It is quite common to find the situation of someone who is trying to lose weight, who begins to look at what he eats, carefully watches fats and sugars, who starts in sports and who, against all odds, after a few weeks of proposing This objective is placed on the scale and the needles continue to mark the same figure as before starting the attempt to lose weight.
Knowing about the sacrifices and difficulties that for some people to maintain a good diet, trying to lose weight for days and that this effort is in vain can be discouraging for many people. That is why, at FastlyHeal , we want to talk to you about the most common causes of slow metabolism , the most likely explanation why it takes so much work to lose weight.
Table of Contents
What is slow metabolism
Although slow metabolism is a fairly widespread condition, it is difficult to find someone who has been diagnosed with it by a doctor. Slow metabolism is understood to be when the person who suffers from it, while at rest, burns fewer calories than normal , less than he should.
Medically, this normal calorie level is called the basal metabolic rate and is the minimum number of calories a cell needs to survive. Not everyone needs the same values or has the same normality, these values are calculated according to factors such as age, weight, height or gender of the person.
If the person has a lower caloric expenditure than what would be considered normal due to their age, sex, weight and height, it means that they have a slow metabolism, so it will cost them more to burn fat and this will accumulate in greater quantity, causing overweight and obesity.
Consequences
Being overweight and obese are the first two consequences that come to mind when you think of slow metabolism, but they are not the only ones. Below we will list some of the diseases and conditions that can be derived from a slow metabolism:
- Diabetes
- Renal problems
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Thyroid problems
Seeing the problems that a slow metabolism can generate, it is essential to be aware of the causes that cause it, in order to avoid them and take measures to accelerate it and keep it in its normal values.
Organic causes of slow metabolism
Among the causes that can cause you to develop a slow metabolism, we can distinguish two types, those that arise from the conditions of the body itself and others that arise due to lifestyle and external factors. Among the organic causes that can lower your basal metabolism there are:
Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism , more common in women over 50 and in postpartum women, is a disease that affects the proper functioning of the thyroid gland, slowing down metabolism and causing overweight. In general, with correct medication and following a proper diet for hypothyroidism , you can reverse and return your metabolism to normal values.
Allergies and Intolerances
Allergies and food intolerances are very common causes of slow metabolism, however, they are seldom treated due to ignorance of the person who has it. Unless the allergy is very marked and its symptoms are very evident, most people do not know that they are allergic or intolerant, to varying degrees, to some type of product.
If you feel heavy digestions, you usually have digestive and gastric problems, your belly swells and you are not feeling well after eating, it may be that you suffer from some food intolerance, so from FastlyHealwe recommend you visit a gastroenterologist so that you can study your case and see if you have any allergies. In this article we give you tips to treat lactose intolerance .
Non-organic causes of slow metabolism
Apart from organic causes, from our lifestyle we can also cause our metabolism to not be as fast as it should be:
Eating at bad times
A healthy eating style should be based on eating small amounts of food every little time . In general, it is recommended to eat 6 meals a day , with breakfast being the most important meal and to which more attention should be paid.
Eating small amounts several times during the day your metabolism speeds up, constantly burning calories. On the contrary, eating a lot of a specific meal or following a restrictive diet causes your metabolism to slow down, as your body will have the need to save calories to endure all the hours in which it does not receive any contribution, a process known as adaptive hyperphagia.
Eating too fast
Another way to prevent our metabolism from slowing down is to chew our food and take our time when it comes to eating. If you eat quickly, without grinding your food well, your stomach will take longer to digest and it will take longer to burn calories .
Drink little water
Drinking water is essential to eliminate toxins in your body and to maintain proper hydration of all cells in your body. According to recent studies, drinking two liters of water a day can increase your metabolic rate by up to 30%, making you burn more calories and more easily. On the contrary, if you do not hydrate your body sufficiently, it will slow down the metabolism itself to adapt the body to the amount of water that you supply.
Many people wonder if drinking water makes you fat , in the following FastlyHealarticle we give you the answer.
Do not exercise
Having a sedentary life is one of the main causes of slow metabolism , the regular practice of exercise is the greatest accelerator of metabolism, since the burning of calories does not occur only during the time in which it is being carried out, but is maintained until once finished. Not exercising is depriving your body of the need to burn calories and hindering one of the engines that makes it work.
3 simple tricks to speed up your metabolism
Taking into account the most common causes that cause a slowing down of the metabolism, which can end up developing other diseases, we can give you 4 simple tricks to speed up your metabolism and burn more calories:
- Breakfast is basic: Skipping breakfast or having little breakfast is like putting your body into hibernation mode, as the body is alert and economizes its efforts to burn fewer calories, in order not to receive more nutrients. On the other hand, if you eat a big breakfast, your metabolism kicks in from the beginning, burning more calories.
- Eat every three hours: Eating several times a day is the best way to speed up your metabolism, in this way the body is constantly working, digesting small amounts every little time.
- Exercise: Exercise and sports is the biggest calorie burn you can do, so moving away from a sedentary life speeds up your metabolism. Do you want to know how much exercise you should do to burn the garbage? at FastlyHealwe will discover it for you.
This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.
If you want to read more articles similar to These are the most common causes of slow metabolism , we recommend that you enter our Wellbeing category .
I am a Surgeon with a diploma in comprehensive ultrasound and surgical care residency, an area I am specializing in. During the exercise of my profession, I have realized the need for patients to know the diseases they suffer, and I can tell you that a large part of their complications is due to a lack of information. Being a health web writer allows me to transmit my experience, without borders, to all those readers eager for knowledge, educate them in the prevention of diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle.