If you want to lose weight and keep it off, then you need to keep your metabolism high. But, there are a number of common lifestyle mistakes that can slow down your metabolism. These habits could make it difficult for you to lose weight on a regular basis. In fact, they can even cause you to gain weight in the future. Thus, it is best to know what mistakes can cause your metabolism to slow down and fix them to ensure you can achieve your weight loss goals. Let’s take a look.
Eating too little calories
Your metabolism can decline significantly if you do not eat enough calories. Even though you require a calorie deficit for losing weight, it can be counterproductive if your calorie intake declines too much. If your calorie intake is lowered dramatically, your body believes that food is scarce and it automatically reduces the rate at which you are burning calories. If you want to restrict calories to lose weight, you need to ensure that you do not reduce it too much and not for too long.
Not eating enough protein
When you want to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, it is essential that you eat enough protein. Not only does it help you feel full, but a high protein intake can also significantly boost the rate at which calories are burned. The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the increase in metabolism that happens after digestion. As compared to fat or carbs, protein has a higher thermic effect. While metabolic rate slows down during the weight loss process and remains slow even during weight maintenance, you can minimize this effect with a higher protein intake.
Living a sedentary lifestyle
The number of calories you burn in a day will be reduced significantly if you are sedentary. A lot of people have lifestyles that require sitting at work and this can have a negative impact on their metabolic rate as well as overall health. Even though you can burn the most calories through exercise or playing sports, even basic physical activity, such as taking the stairs, cleaning, or standing up can help you in burning calories. You can increase the number of calories you burn in a day and prevent your metabolism from slowing down by getting up and walking around a couple of times, or working at a standing desk.
Not getting enough sleep
Sleep is a must for optimal health. Your risk of various illnesses increases when you sleep for fewer hours than you require, such as depression, diabetes and heart disease. In fact, inadequate sleep is also known to reduce your metabolic rate and can increase the possibility of weight gain. Lack of sleep gets worse if you sleep during the day rather than at night. This kind of sleep pattern can disturb your body’s internal clock and circadian rhythms. You need to get high-quality and adequate sleep at night because this will help you in preserving your metabolic rate.
