How to lose weight with a slow metabolism - advice from a nutritionist

Edited by an expert:

Nadezhda Primochkina, nutritionist – 12/13/2019

Among nutritionists and patients who want to lose weight, the concept of “slow metabolism” is common. Most often, this refers to a decrease in the rate of metabolic processes, as a result of which less energy is spent and fat reserves increase. Such a violation in most cases is associated with a person’s incorrect lifestyle - both with nutrition and with other factors: lack of calcium, dehydration, systematic disturbance of sleep patterns. Therefore, to begin with, it is worth understanding what a slow metabolism is and by what signs it can be identified.

How does metabolism occur?

Many people are convinced that metabolism is the process that converts food eaten into energy or fat reserves. This is an extremely false misconception.

Metabolism is the sum of all chemical reactions occurring in the human body. All processes depend on each other, and if a failure occurs somewhere, it affects the entire body.

To keep your weight under control you need to be able to control your metabolic rate.

All chemical reactions can be divided into 2 large groups: synthesis and decomposition. Synthesis is the construction of tissues and cells from simpler substances. Synthesis reactions require energy. But where do you get the energy and “material”? All this is formed as a result of the breakdown of glucose and fat reserves. It turns out that in order to slow down metabolism, it is necessary to reduce the rate of fat breakdown, as well as increase the amount of food entering the body.

Eat before bed

From the point of view of those who seek to maintain or lose weight, this sounds blasphemous. But scientists from the University of Florida discovered The Effect of Casein Protein Prior to Sleep on Fat Metabolism in Obese Men: a light snack before bed can improve nighttime metabolism, in particular, activate fat processing.

The study was conducted on obese men and, of course, needs to be re-tested on more average people, but still its results are worth taking into account. Yes! A light snack in this context is a serving of no more than 150 kcal with a predominance of protein

Yes! A light snack in this context is a serving of no more than 150 kcal with a predominance of protein.

What affects metabolism?

The speed of metabolic processes is established from birth, and during life it can only be adjusted (slowed down or increased). But, if you stop all efforts, the metabolic rate will return to its original level.

In addition, the rate of metabolic processes slows down with age, as hormonal status changes. This is more noticeable in women than in men.

So, the factors influencing metabolism:

1. Genetic predisposition. This factor determines basal metabolism. That is, how much energy the body needs to maintain vital activity and function of organs.
2. Nutrition. The composition and amount of food consumed has a significant impact on metabolism. With the help of nutrition, you can speed up and slow down your metabolism to almost 20% of the original.
3. Physical activity. An active lifestyle can increase metabolism, while passive time, on the contrary, is characterized by slower chemical processes.
4. Medications. There are many medications that slow down or speed up your metabolic rate. Most often these are hormonal drugs.
5. Drinking regime. The amount of water you drink can regulate your metabolic rate.
6. Gender. Chemical processes occur differently in men and women.
7. Diseases. Endocrine diseases significantly affect metabolism. Even in a month, a person can lose or gain a lot of weight.
8. Muscle mass. The larger the muscle size, the more calories it burns. This happens not only during training, but also at rest.
9. Dream. Chemical reactions in the human body occur 24 hours a day.

With the help of diets and proper nutrition, you can influence the rate of metabolism.
As it turned out, there are many factors that can affect the rate of metabolic processes in the human body.

If you know how to control these chemical reactions, you can keep your weight under control without extra effort.

Metabolic disorders

The cause of deviations in metabolic processes can be various pathological conditions that affect the functioning of the endocrine glands or hereditary factors. Medicine is successfully fighting diseases, but so far it has not been possible to cope with genetic predisposition. In the vast majority of cases, the cause of poor metabolism is poor nutrition or too strict dietary restrictions. Abuse of fatty foods, low-calorie diets, and starvation diets lead to disruptions in metabolic processes. Bad habits greatly aggravate the condition:

• drinking alcohol;
• smoking;
• inactive lifestyle.

Calculating metabolic rate

In order to understand what your metabolic rate is, you need to calculate it. This can be done using online calculators that can be found on the Internet.

Or you can calculate your basal metabolic rate yourself. To do this, use the formulas:

• Women: metabolic rate = 655.1+ (9.5 × weight in kg) + (1.85 × height) – (4.68 × age).
• Men: metabolic rate = 66.47 + (13.75 × weight in kg) + (5 × height) – (6.76 × age).

