Very few things are as wrong as someone giving you an incorrect diagnosis. For example, they’ll say, “your body metabolism is slowing down,” maybe because you are not losing weight fast.
So, when you are given this false diagnosis, you are very susceptible to doing the wrong thing because you’ll be focused on finding something to boost your metabolism.
Well, that does little to no good. You see, in reality, the problem is not a slow metabolism. I’ll explain this and more in this article.
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What is metabolism?
Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. During this complex process, calories in food and beverages are combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function.
Even at rest, your body needs energy for all its “hidden” functions, such as breathing, circulating blood, adjusting hormone levels, and growing and repairing cells. The number of calories your body uses to carry out these essential functions is known as your basal metabolic rate — what you might call metabolism.
Metabolism is indeed linked to weight. But contrary to common belief, slow metabolism is rarely the cause of excess weight gain.
Although your metabolism influences your body’s primary energy needs, how much you eat and drink, along with how much physical activity you get, are the things that ultimately determine your weight.
Several factors determine your basal metabolism, including:
Your body size and composition. People who are larger or have more muscle burn more calories, even at rest.
Your sex. Men usually have less body fat and muscle than women of the same age and weight, which means men burn more calories.
Your age. As you get older, the amount of muscle tends to decrease and fat accounts for more of your weight, slowing down calorie burning.
Energy needs for your body’s essential functions stay consistent and aren’t easily changed.
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The real reason why your weight loss is stalling
It is important to note that you have hormones in your body. However, hormone influence over your specific calories is the real missing factor.
Hormones are the communication in your body. And the essential hormone that relates to whether you burn fat or store fat is insulin.
Insulin instructs your body to “store fat.” So, if your insulin level goes up, you store fat. If insulin goes down, it’s a different message. It means that your body should burn fat.
So, if insulin is too high, that will mimic a slow metabolism because as soon as you lower it, you start to burn fat.
But if that hormone is just a little too high, not only will you be unable to burn fat, but the body will also enhance the storage of calories into fat.
This article focuses on the critical underlying problem and dealing with it. So, if we know what triggers insulin and how to inhibit it, we can lose weight seamlessly.
Photo by David Moruzzi on Unsplash
Symptoms of high insulin
Some possible symptoms may include:
- sugar cravings
- unusual weight gain
- frequent hunger
- excessive hunger
- issues with concentration
- anxiety or feelings of panic
- lack of focus or ambition
- extreme tiredness
- hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar
Symptoms in infants and young children may include:
- difficulty feeding
- extreme irritability
- lethargy or no energy
Insulin triggers and what to do
Carbs are the main thing that triggers insulin — carbs and sugar.
What inhibits insulin? Low carbs that’s the ketogenic diet.
Another big trigger to insulin is frequent eating, like snacking and grazing. There is nothing more powerful to trigger insulin and stop you from losing weight than the small snacks taken throughout the day.
Unfortunately, snacking causes chronic sustained high insulin, putting you in a situation where weight loss becomes practically impossible.
The implication, therefore, is that one of the things that inhibit insulin is fasting. Many who try intermittent fasting are doing it to lose weight (1).
Generally speaking, intermittent fasting will make you eat fewer meals.
Unless you compensate by eating much more during the other meals, you’ll take in fewer calories.
Additionally, intermittent fasting enhances hormone function to facilitate weight loss.
Lower insulin levels, higher HGH levels, and increased amounts of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) all increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy.
For this reason, short-term fasting increases your metabolic rate, helping you burn even more calories (2, 3).
In other words, intermittent fasting works on both sides of the calorie equation. It boosts your metabolic rate (increases calories out) and reduces the amount of food you eat (reduces calories in).
According to a 2014 review of the scientific literature, intermittent fasting can cause weight loss of 3–8% over 3–24 weeks. This is a huge amount (4).
The study participants also lost 4–7% of their waist circumference over 6–24 weeks, which indicates that they lost lots of visceral fat. Visceral fat is the harmful fat in the abdominal cavity that causes disease (5).
One 2011 review also showed that intermittent fasting caused less muscle loss than continuous calorie restriction (6).
Takeaway
Engaging in lifestyle behaviors that slow down your metabolism can lead to weight gain. Therefore, it’s best to avoid or minimize them as much as possible.
A higher metabolism can help you lose weight and keep it off if that is your goal while giving you more energy.
Avoiding added sugar and other insulin triggers is key to improving your metabolism and weight loss.
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or comments.
Disclaimer: Dr. Berner does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical diseases or conditions; instead, he analyzes and corrects the structure of his patients with Foundational Correction to improve their overall quality of life. He works with their physicians, who regulate their medications. This blog post is not designed to provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment, or services to you or any other individual. The information provided in this post or through linkages to other sites is not a substitute for medical or professional care. You should not use the information in place of a visit, consultation, or the advice of your physician or another healthcare provider. Foundation Chiropractic and Dr. Brett Berner are not liable or responsible for any advice, the course of treatment, diagnosis, or any other information, services, or product you obtain through this article or others.
