Your nutrition is on point and you're working your buns off in the gym like a sweat machine. Running, lifting weights, and even some yoga. You've ditched the excuses and are getting your workouts in at least 3 days per week. So why have you hit a plateau in your weight loss journey? Why are you struggling to drop those last few pounds? If you've only got a few more pounds to lose to hit your goal, your body is going to fight you for those pounds - and with persistence.
Your metabolism should be revving like a Formula 1 race car engine, but it may be running more closely to a snails pace than the former - which is turning off your fat burning processes.
Many of us do this to ourselves without even realizing it. The way we eat and live slows down our metabolism and makes it nearly impossible to shed those last few pounds.
Well, here's why and (importantly) how to fix it.
Exercise boosts your metabolism, however it may not be enough!
You’ve probably heard that exercising boosts your metabolism. It’s one of the first things doctors and nutritionists recommend if you’re trying to lose weight. Move around more, get active!
Exercise affects your metabolism by a process called exercise-associated thermogenesis (1). Physical activity puts higher energy demands on your body than staying still. Some types of exercise do this better than others, but all of them beat a sedentary lifestyle.
Your metabolism is more complicated than you might realize. Your age, gender, and other factors outside your control all affect your metabolic rate (2). That being said, getting physically active is under your control. That’s why so many people looking to increase their metabolism (and lose weight) start there. Exercise is a great start, but it might not be enough to get you as lean as you’d like. There are other factors at play.
Speeding up a slow metabolism:
Exercise will ramp up your metabolism, the research has shown us that. However there are other factors under your control – things you might not realize you’re doing – that play a part! Once you identify them, you can make a few tweaks to your nutrition and lifestyle to bump up your metabolism and burn off those last few pounds. Here are five things that might be disrupting your metabolism right this second:
1. You Don’t Eat Enough Calories
You read that correctly. Doesn't it make sense to eat less if your metabolism is slow? That's what most people assume - the pounds will eventually come off as long as you cut calories enough.
If there’s anything our bodies do well, it’s adapt. Our bodies are constantly working to maintain an energy balance between what’s burned and what’s consumed. Our body gets increasingly efficient the longer we cut calories and metabolism drops over time. When you try to lose weight, you throw that balance out of orbit. Eating fewer calories than before – not enough to meet your body’s energy demands – causes your body to respond by lowering your resting metabolic rate (how many calories you burn just to stay alive) (3).
It sounds counterintuitive, but drastic calorie restriction can slow or even reverse weight loss. You get caught up in a cycle where you eat way too little, your metabolism adjusts, and you try eating even less to overcome it, leaving you to wonder why you’re starving all the time but can’t lose weight!
If you’re eating the right foods, deliberate calorie restriction usually isn’t necessary. It can actually be quite easy to undereat when eating healthy because the foods are so much lower in calories, but higher in nutrients, than processed foods.
Track your calorie intake for a few days and see what you're taking in. You may be lower than expected! If you’re working hard and getting a lot of exercise, consider adding more starchy carbs and healthy fats to keep your metabolism humming.
2. You Don’t Eat Enough Protein
You might be eating enough calories, but your ratio of fats, protein, and carbohydrates could be throwing a wrench in your metabolism. The issue could be that you're not getting in enough protein! I know, I sound like a broken record, but you won't hit your protein requirements by eating an egg for breakfast and 2oz of chicken breast at lunch with your salad.
Not all calories are created equal, despite what mainstream nutritionists try to tell us.
Eating carbohydrates creates much different effects in the body than eating protein. The wrong kind of carbs – grains, processed carbs, sugars – spike your insulin levels, leading to inflammation, diabetes, obesity, and many other health issues (4). Eating protein has a much different effect: no huge insulin spikes, just a sustained energy source that keeps you feeling full for a long time (5).
One study compared two groups of volunteers who stayed at a hospital for 12 weeks. The researchers deliberately overfed both groups, but their diets were different. One group followed a low-protein diet, only getting five percent of their calories from that macronutrient. The other group got 25 percent of their calories from protein. The groups ate the same amount of calories. The only difference was the source: carbs or protein.
