Can I Damage My Metabolism By Eating Too Few Calories?

Approximately 60 to 65 percent of the calories you consume daily supply your metabolism with basic energy. Restricting your diet of calories may not damage your metabolism; however, it may produce a slow metabolism that does not effectively burn calories into energy. The result may lead to a declined rate of weight loss. Incorporating exercise, consuming enough calories throughout the day and understanding your basal metabolic rate can boost your metabolism naturally.

How Metabolism Functions

Metabolism is the process in your body that converts food into energy. Once food digests, enzymes break the proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids and carbohydrates into simple sugars. Metabolizing food involves anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism supports the growth of new cells, maintains body tissues and stores energy for future use. Catabolism breaks down carbohydrates and fats to release energy.

Eating Too Few Calories

You cannot damage your metabolism by eating too few calories. Consuming fewer calories will cause weight loss; however, greatly restricting calories may cause nutrient deficiencies, slow your metabolism and create future problems with weight-loss progress. You burn fewer calories as you age, due to muscles decrease and fat tissue increase. Therefore, an older person may need fewer calories daily to support a healthy weight. Some factors other than a slow metabolism contribute to weight gain, including too little sleep, skipping breakfast, too little exercise, genetics and medication. Some rare individuals may experience a slow metabolism due to inherent conditions such as Cushing's syndrome and hypothyroidism.

Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate

Your metabolism is at work continuously. The basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the number of calories your body uses for these functions. Each person has different basal energy needs affected by age, weight and activity level. Understanding your body's BMI allows for the proper amount of calories consumed, and not too few, throughout the day. Determine your BMI by multiplying your weight by 10 calories for women and 11 calories for men. If overweight, multiply your weight by eight calories. Estimate your energy needs by multiplying your calories by 1.6 for a highly active lifestyle, 1.5 for an active lifestyle, 1.3 for a moderately active lifestyle, 1.2 for a lightly active lifestyle or 1.0 for a sedentary lifestyle.

Boosting Your Metabolism

A sluggish metabolism caused by too few calories may be boosted by incorporating a few changes in your daily routine. An active lifestyle with aerobic exercise and weight training increases calories burned and muscle mass. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Consuming small meals and snacks every three to four hours a day plus staying hydrated keeps your metabolism healthy and burning calories throughout the day.