4 Habits That Slow Your Metabolism Here’s Why You’re Not Losing Weight
You’ve probably seen advertisements for products that claim to boost your metabolism. This is supposed to make you lose weight in no time and get rid of excess kilos.
You are fooled into believing that you can use any product to boost your supposedly slowed-down metabolism. But that’s total nonsense that you don’t need. Usually, it is just everyday habits that cause you to lose weight slowly or not.
This article will show you which habits slow down your metabolism and how you can avoid them. We’ll also take a quick look at human metabolism, so you don’t fall for the tricks of the diet industry anymore.
What exactly is metabolism?
Metabolism is an umbrella term for all processes in your body. All of these processes require and consume calories.
The metabolism is not a machine that you can operate much better with any substances. It’s just how your body works and uses energy.
To describe whether your metabolism works “well” or “poorly,” you can calculate how many calories you burn in everyday life.
Your calorie consumption consists of the following components:
12 Natural Appetite Suppressants – Lose Weight Fast With These Foods
- basal metabolic rate
The energy needed to keep your body functioning depends on gender, height, muscle mass, weight, and age.
- work turnover
Energy is used for other activities. This includes every movement in everyday life, sports, and unconscious actions such as fidgeting.
- Thermic Effect of Food / food-induced Thermogenesis
This percentage describes how many calories you use to digest your food. This proportion increases or decreases depending on how much and what food you eat. ( 1 )
Now that you know what metabolism is and how it works, you may better understand why the following habits can slow it down. Now let’s take a closer look at these habits.
1) You eat too little protein
Protein is the macronutrient that triggers the highest food-induced thermogenesis. ( 2 ) This means that digesting protein is where your body uses the most calories. Your metabolism is stimulated the most by this macronutrient. ( 3 )
In addition, enough protein prevents muscle breakdown and saturates better than fats and carbohydrates. ( 4, 5 ) Enough reasons to consider increasing your protein intake when trying to lose weight, right?
As a healthy person who drinks enough, you can safely consume 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal weight per day.
If you do not exercise, the lower end of the range is recommended. ( 6 ) If you do a lot of sport, especially strength training, the upper end of the spectrum is recommended. ( 7 )
What you can do about it
Eating too little protein can be a problem with weight loss. So always try to cover your protein requirements.
A list of protein-rich foods and suitable recipes can be found here on Tasty Lose Weight.
You will see that it is not that difficult to get enough protein with the right choice of food.
2) You don’t exercise enough in everyday life
If you have a job where you sit a lot, you use less energy accordingly. You also drive back and forth in the car most of the time and have hardly moved all day.
It is often underestimated how many calories are burned because you are active in everyday life. ( 8 ) This is also often why some people hardly lose weight or gain weight quickly compared to others. They don’t move enough.
But missing or sluggish acceptance is not the only problem. Don’t forget the physical strain caused by sitting too much. The joints and especially the back suffer if you move too little.
What you can do about it
- Do sports
Sporting activities after work are a way to catch up on the lack of movement. However, it would be best to exercise more often per week. One or two short training sessions per week will not remedy the lack of exercise.
- Go for a walk
Long walks in nature help you get enough exercise and offer other benefits. They can have a very calming effect and reduce your stress level. In addition, the fresh air is incredibly beneficial.
Short breaks from work can also be used for walks. This clears your head, promotes creativity, and keeps you fit.
In general, walk more in the office and talk face-to-face with your co-workers instead of calling them from the office.
- Include mini workouts
Find some strengthening exercises to do in between. For example, always do a set of squats or push-ups after your coffee break.
You can do short workouts before or after work. Some of the exercises are good to do in between, as soon as you find the time. Find workout inspiration here.
- Generally, walk a lot.
Try to walk all the routes as best you can. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, get off the bus one stop earlier, or park your car in a parking lot further away.
At first, you may have to force yourself, but eventually, it will become second nature to you, and taking the lift is out of the question. You’ll see that even these tiny stretches will boost your metabolism.
You can use a pedometer to check whether you walk enough in everyday life. There are special fitness wristbands* or various apps on the cell phone for this.
Logically, you should have your phone with you at every step for this to work, which is not always pleasant.
The WHO recommends taking 10,000 steps a day for healthy people. ( 9 ) However, you should not suddenly increase the number of steps overnight, but work your way up slowly.
Slow Your Metabolism
3) You’re not getting enough sleep
Sleep is essential when losing weight. While you are not active during sleep and your calorie consumption is lower, adequate sleep should not be neglected.
If you sleep too little all the time, you will also be more tired in everyday life. As a result, you will subconsciously move more petite than usual. As we have already discussed, this regular movement, in particular, makes a big difference in terms of your energy expenditure.
But there is another reason why too little sleep inhibits weight loss. According to scientific studies, lack of sleep increases your feeling of hunger and appetite. ( 10 ) This causes you to eat more, which is not conducive to losing weight.
There are now numerous other studies that confirm that too little sleep is partly responsible for obesity. ( 11 )
What you can do about it
The solution sounds simple in this case: sleep more!
I know, easier said than done. But try to do it, and your body will thank you.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, try the following things:
- Don’t exercise just before bed.
- Avoid coffee and energy drinks in the evenings.
- Don’t eat dinner too late.
- Make sure you have a comfortable sleeping environment.
- Meditate before sleeping
- Leave your cell phone outside of the bedroom.
Slow Your Metabolism
4) You’ve been losing weight for too long
It’s a myth that your metabolism can “fall asleep” when you’ve been on a diet for a long time. This only happens when you eat far too few calories. ( 12 )
However, our body likes to trick us. You give it less energy in the diet, but this makes you unconsciously sluggish, and you move less.
So the main reason why your metabolism slows down is usually due to the restriction of your activities.
Slow Your Metabolism
What you can do about it
You have already mastered the most important thing: You are aware of this problem.
Now you can make sure that you move more again. Just follow the tips in point 2.
Conclusion
The leading causes of a slowdown in metabolism are poor diet and bad habits, such as not getting enough sleep. If you move too little and don’t eat optimally, your body uses fewer calories. This is also the real reason why you are not losing weight.
Once you know this, you can take countermeasures with our tips. Get a medical check-up if you’ve tried everything, are in a calorie deficit, and still not losing weight. Then the kilos will certainly tumble off again.
Did you know what metabolism is and how you can influence it? I hope the explanations and tips on this topic can help you lose weight.
Kind regards and until then, Nazmul.
Don’t miss the best!
Do you want to lose weight and become permanently slim? Then complete our free weight loss course now .