As mentioned above, this formula calculates your basal metabolic rate. That is, the one that occurs when a person lives a normal life without physical activity, stress, etc.

Knowing your metabolic rate, you can calculate the number of calories you need to consume. To calculate your daily calorie intake, you can use the following equations:

• Passive lifestyle. Metabolic rate × 1.2.
• Exercise 3-4 times a week. Metabolic rate × 1.55.
• Intense workouts. Metabolic rate × 1.9.

If you consume the recommended amount of calories, your weight will not change. And if you need to gain weight, you need to consume more calories. It's simple!

Causes of accelerated metabolism

Accelerated metabolism can be due to several reasons. The most significant ones are listed below:

• Physiological feature. Accelerated metabolism can be inherited as an individual trait. This can be determined if there are many thin people in the family.
• Endocrine diseases. With an excess or deficiency of certain hormones, metabolism can accelerate dramatically.
• Mental disorders. For example, it has been noted that during periods of depression, metabolism accelerates significantly and a person loses weight. The same can happen during periods of neurosis and stress.
• Hard physical labor or grueling training. With excessive physical activity, processes in the human body proceed faster.

To regulate your metabolic rate, remember that it is important to eat only healthy foods.
There are even less influential reasons that speed up metabolism. For example, taking medications, alcohol, severe infections, lack of sleep.

Read what to include in your diet for weight gain on the website >>

It is very important to distinguish accelerated metabolism caused by disease from the physiological characteristics of a person.

Video

What is metabolism and how to speed it up

Attention! The information presented in the article is for informational purposes only. The materials in the article do not encourage self-treatment. Only a qualified doctor can make a diagnosis and give treatment recommendations based on the individual characteristics of a particular patient.

Symptoms

Accelerated metabolism is quite easy to recognize; just take a close look at your body.

Signs:

• Thin. In advanced cases, a person may be on the verge of dystrophy. Almost always, with an accelerated metabolism, the body mass index is much lower than normal.
• Increased appetite. A person constantly wants to eat, the feeling of hunger appears within half an hour after eating.
• The daily calorie content of food is much higher than average. And yet the person does not get better.
• Avitaminosis. This is a characteristic sign of accelerated metabolism, since nutrients do not have time to be absorbed.
• High physical activity. Such people are always on the move. This happens because the breakdown of food releases a large amount of energy that needs to be sold somewhere.

Sometimes accelerated metabolism can be accompanied by less pronounced symptoms: irritability, insomnia, impotence, infertility, etc.

How to eat to gain weight?

Everyone knows perfectly well: to gain weight, you need to eat a lot. And it is true. The diet should be varied and the food nutritious. So, what you need to eat to gain weight:

• Bread and baked goods. You must eat any baked product at every meal. Rolls, bread, pies are best suited.
• Sweets. Sugar will help you gain weight quickly. Everything is used: pastries, cookies, muffins, cakes, etc. The only thing you need to make sure is that the products are of good quality. It is best if all of the above is prepared at home.
• Starchy vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, and beets should be present in the diet every day. These vegetables will add a significant amount of calories to your diet.
• Seeds and nuts. These foods contain a huge amount of calories and nutrients. This is what you need to slow down your metabolism.
• Fat meat. This is a mandatory component of the daily menu. Pork and fatty lamb are perfect.
• Fatty dairy products: sour cream, cream, butter.
• Eliminate spices. Spices significantly speed up metabolism, so they should be avoided. Coffee should be replaced with green tea.
• Starvation. At first glance, this seems to be a paradox. In fact, it's simple. A missed meal makes the body think that starvation will soon occur, so it is necessary to reduce energy costs and “turn on” the saving mode.

The diet to reduce the metabolic rate is varied.
You need to eat in large portions, avoiding the feeling of hunger. Because if the body begins to starve, it takes reserves from adipose tissue, which should not be allowed.

Warning!

If you managed to slow down your metabolism, then your body will no longer need an enhanced diet. If the amount of food is not reduced, a person can accumulate a large amount of fat mass.

Change food composition

To slow down your accelerated metabolism and gain weight, you don’t need to eat huge portions of food. It is enough to properly balance the diet from the point of view of nutritional supplements.

