So many people are talking about how slow their metabolism is and why they need to start taking the latest diet supplement scam yet they don't even understand how the human metabolism works. So before I even go into how to speed yours up, I want to first go over some of the basics.
What is metabolism?
There are many scientific ways for me to put to you and I could make it seem really confusing like most of the so-called experts do, but I won't. I'm going to give you my extremely simple and easy to understand definition...
metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to sustain life
I should also note that your body, yes yours, burns calories 24 hours a day, everyday - regardless of whether or not you workout or not. Remember that, your body needs energy all the time, even while you're a sleep and that is why skipping meals is the absolute worst thing you can do if your goal is to lose weight (body fat).
Before we go any further let's talk about what affects metabolism...
What affects metabolism?
What do you think has the biggest impact on your metabolism? Activity levels? Your Thyroid? Age?
WRONG! WRONG! and WRONG! Activity levels, Thyroid function, and age do affect metabolism but not nearly as much as...any idea? It's muscle tissue! The more muscle you have the more calories you burn regardless of how active you are, how old you are, etc. It's live tissue and it's there working for you and burning calories 24 hours a day - each and every day!
Here's a list of some of the factors affecting metabolism in order of biggest impact to least:
- muscle tissue (you already know why this is on the top of the list)
- meal frequency (the longer you go between meals the more your metabolism slows down to conserve energy)
- activity level (important but doesn't make any difference if you don't match your eating to your expenditure)
- food choices (ex. low-fat diets tend to result in poor hormone production which leads to a slower metabolism)
- hydration (over 70% of bodily functions take place in water - not enough water causes all your systems to slow down and unnecessary stress)
- genetics (some people have higher metabolisms than others - you cant change genetics but you can still win the battle!)
- hormone production and function (think you have a slow thyroid? it's not likely - before you go blame it on the thyroid first stabilize your blood sugar and throw in some progressive exercise 2-3 times each week)
- stress (stress also can slow metabolism by placing extra stress and strain on numerous systems. plus, many people tend to overeat when "stressed out")
Why does it slow down?
How many times have you heard someone say, "as soon as you hit 30 your metabolism slows down"? Maybe you've said it. I know I hear it all the time and I got tired of hearing it so I did a little research and found that the metabolism does NOT slow down significantly due to aging but DOES due to a lack of muscle. And, you don't lose muscle quickly due to aging either but due to a decrease or lack of physical stress.
So, the major cause of a slowing metabolism is three fold... 1. you lose muscle due to the lack of physical stress
2. your body cannibalizes muscle when it needs energy but you won't supply any because you are "dieting" and skipping meals
3. your activity levels tend to decrease as you get older.