Five Common Habits That Are Killing Your Weight Loss Journey

1. You’re NOT Eating Enough Food 

Consuming a scarce amount of calories can result in a long term down regulation of your metabolism.

While eating at a caloric deficit is necessary for weight loss, it can impede fat burning if you’re consuming too few calories.

See, when you decide to cut your calories too fast and too low, your body feels that energy (food) is not coming into the body like it used to, and decrease the amount of calories it’s using on a daily basis. This leads to metabolic damage, and can impede your body’s ability to burn fat.

2. Too Much Leisure Time 

If you’re not spending enough time moving around on your feet, this may lead to a drastic decrease in the amount of calories your body burns during the day.

A big part of this issue is that so many people lead lifestyles that are spent sitting at a desk. That standard of living has negative effects on your metabolism and your general health.

We all know that training in the gym, or participating in sports will increase the amount of calories your body will burn. Though, the most basic physical activities can help you burn more calories. Things like walking your dog, cleaning your car, and taking the stairs are great examples of activities many people have the option to partake in on near a daily basis. 

Those types of activities are referred to as “Activities of Daily Living” or your ADL’s. Making your ADL’s more physically demanding can positively influence your metabolism.

3. You’re Falling Short With Protein 

Consuming adequate amounts of protein is extremely important for obtaining and sustaining a healthy body composition.

Protein plays a role in metabolism. Maintaining a high protein diet will drastically increase the efficacy of your body’s ability to burn calories.

This up regulation of  your metabolism that occurs post digestion is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF).

Protein’s thermo effects on your metabolism is significantly more than that of fat or carbs. That said, studies show that consuming protein increases metabolism by about 20–30% for a short period of time, compared to a mere 5–10% for carbohydrates, and around 3% or less for fat 

(See study below)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC524030/

To be clear, It’s inevitable that your metabolic rate will slow down during a weight loss phase, and will probably continue to be down regulate during a maintenance phase. Though, some fitness professionals suggest that high protein diets can lower this effect.

4. Your Sleep Schedule Is A Big Fat Trap 

It’s no secret that your sleep hygiene sleep has a significant impact health.

Even mild sleep deprivation can raise the risk of you falling into the hands of a some serious illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes, and depression 

(See study below)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27548196/

Having a suboptimal sleep schedule can indeed slow your metabolism, and eventually increase your body fat mass.

One study's findings suggested that adults in good health who slept no more than four hours per night, for five consecutive nights had a 2.6% decrease in their BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), on average. Now what’s really interesting is that their BMR rate came back to their normal rate after twelve hours of quality sleep.

(See study below)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26538305/

5. You’re Not Paying Any Homage To Your Body’s Muscle 

Resistance training is perhaps one of the best ways to keep a healthy metabolism from becoming bogged down.

Strength training has an extremely desirable effect on metabolisms of healthy individuals. Additional,  those who suffer from heart disease, or are obese have experienced great results in their metabolism from strength. Even minimal amounts of strength training appear to boost energy expenditure.

(See study below)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19346974/

A six month study confirmed that those who engaged in resistance/strength training for around 10 minutes daily, minimum of three days weekly, experienced about a seven and a half percent increase in their BMR, and burned on average an additional 125 calories daily.

(See study below)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19346974/

Disclaimer: The information on this site is intended to provide general educational information only, and does not constitute, nor is it a substitute for, medical advice.