Maintaining a high metabolism is essential for losing weight and keeping it off.
However, some typical lifestyle choices might slow down your metabolism.
These behaviors, if practiced daily, may make it difficult to lose weight – and may even make you more prone to gaining importance in the future.
Here are six lifestyle choices that might lower your metabolism.
1. Eating too few calories
Eating too few calories might result in a significant reduction in metabolism.
Although a calorie deficit is required for weight loss, dropping your calorie intake too low might be harmful.
When you drastically reduce your calorie intake, your body perceives a scarcity of food and slows the pace at which it burns calories.
Controlled research in both lean and obese adults demonstrates that eating fewer than 1,000 calories per day might substantially influence your metabolic rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Most studies assess resting metabolic rate, which is the number of calories burnt at rest. However, some people calculate their daily energy expenditure by adding the calories burnt during rest and exercising for 24 hours.
In one research, obese women who ate 420 calories per day for 4-6 months had considerably lower resting metabolic rates.
Furthermore, even after increasing their calorie intake over the next five weeks, their resting metabolic rates remained much lower than before the diet (3).
Another research challenged overweight participants to consume 890 calories each day. After three months, their overall calorie expenditure had fallen by an average of 633 calories (4).
Even with a more moderate calorie restriction, metabolism can be slowed.
In a 4-day trial of 32 adults, those who ate 1,114 calories each day decreased their resting metabolic rate more than twice as much as those who ate 1,462 calories. However, weight reduction was comparable in both groups (5).
If you lose weight through calorie restriction, don’t go too far — or for too long.
2. Skimping on protein
Protein consumption is critical for obtaining and maintaining a healthy weight.
Aside from making you feel full, consuming a lot of protein can considerably improve the pace at which your body burns calories (6, 7, 8).
The thermic impact of food refers to the increase in metabolism after digestion (TEF).
Protein has a far more enormous thermic impact than carbohydrates or fat. Indeed, studies show that protein temporarily improves metabolism by 20-30%, compared to 5-10% for carbohydrates and 3% or less for fat (9).
Although the metabolic rate naturally lowers with weight reduction and continues to slow throughout weight maintenance, data shows that consuming more protein can help to mitigate this impact.
One research study followed one of three diets to maintain a 10-15% weight loss.
The protein-rich diet lowered total daily energy expenditure by just 97 calories, compared to 297-423 calories for those who ate less protein (10).
Another study discovered that participants were required to consume at least 0.5 grams of protein per pound (1.2 grams per kg) to keep their metabolism from slowing down during and after losing weight (11).
3. Leading a sedentary lifestyle
Sedentism can result in a significant drop in the number of calories burned each day.
Notably, many people lead sedentary lives at work, harming metabolic rate and general health.
Although working out or participating in sports may significantly increase your calories, even simple physical activities like standing up, cleaning, and using the stairs can help you burn calories.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis is the name of this sort of activity (NEAT).
According to one research, consuming a lot of NEAT can help you burn up to 2,000 more calories daily. However, most individuals cannot afford such a significant rise (13).
Another research found that watching TV while sitting burns 8% fewer calories than typing and 16% fewer calories than standing (14).
Working at a standing desk or simply getting up to walk around many times a day will help boost your NEAT and keep your metabolism from slowing down.
4. Not getting enough high-quality sleep
Sleep is critical for overall wellness.
Sleeping fewer hours than necessary may increase your chance of developing various diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and depression (15).
Several studies have found that a lack of sleep might impair your metabolic rate and increase your chances of gaining weight (16, 17, 18).
According to one study, healthy people who slept 4 hours each night for five nights in a row had a 2.6 percent drop in resting metabolic rate. After 12 hours of unbroken sleep, their heart rate returned to normal (17).
Sleeping during the day rather than at night exacerbates sleep deprivation. This sleep pattern interferes with your body’s circadian cycles, often known as internal clocks.
Five-week research found that sleep restriction combined with circadian rhythm disturbance reduced resting metabolic rate by 8% on average (18).
5. Drinking sugary beverages
Sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful to your health. High consumption has been related to various health problems, including insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity (19, 20).
Fructose is responsible for many of the harmful consequences of sugar-sweetened drinks. Table sugar has 50% fructose, whereas high-fructose corn syrup contains 55% fructose.
Consuming sugar-sweetened beverages regularly may reduce your metabolism.
In a 12-week controlled research, overweight and obese persons on a weight-maintenance diet who drank 25% of their calories as fructose-sweetened drinks saw a substantial reduction in metabolic rate (21).
All investigations do not support this assumption. According to one study, ingesting high-fructose corn syrup instead of whole wheat did not affect the 24-hour metabolic rate (22).
Excess fructose consumption, on the other hand, promotes more significant fat accumulation in your abdomen and liver, according to studies (23, 24, 25, 26, 27).
6. A lack of strength training
Working out with weights is an excellent way to protect your metabolism from slowing down.
Strength training has been found to enhance metabolic rate in both healthy persons and those with cardiac disease, as well as those who are overweight or obese (28, 29, 30, 31).
It boosts muscle mass, which accounts for a large portion of your body’s fat-free mass. More fat-free mass substantially increases the number of calories you burn at rest (32, 33, 34).
Even light strength training appears to increase energy consumption.
In a 6-month trial, those who did strength training for 11 minutes per day, three days a week, had a 7.4 percent rise in resting metabolic rate and burned 125 more calories per day on average (35).
In contrast, not undertaking any strength exercise might decrease metabolic rate, particularly during weight reduction and age (32, 36, 37).
The bottom line
Slowing your metabolism by lifestyle choices might contribute to weight gain over time. It’s preferable to prevent or limit your exposure to them as much as possible.
Numerous easy exercises can help you lose weight and keep it off.
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