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What Causes a Slow Metabolism?

Your metabolism, or metabolic rate, is the rate at which your body converts the food you consume into energy. A slow metabolism can lead to a number of problems including difficulty losing weight while dieting and exercising, according to Weight-Loss-Center.net. With a slow metabolism, the body converts less food into energy and more into fat, making a person weigh more and giving them less energy to work it off. There are a variety of causes for a slow metabolic rate, and luckily most of them can be combated.

  1. Aging

    • According to MetabolismAdvice.com, one of the leading factors in a slowing metabolism is age. It claims that at 30 the body begins to produce less growth hormone as the body stops growing. This process causes you to lose muscle mass and lowers your basal metabolic rate, the rate at which your body converts food to energy while you rest. The more muscles you have, the faster this process goes, so the muscle loss associated with aging is a large cause of a slow metabolism.

    Irregular Eating Habits

    • It's important to eat the recommended three meals a day to keep your metabolism healthy. Eating more will cause your metabolism to overwork, and eating too little will cause your body to utilize its natural defense against starvation, slowing down your metabolism in an attempt to ration your energy. This is why many diets and fasting rarely helps people lose weight in the long run. Starving yourself may cause you to drop a few pounds, but, because your body kicks into survival mode, any food you eat will take longer to convert into energy, giving it more of a chance to become fat instead.

    Lack of Quality Exercise

    • Exercise is one of the most important aspects to maintaining a healthy metabolic rate. While cardiovascular exercise is great for losing weight, gaining muscle will speed up your metabolism. This confuses many people because, since muscle weighs more than fat, they see weight gain after gaining muscle and give up on exercise and losing weight, but in the long run you'll end up healthier and with a faster metabolism if you gain muscle.

    Other Causes

    • There are many other causes of slow metabolism such as poor sleeping habits, eating unhealthy foods often and thyroid problems. Stress is also a possible cause of a slowing metabolism. According to MetabolismAdvice.com, lack of water is also a cause, so make sure to drink plenty of it during exercise.

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