Have you been feeling more sluggish and fog-brained these days? Have you struggled with losing weight, or are you stuck at a plateau you can’t escape from? These issues could result from a slow metabolism.
Knowing the signs of a slow metabolism can help you understand the changes you need to make to achieve your health goals. To get started, read on for information about slow metabolism and tips for speeding up your metabolism in a healthy way.
Signs of a Slow Metabolism
A slow metabolism can result from many things, including cortisol, insulin, and hormone levels. Let’s look at the signs of slow metabolism to better understand how speeding it up can improve your life.
Weight Gain
One common sign of a slow metabolism is gaining weight or having trouble losing weight. Some critical factors of weight include the level of exercise you perform and the quality of your diet. An inefficient metabolism can slow caloric conversation, resulting in fewer burned calories. And fewer burned calories results in your body storing additional fat.
Essentially, your body is more likely to hold onto weight to compensate for your metabolism burning fewer calories. Therefore, a slow metabolism can make it more challenging to lose weight even with a strict fitness and diet regimen.
Constant Fatigue and Headaches
When living with a slow metabolism, you have a higher chance of experiencing lethargy or chronic fatigue. Food intake and body composition can influence your fatigue levels, and breaking down foods and turning calories into energy is a slower process with a slow metabolism. Because of this, you’ll have diminished energy levels, feel groggier, and be more prone to tiredness.
Furthermore, living with a slow metabolism can also increase headaches and migraines. Onsets of pain and severe migraines can result from non-active thyroid glands. Slower metabolisms can increase the frequency of headaches and leave you feeling irritable.
Dry Skin, Thin Hair, and Brittle Nails
Dry skin, brittle nails, and thinning hair can result from a slow metabolism. The hormones controlling your metabolic process are the same ones that help keep your nails and skin healthy. If you have a metabolic imbalance, it can manifest in these physical features. Some signs include oily, dry, flaky, or itchy skin, accompanied by irregular pigmentation and paleness.
Likewise, for healthy, shiny hair, your body needs proper nutrients to continue your hair’s growth cycle. However, a slow metabolism can impact your body’s nutrient intake, resulting in unhealthy hair that doesn’t grow as well as before. As a result, one person with a slow metabolism could get noticeably duller hair, while another could develop a change in texture or density.
Difficulty Concentrating
If you work in a job with rigorous problem-solving and decision-making requirements, you need a strong metabolism to stay focused and energized. Unfortunately, when your metabolism isn’t functioning correctly, it can have a few adverse effects. These can include short-term memory lapses or being more forgetful. In addition, improper nutrient intake due to a slow metabolism can hamper important mental processes and the ability to focus on tasks, making work more frustrating and overwhelming.
Tips for Boosting Your Metabolism
Now that you know more about the signs of a sluggish metabolism, let’s review the healthy ways to boost your slow metabolism. Small changes in your routine can make a considerable difference, from increasing your protein intake to staying hydrated.
Increase Protein Intake
The thermic effect of food (TEF) describes the temporary increase in metabolic activity after eating food. It results from your body digesting, absorbing, and processing extra calories for nutrients. When consuming protein, your body significantly increases TEF, especially compared to carbohydrates and fats.
Furthermore, protein helps your body feel fuller longer and prevents you from overeating since it takes a long time to break down in the body. When you consume more protein, you help your metabolism remain stable, and you help avoid muscle loss from dieting. You can increase your protein intake with poultry, beef, tofu, beans, fish, nuts, and seeds.
Perform HIIT and Weight Training
High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, involves intense, quick bursts of activity that can help burn more fat and increase your metabolic performance. You can start performing HIIT activities once a week and slowly increase it to three days a week after your body becomes accustomed to it. For example, you can start with running or biking, then switch to more challenging exercises over time.
Likewise, weight training is an excellent exercise method to help reduce body fat and increase muscle. Resistance training is an effective exercise for boosting your metabolism and helping minimize total body fat mass. Hiring a fitness trainer can help you learn different weighted exercises in a safe and controlled environment. This way, you don’t have to worry about injuring yourself or performing exercises incorrectly.
Drink Water and Tea
One easy way to boost your metabolic rate is by drinking more water and tea. Green and oolong teas can help increase your metabolism and burn fat by converting stored fat into free fatty acids. This results in increased fat-burning during exercise. Furthermore, tea is also a low-calorie beverage that aids in weight loss and maintenance.
You can also swap sugary beverages for water, which helps keep you hydrated and at a healthy weight. In addition, it can help reduce caloric intake and temporarily help speed up your metabolism. For example, drinking a big cup of water before a meal can help you consume less.
Get More Sleep
A good night’s sleep balances hormones, regulates bodily functions, and helps with mental clarity. Furthermore, it also has a considerable impact on your metabolism. When you don’t sleep enough, it can increase the risk of obesity.
A lack of sleep can also increase blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, which lead to a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes. In addition, when a person becomes sleep deprived, they often feel hungrier and have a more challenging time losing weight. Overall, getting enough sleep is crucial for balanced hormones and a healthy metabolism.
Consider Supplements
When you need a boost in metabolic performance, we at CorVive have what you need. We provide fitness supplements with high-quality ingredients to help support active lifestyles. Our metabolic supplements enhance metabolic functions by working synergistically with your body’s chemistry for optimal efficacy. If you have any questions about our fitness supplements, reach out to our team today for more information!