What happened? The low-protein group lost about 1.5 pounds of muscle and gained 7.5 pounds of fat. But the high-protein group gained over six pounds of muscle. They did gain fat because they were being overfed. But they gained significantly less fat than the low-protein group (6).
Storing less fat and gaining more muscle is a recipe for a faster metabolism. Eating plenty of protein makes that possible. Also, eating protein stimulates thermogenesis more than carbs or fat (7).
If you can’t lose those last few pounds, maybe you aren’t getting enough protein. Try to have a high-quality source of protein – like meat or eggs – at every meal. Eaten in moderation, high-protein nuts and seeds (walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc.) make great snacks, too.
3. Your Workouts Aren’t Intense Enough
Many people focus on quantity, not quality of their exercise.
Strength training, whether it’s with weights or your own body weight, has been shown to boost metabolic rates by building lean muscle mass, making the sympathetic nervous system more active, and increasing insulin sensitivity (8).
Cardio works, too. Studies have found a connection between regular cardio exercise and an increase in resting metabolic rates (9). How? Researchers suspect it’s due to better insulin response and blood sugar control.
So you don’t have to choose between resistance training and cardio… But you can make them more effective by cranking up the intensity. It all comes down to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, known by fitness types as the “afterburn effect.” This is the limited period of time when your body expends extra energy after you exercise.
More intense exercise regimens produce a greater EPOC effect (10). Short bursts of high intensity effort, followed by brief rest periods, will help you get more metabolic “bang for your buck” than steady-state activities like jogging.
That's what we focus on during our HIIT Fusion classes - blocks of strength training with bouts of short intense movements that get your body's metabolism cooking!
4. You Don’t Drink Green Tea
Green tea is actually one of the few foods or drinks that can help. Green tea contains antioxidants called “catechins.” These are thermogenic compounds that affect your metabolism (11).
One study divided healthy men into three groups and gave one group green teasupplements which contained catechins. The group given the green tea extract burned about 4 percent more calories than the placebo group, as well as the group who got straight caffeine (12). The supplements were a relatively low dose, too – nothing more than you’d get from drinking a few cups of green tea a day.
Four percent more calories might not sound like a huge difference. But if you’re looking to lose a few pounds, it could be the tipping point between losing weight or maintaining it. It’s definitely worth a shot!
5. Your Gut Is Unhealthy
More and more evidence is coming out revealing gut bacteria’s incredible impact on our overall health. These bacteria, which outnumber all of the cells in your entire body ten to one, affect everything from how we store fat and handle blood sugar, to how the hormones regulating our appetite function.
An imbalance here, even early in life, can have serious consequences months and years later. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that differences in gut bacteria in infants let researchers accurately predict whether they’d be overweight or obese when the infants grew up (13).
Leaner people have a greater variety of gut bacteria. If your gut bacteria are imbalanced, it could very well explain why your metabolism is sluggish. And too many bad bacteria can throw your hunger signals out of control, making it practically impossible to lose those last few pounds.
Leaner people have a greater variety of gut bacteria. One study, comparing sets of twins who were either both lean or both obese, found that the leaner twins’ bacteria profile had many more diverse species than the twins who were overweight (14).
If you feel hungry all the time, are dealing with chronic digestion issues, or are feeling fatigued or even depressed most of the time, your gut might need some extra attention. You should chat with your doctor and research supplementing with probiotics (healthy bacteria)
In Summation:
Physical activity is a fantastic way to boost your metabolism, however you may need to make a few more adjustments before those last few pounds come off. While your metabolism isn’t entirely under your control, following these 5 tips can help make sure you're doing the best to make your body work for you while you're outside of the gym! Additionally, DON'T FORGET THE FUNDAMENTALS! Get your sleep, drink your gallon of water, manage your stress, and you'll be set up well to nail down your goals.