Understanding metabolism is important in deciding your lifestyle. Many people become frustrated when they try to lose weight because they calculate how many calories they need to cut from their daily diet and then they lose less weight than they expect. Then, they are puzzled when they gain weight after their diet ends although they are eating the same amount of calories that they were eating when they were neither gaining nor losing weight. A very low metabolism might be these dieters' problem.
Explanation
You have a fast metabolism if you burn calories quickly and a slow metabolism if you burn calories slowly. You lose 1 lb. when you burn 3,500 calories, but people with a fast metabolism lose 1 lb. faster than people with a slow metabolism. Calories are a measurement of energy. Eating and exercising speeds your metabolism, and limiting your eating and exercising slows your metabolism, according to "Metabolism, Sugar and Diabetes," a Duquesne University report.
Solution
Eating a higher-calorie diet is an important solution for people with a very low metabolism. "Diets that rely on restricting calories usually cause a 'yo-yo' effect," according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." Cutting calories slows your metabolism so much that it takes you twice as long to lose the same amount of weight on your second diet and less than 1/3 of the time to regain the weight after your second diet, Ornish writes.
Comparison
"The Complete Guide to Walking" compared the weight-loss efforts of two women. One woman reduced her daily calorie intake from 2,000 to 1,500. The second woman reduced her daily calorie intake from 2,000 to 1,750, but lost 250 calories daily exercising. The second woman lost significantly more weight because she lost fat and gained muscle, while the first woman lost fat and muscle. People with more muscle burn calories faster because if you have more muscle tissue, you have a higher metabolic rate, according to "An Invitation to Health."
Sources
Eating the right foods is another solution for people with very low metabolism. The "Metabolism, Sugar and Diabetes" report points out that sugar provides one of the main sources of energy for the body, but differentiates between good and bad sugars. Good sugars provide your body energy, but don't increase your blood-sugar levels enough to increase body fat. Good sources of good sugars include beans, nuts, vegetables and fruits such as apples, blueberries and pears.
Warning
Bad sugars can lower your metabolism because your body has a "very delicate mechanism that controls the use and storage of its sugars," according to the Duquesne report. Bad sugars are unnatural sugars that are inserted into food during the refinery process and increase body fat. Apples, for instance, have sugar that is naturally healthy and unrefined, but apple juice has refined sugar. Canned fruits and vegetables often are loaded with bad sugar. Unrefined whole-wheat bread has good sugar, but refined white bread has bad sugar.
References
- Duquesne University: Metabolism, Sugar and Diabetes
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 2003
- "The Complete Guide to Walking"; Mark Fenton; 2001
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease"; Dean Ornish; 1996
