“My metabolism is SO SLOW”
This phrase is something I used to complain about ALL the time — I thought I was just genetically cursed with a really slow metabolism. Little did I know, this was something that I was causing for myself.
My metabolism was slowed down from having an extremely low caloric intake for years.
You might be asking yourself, “okay, Maddie, but why does that matter? The less we eat the more weight we lose, right?” I thought the same thing for basically my entire life, until I figured out I WAAAAY off base.
Think of your body like a steam-engine train: your metabolism is that fire that creates the steam to keep the train moving. The goal is to grow that fire and to keep it running at the fastest speed we can. If that fire is small, we need to slowly feed that fire some coal to make it grow.
Now imagine your metabolism being that fire. When you are not eating enough, your fire is small, and your body is running, but not as fast as it should be, causing your metabolism to slow down. As you slowly add food to your diet, your metabolism will start picking up. But just like a fire, if you throw too much all at once, you would smother the fire and burn it out, and with your metabolism, completely overwhelm it and not produce results. By incorporating more food into your diet slowly, we will help build your metabolism to the best and fastest it can be.
Unfortunately, popular culture has taught us to eat less, which ultimately sabotages your metabolism. Many of my clients come to me asking for fat loss results. When I ask them about their eating, they typically say “I really don’t eat that much, so I don’t understand why I can’t lose weight'' – their metabolism is not nearly where it should be.
If you eat yogurt for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and a salad for dinner, this might yield short-term weight-loss results. But if you consistently eat this amount of food every day, your body ultimately gets used to it. So where can you cut from there? From the example above, there is not a lot of wiggle room to make adjustments to shock your body, hence you stay stagnant.
Did you diet in the past, and now you feel like weight loss is IMPOSSIBLE? Are you afraid of eating carbs, fats, or just eat more food in general...because it might lead to gaining weight?
You might have a slowed metabolism, too. Here are some other signs to look out for:
✖️ You're having digestive issues, like gas or bloat.
✖️ You're experiencing hormonal imbalance, which can end up as anything from dry skin, to having low sex drive, to having trouble warming up.
✖️ Your blood sugar spikes and crashes often (look for "hanger", sugar highs, and brain fog)
If you can relate to any of these, don't worry!!! This is absolutely reversible and you can get your metabolism back up to speed with a reverse diet.
This is when you slowly and gradually increase your total caloric intake by tracking macros, and eventually, your metabolism can handle a LOT more food again. Consider those sad diets history!
If you're interested in learning more about reverse dieting, just keep following the blog — more to come! You're also always welcome to reach out to me DMs on Instagram @madeline_grace! Just shoot me a DM and let's talk!
