Slow Metabolism
Are You a Metabolic Mess?

By Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT
MsFit
This article was published in Fitness & Physique Magazine.


Have you ever started a fat loss program only to see yourself gaining weight, despite the fact that the program was balanced and consisted of wholesome food, cardio, and resistance training? There is a biological answer for this seemingly odd incident.

Society has linked a good or fast metabolism to thinness, health, and beauty. It is believed that a person with a fast metabolism is gifted in the fact that they can indulge in anything they want and not reap the consequences of weight gain. However, a healthy functioning metabolism is not just about burning sugar and fat in the form of energy. There is a silent side of the metabolism, a side many people are really not aware of, such as the devastating effects of a slow metabolism and destroyed metabolism.


What is the Metabolism and What Does it Do?

Metabolism is defined as the amount of energy a person's body burns. This is actually a small part of what the metabolism does. The term "metabolism" refers to the combined sum of all the biochemical and bioelectrical reactions that continually occur on a cellular level to sustain life. As you will learn, the metabolism is not just about fat loss it's about health as well. Your body relies on certain biochemical's to function optimally, and to keep you alive, such as:

  • Structural biochemical's, which are bones, cells, cell membranes, connective tissue, glands, hair, skin, nails, muscles, organs, and teeth.
  • Functional biochemical's, which are antibodies, cell mediators, enzymes, hormones, and neurotransmitters.
  • Energy biochemical's, which are glycogen, ketones, sugar, and triglycerid


Your body uses these biochemical's just to function each day. Everything you do, such as reading, thinking, walking, eating, digesting food, elimination, hormone production, and exercising uses up biochemical's. What your body uses, it must replenish from the foods you eat. Your metabolism is the sum of all these anabolic and catabolic biochemical reactions. This is why the quality of your nutrition is so very important

  • If you have a healthy metabolism your body uses up and rebuilds biochemical's in an efficient manner.
  • If you have an inefficient metabolism your body uses up its resources faster than it can rebuild them.


Just because you may be an ideal, or close to ideal weight doesn't mean you have a healthy metabolism. You can be thin or overweight and have an inefficient metabolism.

What Causes a Slow Metabolism?

A slow metabolism can be a result of extreme low calories, poor food quality, processed foods, lack of complete protein, lack of essential fats, excess carbs, dehydration, stress, toxins, parasites, prescribed and over-the-counter drugs, chemicals in food, and alcohol.

Many people, in an effort to lose weight quickly, tend to cut calories drastically without having a base plan to follow. This is one of the major reasons many people dieting suffer from a slow metabolism. When you drastically slice calories below your maintenance, your body tries to conserve every last bit of energy for survival. When this happens, the glycogen stores become depleted and your body will oxidize protein for energy.

A lack of calories can be further broken down into the type of calories. Insufficient complete protein can lower your metabolism, as well as a lack of carbs and essential fat. Balance is so important, and knowing how to implement each of the macronutrients can rebuild your metabolism. This rebuilding process will take some time.

You have to be patient. You did not destroy your metabolism overnight and it's not going to repair overnight.You have to realize that when you do begin a balanced eating plan, your weight may not drop as you expected. You have to repair your metabolism before your body can begin melting body fat. Therefore, a temporary side-effect can be weight gain until the healing process is complete.

On the Road to Metabolism Recovery Professional dieters, those who partake in the latest fad diet, yo-yo diet, skip meals, avoid balanced meals, eat excess carbs, lack complete protein, and shun the fat, usually destroy their metabolism. When you don't eat properly, your body is unable to rebuild the functional and structural biochemical's.Even if you have wrecked your metabolism with any of the factors listed above you can repair it.

  • Begin by getting off any unnecessary medications and drugs. This will usually eliminate about 50% of the toxins you receive.
  • Reduce stress in your life. I know, I know. easier said than done.
  • Reduce the amount of commercial toxins you take in.
  • Cleanse your body. Liver, colon, and Candidia cleanses are very effective.
  • Add exercise to your life.
  • Drink more quality water.
  • Eat frequent meals consisting of quality foods.
  • Eat less processed food, and more natural and/or organic food.


What to Expect With a Healing Metabolism

Generally, when you begin to eat better your metabolism is able to begin rebuilding. Again, this rebuilding process is a healing process as well. Your body must catch up on rebuilding your biochemical's, so you may not use up as much in the beginning. Remember, this means is that since your body has to do some major healing, body fat may increase temporarily because your body can't just rebuild functional and structural proteins and fats without also rebuilding storage fats. Once your metabolism is healed, your body will burn off the fat, provided your nutrition is quality and you partake in exercise.

Factors that Help Boosts the Metabolism Just as many factors work against the metabolism, there are also elements that work for the metabolism. Exercise, increasing muscle mass, hydration level, food quality, and meal frequency all have the ability to boost your metabolism.

Keep in mind that just because you begin doing positive things to help improve your metabolism doesn't mean that you will repair it overnight. Healing takes time, and the time to heal will vary from person to person.

Conclusion of a Slow Metabolism Now that we covered some of the mysteries of why you may seem to gain weight on a good and balanced program, you can further experiment with various nutritional approaches to find the right one for you. Just be sure to give any new program at least eight weeks to prove itself.To learn more about how to lose weight, check out my eBooks along the side panel. Testimonials