The term metabolism is often used in connection with diets and losing weight, with a slow metabolism often being cited as a cause of being overweight. But in fact, it is so much more than that, because it forms the basis for all vital processes in the body. Without metabolism, nothing works.
To understand why a slow metabolism affects your weight loss success and what you can do to boost it again, you first need to know what metabolism actually is and how it works.
This article will tell you everything you need to know about this and what you can do about a slow metabolism. It also includes tips for a healthy breakfast and foods that will get your metabolism going again.
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What is metabolism?
Let's start with the basics: metabolism describes all the chemical processes that take place in our cells. In the process, various substances in the body are converted into others. In addition to generating energy and maintaining bodily functions, the role of the metabolism is to build and break down bodily substances and to maintain them. This includes almost all the cells in our body, including muscle and fat cells.
The entire process is divided into two different metabolic states, catabolism and anabolism, which will be explained in more detail in the next section.
How the metabolism works
Our body needs energy to perform vital functions. We get this energy from the nutrients in the food we eat. The metabolism then breaks the food down into its individual building blocks and transports them to the cells. This means that proteins, fats and carbohydrates are broken down into amino acids, fatty acids and glucose and transported to their destination via the blood. Once there, new substances are formed from them, such as muscles, nerves or bones.
Finally, the waste products that arise during these processes are transported away from the cell and excreted. Certain enzymes are involved in each of these steps. They do most of the work.
If more energy is absorbed through food than can be broken down, energy reserves are stored in the body's fat stores, causing obesity.
Often, digestion is mistakenly equated with metabolism. However, digestion only does the preparatory work, because the stomach and intestines break down food into its individual components. Only then can the smallest substances created in the process be absorbed by the intestines and released into the blood. Finally, they reach the individual cells via the bloodstream, where they fulfil specific tasks.
What are anabolism and catabolism?
Metabolism consists of anabolic and catabolic phases. In the catabolic phase, the body breaks down nutrients absorbed from food. This produces ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which serves as fuel for our cells. In addition to the many other functions of ATP, it is needed, for example, to produce body heat or to move the muscles.
Anabolism then uses the released ATP to build a wide range of bodily substances. This is why it is often referred to as anabolic metabolism. This state is particularly interesting for strength athletes, as muscles are also built during anabolism. To promote muscle building, the body should be well supplied with protein and other important nutrients during this phase.
Anabolism and catabolism alternate and never occur in parallel. Rather, they form a cycle that is regulated by enzymes.
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What are the causes of a slow metabolism?
According to Dr Chih-Hao Lee of Harvard University, the processes just described occur with varying intensity in every person. Whether your metabolism is fast, slow or average depends primarily on your genes. Furthermore, age also has an influence on how fast your metabolism works. So with increasing age, the processes become somewhat slower. (1)
How well your metabolism works is reflected in how easy or difficult it is for you to gain or lose weight. In other words, if you have a slow metabolism, you will burn fewer calories and store excess energy in the form of fat reserves.
However, it would be a mistake to blame excess weight on your metabolism alone. Lifestyle, including exercise and a healthy diet, has a much greater influence. (1)
People with a slow metabolism often not only have trouble losing weight, but also suffer from increased cold sensitivity and concentration problems. This is why those affected want to quickly get their slow metabolism going again and thus improve their quality of life. Find out how this works below.
How can you boost a slow metabolism?
To a certain extent, it is actually possible to give your metabolism a little boost. The two most important ways to boost your metabolism are a healthy diet and exercise.
In this section, we will look at what this means in detail.
Fast movements for a fast metabolism
Exercising not only gets you sweating, but also your metabolism. That's why you should definitely incorporate exercise into your daily routine if you want to give your metabolism a kick start.
If sport is already part of your daily routine, it's worth incorporating interval training into your sporting habits. For example, you could combine your usual jogging routine with short sprints or try high-intensity interval training (HIIT). These short, intensive training sessions are easy to incorporate into your workout routine and have a big impact. After a HIIT workout, your metabolism will be really revved up for the rest of the day, burning calories for all it's worth.
