to this same foundation — showing how nutrition, toxins, and physical or emotional stress can all influence energy production.

Here’s a sample report! 

Metabolic health depends on many interconnected areas working in sync:

• Energy production: how well your mitochondria create ATP — the cellular fuel that powers every function in the body.
• Nutrient utilization: how efficiently your body absorbs and uses B vitamins, magnesium, and CoQ10 to support metabolism.
• Hormone balance: how thyroid hormones, insulin, cortisol, and others regulate energy, blood sugar, and repair.
• Blood sugar stability: how consistently your body maintains steady glucose and insulin levels throughout the day.
• Stress and recovery: how effectively your body resets after emotional or physical strain.
• Detoxification and inflammation: how well your liver, gut, and lymphatic systems clear byproducts that can slow energy production.
• Gut and microbiome health: how your digestive system supports nutrient absorption and communication with the rest of your body

 

Together, these systems paint a fuller picture of metabolic health,  not as a single number or measurement, but as an ongoing reflection of how well your body creates, protects, and restores energy.

Why Supporting Metabolic Balance Matters

When your energy pathways are under stress, your body starts sending signals. It might look like:

• Fatigue that lingers even after a full night’s sleep
• Recovery that feels slower than it used to
• Brain fog or dips in focus and motivation
• Cravings that hit hard or blood sugar that feels unpredictable
• Sensitivity to certain foods, environments, or stressors you used to handle fine

 

These patterns don’t show up out of nowhere. They are often signs that your body’s energy systems are working overtime—trying to keep up with stress, nutritional gaps, or a toxic load.

Chronic, low-grade inflammation is one of the most significant drains on energy production, and research indicates that it can directly impair insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial function. 

By identifying the energetic stress behind these patterns, you can start making targeted, effective changes instead of guessing what’s off. That’s what it means to improve metabolic health, not perfection, but energy that feels steady, adaptable, and sustainable.

How to Improve Metabolic Health Naturally

You don’t need drastic diets or a supplement lineup that could fill a countertop. Small, consistent actions that support energy flow make the biggest difference:

1. Hydrate and Remineralize

Metabolism depends on minerals as much as it does on macronutrients. Magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus act like spark plugs for your cells, helping enzymes create and transport energy. When you’re even mildly dehydrated, those reactions slow down, leaving you fatigued.

Support Idea: Add a pinch of sea salt or a few drops of trace minerals to your water, and aim for steady hydration throughout the day instead of chugging it all at once. Include mineral-rich foods like lentils, leafy greens, beans, avocado, and nuts.

2. Reduce Inflammation

Low-grade inflammation is one of the quietest ways metabolism gets drained. It forces your body to redirect resources toward repair instead of energy creation. Omega-3 fats, antioxidants, and phytonutrients help put out those internal “fires.”

Support Idea: Incorporate anti-inflammatory staples like wild-caught salmon, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and a variety of colorful produce into your daily diet. Limit processed oils and refined sugars that keep inflammation smoldering.

3. Balance Your Meals

Blood sugar swings are an instant energy thief. Spiking and crashing glucose levels leave you tired, irritable, and craving more quick energy. Balanced meals provide your body with steady energy and help regulate insulin responses.

Support Idea: Build your plate around protein, healthy fats, and fiber. Think eggs and veggies cooked in olive oil, a salad with chicken and avocado, or salmon with quinoa and greens. Eat slowly and avoid skipping meals when stress is high—it only exacerbates crashes. Prioritizing protein and fiber has been shown to reduce post-meal blood sugar spikes significantly. Also include fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir, or yogurt, and feed your beneficial bacteria with fiber-rich vegetables and prebiotics like garlic and onions.

 4. Prioritize Recovery and Sleep

Your metabolism doesn’t just burn energy, it also rebuilds it. ATP recharges most efficiently when you rest. Chronic stress and poor sleep, on the other hand, increase cortisol levels and disrupt blood sugar regulation.

Support Idea: Create a consistent bedtime routine, dim lights an hour before bed, and unplug from screens. Gentle movement like walking, stretching, or restorative yoga helps your nervous system shift out of “fight-or-flight,” so energy can flow back into repair.

When you test with CBH, you’ll enter our wellness and detox course, The Wellness Activator.

4. Move for Energy, Not Punishment

Regular movement trains your body to use energy more efficiently, improving mitochondrial density, blood sugar regulation, and overall mood. You don’t need intense workouts to see benefits; even gentle daily activity helps.

Support Idea: Taking short walking breaks can make a real difference. In one study, adults who walked for just 2 minutes every 20 minutes after meals saw about a 25% lower post-meal glucose and insulin response compared to sitting continuously.   

5. Support Histamine and Detox Balance

If your body struggles to clear histamine or environmental byproducts, inflammation builds,  and that slows metabolic function. The liver, gut, and lymphatic systems all play roles in this clearance.

Support Idea: 

• Choose fresh, whole foods over aged or processed ones, and avoid tomatoes, avocados, eggplants, squash, and spinach. 
• Eliminate gluten-containing foods
• Avoid citrus, nuts, and certain seasonings–when these resonate on the sensitivities section, this could be a link to histamine issues.
• Alcohol, cheese, and dried fruit may increase histamine
• Support detox pathways with lemon water, cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts), and adequate hydration.
• Add vitamin C and B6-rich foods (such as bell peppers, chickpeas, and tuna) to help your body naturally break down histamine.

 

And if you want to pinpoint exactly where your energy systems need extra support, our Metabolic Health Test Add-On offers that next layer of insight.

 

What the CBH Energetics Metabolic Health Test Shows

Even when you’re doing the right things: eating well, moving your body, managing stress, your metabolism can still get stuck in patterns that aren’t obvious from the outside. The Metabolic Health Test Add-On is one of our bioenergetic testing options, and it goes deeper, looking at over 100 energetic markers related to metabolism, energy production, nutrient utilization, inflammation, and stress regulation.

We analyze hair and saliva samples through bioenergetic testing to identify energetic stress. It’s a noninvasive way to see where communication and energy flow are struggling before a deeper imbalance develops.

Here are just some of the things we test for in the Add-On

• Key enzymes, such as Acetyl-CoA, Citrate Synthase, DAO, and MPO, reveal how your body converts nutrients into fuel and clears byproducts, including histamine and oxidative stress.
• Thyroid hormones (T3, T4, TSH, TRH), cortisol, prolactin, estriol, and testosterone highlight how your hormonal rhythm influences metabolism, energy, and recovery.
• Magnesium, calcium, chromium, B vitamins, choline, and inositol are assessed for how effectively they support energy production and cellular repair.
• Markers such as CRP, TNF-α, and heat shock proteins provide insight into how your body handles repair, inflammation, and long-term cellular protection.
• Compounds such as α-ketoglutarate, citrate, and pyruvate dehydrogenase provide a snapshot of how your body navigates energy cycles, including glycolysis and the TCA cycle.

 

We highlight your Top 5 imbalances! This gives you a highly detailed direction, helping you fine-tune support where your body needs it most!

Find a sample report here!