Avoid These 7 Common Diet Mistakes That Slow Metabolism

Metabolism in humans is as essential as living.

Keeping your metabolism at an optimal level is crucial to living a healthy life. It is also a great means of losing weight and keeping the weight off effectively.

A slow metabolism can be of great impact on our daily energy level and ease of digestion.

It has become common knowledge that metabolism slows with age. However, there are some common diet mistakes we make that slow our metabolism.

Before we go through the various mistakes, let’s examine what metabolism is and why it is important. 

What is metabolism?

Metabolism encompasses all of the chemical processes or activities that continuously take place in the human body.

These biochemical processes help the body break down fuel and convert the fuel into cellular energy.

These activities are basically in play to keep the human body alive and fully operational. Examples of metabolism processes include breathing, cell repairing, and even digestion of food.

The base metabolic rate (BMR) is the minimal amount of energy required by the body during any metabolic process. Certain factors have their influence when it comes to metabolism.

These factors include body size, age, gender, and genes. 

How important is metabolism when dieting?

One thing to know about metabolism and dieting is that they both work together.

Dieting is usually based on the reduction of certain macronutrients. These nutrients are necessary for energy—classes of foods such as fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Usually, most people often complain of slow metabolism. Likewise, they would complain about eating less but still gaining more weight.

While other individuals eat more of everything but due to their fast metabolism feature, there is no additional weight.

We all have different ways of burning excess calories from our bodies.

One widely known way of preventing obesity is by dieting. It is important to understand that our bodies burn calories in different ways. It could be through exercise, daily work routines, or individual basal metabolic rate 

Metabolism and dieting work together for the same result.

The result is to keep the body alive and in a functional condition. Metabolism is considered partially controlled by the body’s genes and mostly out of human control.

Fast or slow metabolism

Most people inherited genes that enable them to exhibit fast metabolism.

Therefore, they eat as much as they want without adding weight. However, others with slow metabolism are not as lucky.

The human body may be likened to an operational car engine. The state in which it is in determines the amount of energy that it burns. 

When eating or sleeping, the body assumes an idle position just like a car at a stop traffic light. A certain minimal amount of energy is constantly being burned to keep the engine running.

It is right to assert that metabolism plays a vital role when it comes to dieting.

This is because the body’s metabolism rate determines how many calories you burn. If a person’s metabolism rate is considerably high or fast, such a person will burn more calories at any time. 

A high metabolism allows an individual to maintain body weight. This is one reason why some people can eat more than others while not gaining weight.

A person with slow metabolism has the challenges of not being able to burn more calories as desired.

Even if such a person does many physical activities, they may still have to eat less. 

Related: Fat vs Muscle: The Ultimate Guide to Differences & Role in Weight Loss

Common diet mistakes that slow metabolism

Several people live a lifestyle that slows down their metabolism. There is a constant need to keep one’s metabolic rate high as it is crucial to losing weight.

Revving up your metabolism can be as easy as tweaking some lifestyle habits. 

Here are some common diet mistakes that can slow metabolism.

Related: Metabolic Syndrome: A Complete Guide to Causes and Treatment 

1. Consuming Very Few Calories

Eating too few calories often results in decreased metabolism. Everyone seems to want to reduce their calory consumption to ensure weight loss.

However, research has it that when the body senses a drastic reduction in your calorie intake, it also lowers the rate of metabolism.

That is the rate at which the body burns calories reduces. Therefore, you must keep calory consumption at an optimum level. 

2. Reducing protein consumption

Even though protein helps to add weight, it is important to include it in every meal.

This is because research shows that protein helps to increase metabolic rate more than fat or carbs.

The increase in protein consumption results in increased or higher metabolism during weight loss and body maintenance. 

3. Consuming sugary foods

High consumption of sugar-sweetened food substances has detrimental effects on health.

According to a study on the effect of sugar intake on body weight, it is established that sugar should be substituted with low-level sweeteners.

This is because a much higher intake of fructose-containing beverages will reduce the body’s metabolism. 

4. Removing Fatty Food from Diet Plan

Removing or reducing fatty foods from your meal may result in more harmful effects.

A study on food intake and fat shows that lipids (fat) have a much higher digestion and metabolism feature. Foods like avocado, nuts, and olive oil appear more satisfying.

They provide the body with energy and repair damaged tissues.

Related: 20 Foods High in Healthy Fat That’s Not Avocado

5. Skipping of Meals 

When you skip meals, you are only able to avoid consuming calories at that particular time.  By doing this, you are indirectly preparing yourself for more food intake.

This often translates to more calory intake.

According to research, not eating regularly will affect metabolism as there is no food to break down.

All these make it even more difficult to tone body weight or reduce calories as desired.

6. Losing Track of Food Intakes

A study on weight loss and maintenance strategy advises keeping track of what you eat.

If you don’t pay attention to the things you eat, you can’t track your metabolism levels. You may get a diary for your food intake. It does not necessarily mean that you have to deny yourself food.

All you need to do is reduce these free foods to little amounts.

7. Lack of Exercise

To lose more weight easier and quicker, you need to exercise. The more exercise you can do daily, the more calories you can burn.

A study on the metabolic effects of exercise shows that exercise has powerful effects on metabolism and our body’s adaptation to induced changes.

The is fundamental to provide the energy needed for physiological functions. 

Takeaway

Metabolism is a very crucial aspect of the human system. However, we make some common diet mistakes, and we do not know that they affect our metabolism.

This article gives you an overview of some of the common mistakes that may be slowing down your metabolism.

Kindly go through them and make informed decisions for a healthy lifestyle.