Do you have friends who no matter how much they eat, or how much junk they seem to live off never put weight on. Does if p**s you off? Why does this happen? What is so special for them?

Well the answer lies in their metabolism, or more specifically their metabolic rate.

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WHAT IS YOUR METABOLISM?

Your Metabolism is the term for the chemical processes that occur inside the body to keep us alive and our organs working properly. These chemical processes require energy. The minimum amount of energy your body needs to carry out these chemical processes is called the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR is the rate at which you burn calories and therefore affects how quickly you put on weight or lose it.

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WHAT AFFECTS YOUR METABOLISM?

A number of things affect your own personal metabolic rate:

• Age (the older you get the slower your metabolic rate becomes
• Genetics (you’re either lucky or you’re not)
• Sex (men generally have a higher metabolic rate than women)
• Weight & Muscle (the heavier you are the more calories you burn, and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn)

People (including professionals) will tell you that there are things you can do to speed up your metabolism, and most of these things are partly true but the honest fact is they are so negligible that it’s pointless. For example:

“Research in the journal Physiology and Behaviour in 2011 claimed eating half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper or chilli powder sprinkled on food or in a capsule can cause the body to burn an extra 10 calories over a four hour period compared to eating the same meal without the cayenne pepper. The magic ingredient in the cayenne and chilli powder may be capsaicin”

TEN CALORIES OVER FOUR HOURS??? What’s the bleeding point? That would make no difference at all? You would burn the same calories getting up and out of your chair a couple of times.

The hard truth is that your metabolism is what it is and it’s yours to keep and live with. There is no point moaning about it or feeling sorry for yourself, or using it to blame the weight gain you have had, it’s there to stay and there is virtually nothing you can do to change it, well almost nothing…

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EXERCISE & METABOLISM

Exercise HAS been shown irrefutably to raise your metabolic rate. Resistance training and HIIT work (High Intensity Interval Training) elevates your metabolic rate for up to 36 hours after you have finished exercising, and that of course means you are burning calories even after you have finished your training. In addition, this type of training builds muscle (and 1lb of muscle burns around 6 calories an hour compared to 1lb of fat that only burns around 2), but bearing in mind that to build 1lb of muscle takes a LOT of work and time then generally speaking HIIT exercise is the way to go for most of us.

That said, if HIIT is not your thing, or injury prevents you from doing it then simply getting out for a walk will have a positive effect as well. basically be more active and do something!

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MY METABOLISM MAKES ME FAT!

That’s not true is it, be honest! You are overweight because you have eaten more food than your body needs. OK it’s a bum deal that because your metabolism is slower than your skinny mate she can eat what she wants and you can’t but the fact still remains that you have eaten more than your body can handle (and if it’s any consolation if your skinny friend did the same she would eventually put weight on too)

To successfully lose weight with a slow metabolism you have to accept that you need to eat less food than someone with a higher metabolism.  This is where commercial diets fall down. They have to give you calorie figures and food choices based off the general population as a whole and cannot take account of your own individual circumstances. This is why Jane Doe (who weighs the same as you for this example) can eat exactly the same food as you on exactly the same diet and lose 10lb in a month, when you only drop 4lb (which is still an epic result by the way, see here to read why)

It simply means that you have not adjusted your food intake accordingly to allow for your personal metabolic rate. Yes it sucks, yes it’s a bum deal but it’s life, it’s what you have been dealt with and you have to accept it, embrace it, live with it and stop blaming it!

Make adjustments downwards on your food intake (you can make smart choices with your food so that you still get a good amount of bulk in there to combat hunger) and you can increase your activity through exercise, but you have to make adjustments or nothing will happen for you.

Yes there are guidelines as to how many calories individuals should eat (and figures that we should never go below) but if you have a particularly slow metabolism then these guidelines, as a rule, will not apply to you. You will know if you are eating too little for you to function normally as you will get ill, lose energy, be lethargic, lose your sex drive, periods will stop etc etc.

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WHAT ABOUT MEDICATION

Yep, there is medication that can be taken and in some cases this helps but I speak from experience when I say that in 95% of cases the difference is marginal at best, sorry. It still all basically comes down to eating too much food for YOUR body circumstances.

So don’t be sad if you are trying to lose weight and have been told you have a slow metabolism that is preventing you from doing so. You now know that is not true. What is stopping you losing weight is that you still have not found the ‘sweet spot’ in food intake for your body. Find that and I assure you the weight will come off!

Have a read of this post too!

Common Questions about Diets!

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