Is your metabolism working properly?

Is your metabolism working properly?

Do consider yourself part of the ‘slow metabolism’ tribe, for example: “my metabolism has slowed down so much – I can’t even look at a chocolate before putting on weight”? Or the opposite – ‘the fast metabolism’ type: “I have to eat this chocolate bar or I’ll get dizzy due to my fast metabolism”? It’s become such a common thing to discuss – people desperately seeking ways to boost metabolism, speed up metabolism, fix their metabolism, compensate for their metabolism. But that doesn’t mean it’s what’s really to blame.

It’s a prime example of how vulnerable we can be, without educating ourselves, to everyone who would like to sell us something to help with our weightloss and body dreams.

For most people, their metabolism tends to stay pretty constant, with small variations like when exercising, or having a cup of coffee/ caffeine. Based on various studies, it can also flex to suit conditions – probably as a result of availability of food or food types for humans since time began. What we eat, however, is very unlikely to be a magic pill to increase our metabolism enough to lose pounds. Speeding up your metabolism is not a weightloss strategy – it simply doesn’t work like that. For most of us, our metabolism is unlikely to be the reason for putting on weight.

Do you know what your metabolism is?

It is all of the chemical processes your body undertakes to stay living – build, repair, remove as well as to generate and energy from food types (protein, carbohydrates and fats). It isn’t simply about the breakdown of foods, which seems to be the general belief. If you are feeling that you are struggling with maintaining your weight – attacking your metabolism with the latest fad on offer isn’t going to give you the result you want.

Every individual’s metabolism responds slightly differently to stimulus like the type or availability of food and how it works is still very much under study. We simply don’t know what decides to make the fluctuations in our metabolism. For example, your metabolism will probably increase if you add weight to make up for your increased size, which is the opposite of what you may expect. What is clear, is that you cannot increase your metabolism to a level that would be responsible for weightloss of any significant degree. It isn’t what you need to adjust.

Weightloss or gain is down to consumption of calories. If you are gaining weight, you are eating more calories than you are burning over time. It is not an overnight effect – that extra biscuit over a year adds up to extra pounds over time. It has been proven over and over again, that even experienced professionals (like dieticians) are pretty rubbish at accurately estimating their calorie intake. We think we’re eating clean and healthy, but forget the extra hot chocolate or glass of wine, snacking off kids plates, the extra slice of cake at work. The little extras that feel insignificant in a day, but add up over time.

Unfortunately with calories, the ones we ignore still count. Most of the time, we simply don’t realise what we are actually eating.

Don’t believe me? Perfect. Do the test.

• Track the calories you are consuming for three weeks. Track everything you eat and drink. For extra effect, why not write down what you guess the calories are, and compare to the actuals. Don’t take my word for it, prove it for yourself. Use a free app like MyFitnessPal to make it easy.

If you lose weight over that time, you have gone into a calorie deficit (burning more than consuming). If you stay the same, you are maintaining your weight – burning what you are eating. If you gain weight, you are eating more calories that you are burning.

You’ll be armed with the knowledge about how your body is responding to what you are giving it.

Here’s some things you probably aren’t considering:

• What you are drinking. Women tend to like sweeter alcoholic drinks, which usually contain more calories. Are you keeping up with everyone around you in your drinking? If you are drinking milky tea and coffee, you are drinking more calories than black tea or coffee. Do you add an extra sugar? Drinking extra cups lately?
• Another issue that you may/may not like – women simply do not burn as many calories as men. If you are eating the same portion size as your other half, then that is most likely a key reason you are putting on weight. Men have biological differences – more base muscle that naturally burns more calories. As they tend to be bigger then women generally, they burn more calories. The bigger (and possibly less fit) you are, the more calories you’ll burn in the same exercise compared to someone smaller than you. If you are a woman eating the same as a man, you’ll likely be putting on the weight to a greater degree than he is.
• When it comes to energy – a calorie from carbohydrates is equal to a calorie from fat or protein. It’s a unit of measure. Doesn’t matter from an energy point of view if you are eating carbs – you put on weight when you eat more calories than you need. The usefulness of what you are eating from a health perspective (giving the body what it needs) is a different matter. Poor eating habits (like extreme dieting) can damage your metabolism.
• Your activity levels may have change over time. If you are not doing any exercise, and are not building muscle, your calorie needs will be lower than when you were doing those things. Some people go to the gym or run and feel better indulging in alcohol or junk food as they’ve earned it. But the reality is, you could probably do less exercise by simply not needing to eat those little extras.

It is so tempting to believe hype about pills, fancy diets, miracle foods to address the changes we’d like for our bodies. Why would they say all of those things if they were true? Because you’ll buy it, that’s why. There are situations, medically (or professionally) diagnosed conditions that need an extra hand to manage our bodies. For most of us, what we really need is to learn about our own body – how it responds to the activity we do, and the awareness of what we are eating every day.

It is probably the most annoyingly true thing to repeat, but what you need to do is eat less and move more. We just want to believe it is something more complicated, or out of our hands, because then it isn’t our own fault. It can feel too hard to change what we like to eat.

A summary of some things to consider instead of your metabolism:

• What is your portion size like relative to male/ female? Are your portions too big?
• Are you consuming uncounted calories in alcohol or other drinks?
• Has your activity level and fitness level changed in the last few years?

If you need more convincing, I’ve posted this blog post to my Facebook page about Julia Belloz’ experience finding out whether her perception of a slow metabolism was really responsible for her struggles with getting to the weight she wanted.  She spent a day in a metabolic chamber.

It’s not easy to manage weight. Chances are there are some really simple things that will turn things around, as well as a few changes that are really possible to achieve. I’ve made Blissfit Food & Fitness Coaching as a direct result of my own experience learning about food and exercise and changing what I did. I’d be happy to help you as a personal trainer, but if you want to go it alone, you’ll need to arm yourself with a combination of learning about food, understanding what you are actually eating, and slowly working out what is right for you.

If you’d like help to get there, you can get in touch with me.