Fats

Don't be afraid to include as much fat in your diet as possible, as this is an inexhaustible source of calories. But at the same time, try to consume healthy fats found in meat, fish and oils. But mayonnaise, margarine and trans fats in fast foods are not the best option. Nutritionists advise adding 30-50 ml of vegetable oil (corn, olive, flaxseed) to any dish: porridge for breakfast, salad for lunch, side dish for dinner. Moreover, give preference to unrefined products.

Squirrels

But protein foods in the diet should be limited: eggs, chicken fillet, lean fish, seafood, milk. They have few calories (and you need as many of them as possible), and the body spends a lot of energy on digesting them (and you need to save them). The long-lasting feeling of fullness that protein gives will prevent you from getting hungry, which means cortisol will not be produced and your metabolism will not slow down. But you shouldn’t give up these products at all - just limit their quantity. 1 egg and 1 glass of fermented baked milk per day will be enough.

Carbohydrates

You need to make friends with fast carbohydrates, which are usually criticized by nutritionists. They are contraindicated for people who want to lose weight. But for those who need to slow down their metabolism, they are recommended for use. These include the same refined sugar and all kinds of pastries and bakery products (made from premium flour, of course). The secret is that their structure includes only a couple of monosaccharide molecules (that's why they are called simple). It costs the body nothing to assimilate them in literally half an hour (and that’s the maximum). Moreover, he manages to instantly convert them into fat. You need to consume fast carbohydrates in the evening: they will burn overnight and be deposited in the fat layer.

Cellulose

It’s also better not to get carried away with fiber, like proteins. It is a plant fiber, which is abundant in raw vegetables, fruits, wholemeal flour, and durum wheat. These are the products that form the basis of diets for those who want to lose weight. Your task is completely different. Fiber is digested too slowly, provides a feeling of fullness for a long time and accelerates metabolism as much as possible. You shouldn’t give it up completely (after all, fruits and vegetables contain a lot of vitamins, without which you can’t live), but you should limit the amount of foods rich in it you consume.

Grocery list

As a cheat sheet - foods that slow down metabolism:

• White bread;
• fatty meat: pork, lamb, lard, duck, goose;
• fatty fish: catfish, cod, trout, mackerel, pink salmon, salmon, flounder;
• candies;
• lemonade;
• pasta;
• dairy products with a high percentage of fat content;
• olive, sesame, sunflower, flaxseed, corn oils;
• nuts: pine, walnuts, cashews;
• sweet pastries;
• butter;
• chocolate.

But you will have to give up coffee, citrus fruits and spices (especially ginger).

Always keep this list in front of your eyes to properly plan your diet. This is one of the surest ways to slow down metabolism and normalize weight. The main thing is to stop in time. As soon as you feel that your body weight corresponds to your parameters (age, height), the menu needs to be reviewed again and made as balanced as possible, close to the principles of proper nutrition.

How to gain weight with a fast metabolism?

In addition to high-calorie nutrition, there are several other ways to slow down your metabolism. The most effective methods are presented below:

• Reduce the amount of sleep by 1-2 hours. Lack of sleep can significantly slow down your metabolism.
• Reduce water consumption. Water is necessary for all metabolic processes. If there is not enough moisture, then chemical reactions in the body slow down.
• Take food only warm. When food is eaten cold, the body spends energy to warm it up. To prevent this from happening, the food must be heated.
• Dress appropriately for the weather. So that the body does not waste resources on warming or cooling.
• Limit physical activity. Reducing the number of movements will conserve reserves and allow substances to be deposited rather than burned.
• To give up smoking. Nicotine is integrated into metabolism, significantly accelerating it. Quitting cigarettes allows you to quickly slow down chemical processes. This is why people who quit smoking gain weight at lightning speed.

If you follow these tips, you can reduce the rate of metabolic processes. But, you need to remember: if you return to your usual lifestyle, your metabolism will speed up again.

Interesting!

Some people, desperate to gain weight, turn to all kinds of traditional healers and healers to make a spell or spell. It is clear that this does not bring any results, you should not do this, waste time and money on dubious activities.

Workout

Metabolic slowdown is usually associated with increased motor activity, performance, and physical exertion. Therefore, many solve this problem by limiting themselves in these areas. However, experts believe this approach is not entirely correct.

You can improve a too thin figure by gaining good muscle mass. But for this you will have to do strength training, but give up cardio exercises. What needs to be included in the complex:

• exercises with dumbbells;
• pull-up on the horizontal bar;
• regular walking (slow half-hour walks in the evenings are suitable).