If you’re consistently doing these things, then you probably are sending signals to your body to slow your metabolism down:
Eating less
Using cardio as your primary exercise
Skipping meals
I’ve met so many people over the years who do these things when they’re trying to lose weight. And quite reasonably so! This is pretty much the recipe we’re sold for weight loss.
But, the trouble is that it’s a race to the bottom.
Eating less and exercising more requires you to keep reducing your food intake and increasing your energy output in order to keep seeing progress… And after a while, you’ll find that you need to keep going just so you don’t regain the weight you’d lost. And worse, if you go at all off course, it’s like you gain fat overnight.
Muscle is something you really want to maintain. It is really important for keeping your metabolism working at a good rate, as well as balancing your hormones and promoting sensitivity to insulin. But, it requires a lot of energy to be maintained, as well as the right fuel.
If your workout routine is cardio based, then you don’t need a lot of muscle. And so, by doing cardio, you’re teaching your body that muscle is not an important thing to maintain.
When you then add in the fact that you’re not eating so much (and that what you are eating likely does not contain sufficient protein); and you can see why your body will choose to economise on your muscle mass.
Similarly, skipping meals isn’t a helpful strategy for your metabolism.
It feels good to start with, largely because of the impact it has on your stress hormones, but this approach to reducing your intake looks a lot like an unhelpful binge:restrict type diet. It often leads to overeating in the meals, or snacks you are having, and to effectively compensate for that with the meals you’re skipping.
This might all sound a bit doom and gloom BUT if what I’m describing sounds like you, it’s important to know that all is not lost!
We can revive your metabolism by gradually doing the opposite of the things which slowed it down in the first place.
We can encourage your body to gain muscle both with good exercise and appropriate diet. This will speed your metabolism back up – but given that the process likely needs to be gradual, it will take a little time. But, by sending the right messages to your body, your metabolism can adapt back.
If you’d like some advice about getting your metabolism going again, get in touchand we’ll arrange to have a cup of tea and a chat.