Things That Slow Down your Metabolism

Many people believe that they cannot lose weight because "they have a slow metabolism". And while this may be true, your metabolism may be working slowly because of some of your lifestyle habits that you can easily fix. Essentially, your metabolism is the way your body converts food and drink for energy and is measured in calories. Against what most people think, your metabolism is affected by more than just what you eat and how much you exercise. Take a look at some of these factors and see if they could be affecting your metabolism!

• Inconsistent Meal Times
• Your body uses calories for fuel and burns more calories in between meals when they are consistent every couple of hours
• When you eat inconsistently, you confuse your body and it goes into conservation mode
• When you decrease your calorie burn, food goes into storage and is stored as fat
• Not Enough Sleep 
• When you are not sleeping enough, the hormones that control hunger go haywire and cause you to feel hungry all day and lose ability to know you are full
• Calories are burned less efficiently when your body is tired
• Not Eating Enough
• Yes, decreasing calories can help with weight loss, but we have to still eat enough for our bodies to function
• Your body goes into starvation mode and slow down rate of metabolism
• You need to eat enough calories and balance macro-nutrients to keep metabolism from crashing
• Skipping Strength Training
• Your metabolism is linked to muscle mass, so the more active muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will be            
• Sitting Too Much
• Sitting for longer than 20 minutes puts the body in a non-burning state
• Try to get up at least once an hour to prevent this from occurring and keep your metabolism burning 
• What You Drink
• All functions of your body require water, so try to drink at least 2 liters a day
• Additionally, too much alcohol causes the liver to break it down rather than burning fat
• Not Getting Enough Calcium
• Having strong bones means your fat metabolism will be better
• Calcium comes from dairy and it has been shown that people who consume more dairy have more fat loss and more muscle gained, which helps with better metabolism
• Stress
• Stress is the number one factor for having a slow metabolism.
• If you think about it, stress affects all of the factors mentioned above. When you're stressed, your sleep is off, you tend to not eat normally, which leads to not exercising and being exhausted. All of those things affect metabolism.
• So, if you are to tackle one thing, try to reduce or manage your stress the best that you can