Studies have shown that certain lifestyles can slow down your metabolism and lead to weight gain over time. In this paper we shall be explaining some of these habits and offer ways through which you can avoid them, so as to increase your metabolism.
1. Eating too few calories
Cutting calories too much and for long can lower your metabolic rate. Because, when your body senses that there is little food in your body, it lowers the rate at which it burn calories and this makes weight maintenance and weight loss more difficult.
2. Eating less protein
It’s very important to eat the right amount of protein in your diet, as it helps to preserve your metabolic rate during weight loss.
3. Lack of physical activity
Being sedentary leads to a significant decrease in the number of calories you burn daily. Try to minimize sitting for long hours and increase your general activity levels.
4. Irregular meal timing
Irregular meal timings make it tough for your body to know when your next meal will be and that results in slow metabolism. Therefore, it is important to have small and frequent meals with nearly similar timings everyday to keep your metabolic rate high.
5. Not getting enough sleep
8 hours of sleep every day is an essential part of healthy living. But lack of sound sleep makes you sluggish due to a reduction in your resting metabolic rate.
6. Drinking sugary beverages
High intakes of fructose containing beverages have been found to slower metabolic rate and promote the storage of fat in your belly and liver.
7. Not drinking enough water
Water is essential for proper cell functioning, hence lack of it slows your metabolic rate.
8. Skipping breakfast
Breakfast is the most essential meal of the day and it should be heavy. Skipping breakfast results in a slower metabolism and makes your body conserve energy at the time when maximum calories should be burnt.
9. Consuming too much alcohol
You need to cut down on your alcohol consumption as it has a direct negative impact on your metabolism, not only because of its high calorie levels, but also due to a total lack of nutritional value. Your body is unable to store alcohol as it would store other nutrients like proteins and carbohydrates, so it must be metabolized immediately. Overtime, this takes priority over the fats and sugars in your body that, also need to be metabolized thus, slowing your fat burning process.
Image Courtesy by: booksforbetterliving.com, powerofpositivity.com
