There is a large number dieters out there who if you ask them will say they have a ’slow metabolism’ and this is why they are not able to see the weight loss results they’re looking for.
To them, it doesn’t matter how few calories they eat with their fat loss diets, those pounds just ain’t coming off – they have pretty much set up permanent home on their body.
But, what’s the real deal here? Do these individuals really have naturally slow metabolisms? Or is it just in their head?
Genetically Slow Metabolism
In some cases, individuals will in fact have slow metabolism. They have either been born with slow metabolism or have malfunctioning levels of thyroid hormones and will need to be put on thyroid medications in order to see better fat loss results happening.
These situations are fairly rare though when you compare it to the number of people who are claiming to have these slow metabolisms.
Regular Metabolisms With Matched Food Intake Misperceptions
Next up you have individuals who really don’t have a slow metabolism at all. What they have is a misconception about how much food they really are taking in. Either they aren’t measuring food properly, they are not counting ’standing bites’ (food eaten when not at table), or they just aren’t counting calories altogether and don’t have a clear sense of how much they are eating.
In this case, the problem is not a slow metabolism, the problem is not a low enough calorie intake.
That will stop fat loss in its tracks in mere seconds.
Slowed Metabolisms Due to Dieting
The final situation with regards to slow metabolisms is individuals who have been on very strict diets for very long periods of time.
As a general guideline, if you’ve been dieting for longer than four months on an intake that’s equal or lower to your body weight times ten in calories, you are likely suffering from this form of slow metabolism and yes, you are justified in saying, “I can’t lose weight because of my stupid slow metabolism”.
This situation is much more frequent than individuals with genetically slowed metabolism as is largely due to misinformed dieters who think that if 1200 calories is good, eating 900 must be better.
But it’s not.
The body responds to such a low calorie intake by conserving fuel and slowly shutting down. Do this long enough and you’ll lose muscle mass, further reducing your metabolic rate, and you’ll also start to see your current metabolism come to a snail’s pace.
Then fat loss slows to a halt, you get frustrated, eventually give up and return back to your normal eating habits. But now, because your metabolism has slowed due to such a low intake and lower levels of lean muscle mass, you find yourself gaining not only whatever weight you did lose, but more.
Bad, bad, bad.
It’s not a good situation to be in at all.
When this is what’s going on with you – you’ve assessed your diet accurately and you have in fact been eating very low calories for an extended period of time, refeeds or ‘cheat’ days are in need.
These will help bring your metabolism level back up closer to normal so you can finally have weight loss success without cutting portion sizes yet again.
Cheat days or diet-breaks are in fact so important on fat loss diets that I’d say it’s about 50% of the reason people don’t see results on their fat loss diet.
Either they get fed up with never being able to eat foods they enjoy and go off the diet altogether (adherence with dieting is BIG), or they suffer this metabolism slow-down as described above.
Do NOT neglect Cheat days.
If you want success with your diet, they will be scheduled in.
If you don’t quite understand how to do so, relax, I created a diet program right around this principle (THAT is how important I think these are).
=======> Cheat Weight Loss Program
Isn’t it time you started seeing results?
Click HERE to learn more.
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