4 Tips on How to Fix a Slow Metabolism
Do you often feel tired – even when you sleep well – and can’t seem to lose weight no matter how healthy you eat? It’s possible your body has adapted to a slower energy balance expectation, which prevents your body from feeling your best, burning calories, and operating at your best. Luckily, there are lots of ways to combat this issue and rebuild your metabolism – and we’re going to look at four of the best now.
What causes a slow metabolism?
To answer this question effectively, a better question to first answer is ‘when does your metabolism slow down?’Understanding the reasons why this happens is key to identifying the signs of a slow metabolism. So, let’s explore.
Your metabolism slows down when your body thinks it’s going into a period of starvation – or a calorie deficit. Its main function is to keep you alive, so if the calories your body receives suddenly decrease in a large way, It can trigger this ‘starvation mode’. Rather than running at the normal required energy you need it will adapt and now require less energy to run normal biologic processes. You’ve conditioned your body to operate with lower amounts of food, and then when you eat normal amounts of food your body will instead store some of that food in preparation for it to decrease further.
The issue here is that the vast majority of modern diets and fitness programs are built around calorie deficits and the constant and sustained chase of weight loss which unintentionally causes the metabolism to slow down.
Alongside dieting, a slow metabolism is often the result of a number of different factors coming together. In other words, there’s likely more than one thing causing your metabolism to slow down. Let’s look at a few of them now.
Drastic changes in diet
As we’ve just covered, if you suddenly start eating less calories than your body needs, and you do this over and over again over a long period of time it can cause your metabolism to slow down significantly.
Genetics
There are some medical conditions that can cause your body to be genetically predisposed to burn calories at a slower rate such as Hashimoto’s disease, Cushing’s syndrome, Hormonal imbalance conditions, etc.
Age
As we get older, our bodies’ ability to regenerateSub-Headline and repair becomes less and less efficient, which is why it can be harder to maintain a higher metabolic rate as you progress through your life. Albeit this is a minor influence.
Stress
Being under stress for long periods of time can have extensive physiological effects on your body. Alongside your metabolism suffering, stress can disrupt sleep patterns, and impact your mental health.
Slow metabolism symptoms
So, now we’ve covered the causes, we’ll explore the different signs of a slow metabolism and how they might show up in your life.People with a slow metabolism will relate to one or more of the following symptoms:
Trouble losing weight – even with keeping a healthy diet and exercising regularly, you can’t seem to lose weight.
Fatigue – you feel tired and lethargic even when you do sleep well.
Plateauing – progress that you made when you first started your new fitness regime or healthy lifestyle has stagnated and now you aren’t making further improvements.
Cravings – you crave typically ‘unhealthy’ foods like carbohydrates and sugars.
Irregular menstrual cycle – for those who menstruate, if your cycle becomes irregular, your metabolism could be the cause.
How to fix a slow metabolism
Recognizing that you have a slow metabolism is relatively easy, but fixing it can be an uphill battle if you don’t have the right knowledge and support. The next four steps will help you to take the right steps to restoring your metabolism and getting your body back on track.
Reverse diet
The single most effective way to fix a slow metabolism is to reverse diet. And that’s because the whole process revolves around repairing and boosting the body’s metabolism through increasing caloric intake of three key macronutrients.Once your metabolism has reached its peak level, you’ll be able to burn calories more efficiently – but also enjoy higher energy levels and more balance in your everyday life. On top of that, reverse dieting helps to level out your hormones as well as boost your metabolism.
Reverse dieting: a fast metabolism diet
The reason why reverse dieting fixes your metabolism is because that’s precisely what it was designed to do. Unlike the majority of modern diets that are built around caloric deficit with the main goal of short-term weight loss, reverse dieting aims to increase the body’s metabolic rate (how effectively it can convert food into energy). Weight loss and increased energy levels are byproducts of the process, which is why it’s also more sustainable in the long run.
The following tips can all contribute to fixing a slow metabolism when underpinned by reverse dieting. Alone they’re still good for your health, but can’t singularly boost a slow metabolism.
Take the right supplements
Rebuilding your metabolism means eating the right foods – and there are some nutrients you might not be able to get from your diet. That’s where supplements come in and can give you an extra boost throughout the metabolism-building process.
These include:
Vitamin D
Zinc
omega-3 fats
B vitamin
salpha-lipoic acid
carnitine
N-acetyl-cysteine
Work out smart, not hard
Exercise is a crucial component of any healthy lifestyle, but be careful not to overdo it. Excessive exercise can be detrimental for your health and actually cause more of the stress hormone, cortisol, to be released in your body. Instead, focus on getting regular exercise that feels good to your body, and try to build strength over counting how many calories you’re burning.
Develop healthier habits
Reverse dieting is a long-term commitment to your health and wellbeing, so healthy habits naturally are important here too. Good sleep, a healthy diet and getting rid of bad habits like excessive alcohol consumption or smoking are key players in maximizing the effects of reverse dieting – and getting your metabolism back up to speed.
Ready to get started?
While all the tips we’ve just covered can help you fix a slow metabolism, reverse dieting is the most important step of them all. Tips two to four can definitely help you along the way, but without the tried and tested power of reverse dieting, you still might suffer from slow metabolism symptoms.
If you’re ready to get back on track and optimize your health, reverse dieting will supercharge your life. Working with a qualified, experienced nutritionist, you’ll be able to strategically increase your food intake – and repair any damage done to your metabolism through dieting or excessive calorie deprivation. As a result, you’re likely to see weight loss, and an increase in energy.
We offer flexible reverse dieting programs that can help even those with a long history of yo-yo dieting and extreme weight fluctuations to balance out their bodies again. Get in touch to start your journey today.
© 2022 by The Macro Clinic LLC