Weight training for more muscle
Muscle requires more energy than fat, not only during exercise but also at rest. With targeted muscle building, you can boost your metabolism and increase your daily calorie requirement. You can easily determine approximately how many calories you need to consume per day to maintain your weight using our calorie calculator. On the one hand, parameters such as age, gender, height and weight are used to calculate your daily calorie requirement. On the other hand, your activity level also plays an important role.
To make your muscles grow and boost your metabolism, you need to train them. Strength training is particularly good for this. To promote muscle growth, the training stimuli you set need to become more intense over time. This can be done, for example, by increasing the weights used. But exercise alone is not enough to really boost your metabolism. The right diet also plays an important role.
Protein-rich diet
Your metabolism is always working at full speed when you eat, digest or store nutrients. This process is called the thermic effect. Basically, it describes how much energy your body has to expend to digest and utilise the food you eat. Depending on what you eat, this effect can be stronger or weaker.
While the thermic effect is only 0-3% for fat and 5-10% for carbohydrates, it is significantly higher for protein at 20-30%. (2) It therefore takes longer for the body to fully absorb protein than fat and carbohydrates. As long as this process is ongoing, energy is required and calories are therefore burned.
However, science has not yet been able to definitively clarify how strong this effect actually is. However, the results from various studies support the combination of a high protein intake and strength training to make your metabolism work better.
In the next section, you will learn which foods can help to boost a slow metabolism.
Foods that boost your metabolism and help you lose weight
Proteins as metabolism boosters
As we have already learned, protein-rich foods require more energy for the body to utilise them. Therefore, it is worth making them a regular part of every meal.
The most important plant-based sources of protein include, for example, legumes such as beans or lentils, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables and cereals or pseudo-cereals such as millet, oats or quinoa. The rule here is: the more different sources of protein you combine, the better. The most important animal-based sources of protein are meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.
To start the morning with a good dose of protein, the VERIVAL sports breakfast, for example, is ideal. With its 100% plant-based protein power, it supplies your body with essential amino acids and boosts your metabolism.
Green tea – a tried and tested miracle weapon
In addition to protein, green tea has also been shown to have a positive effect on the metabolism. Among other things, it contains epigallocatechin gallate – yes, a real tongue-twister. It is known to stimulate fat burning and increase calorie consumption. According to a meta-analysis from 2011, just 250 grams of epigallocatechin gallate boosts the metabolism to such an extent that the body burns an additional 100 calories. This amount corresponds to about three cups of tea. (1)
Berries – the all-rounders
Berries are not only bursting with vitamins, they also contain a considerable amount of antioxidants. These protect against free radicals, some of which are formed during metabolic processes and promote diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer or arteriosclerosis. To prevent these harmful substances from forming, berries should be on your menu.
Boost your metabolism with a healthy breakfast
With the right breakfast, you can lay the foundation for a metabolism boost every morning. It's best to start the day with a healthy and protein-rich meal. Find out what a healthy breakfast could look like:
Protein-rich cereals such as millet, quinoa or oats provide a good basis for a morning energy kick. Take a portion of oat flakes, for example, and make a delicious muesli or cook them up into warming porridge.
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For porridge preparation, milk is suitable as an animal protein source or the protein-rich, vegetable alternative made from soya. Muesli also tastes great with yoghurt or quark.
Serve it with toppings such as nuts, nut butter or seeds and add fresh berries or dried fruit according to your taste. This not only adds variety, but also provides an extra portion of protein. Have you heard about losing weight with intermittent fasting?
Sources:
(1) Harvard Health Publishing (2021, 30 March). The Truth about Metabolism. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-metabolism
(2) Tappy L. Thermic effect of food and sympathetic nervous system activity in humans. Reprod Nutr Dev. 1996;36(4):391-7. doi: 10.1051/rnd:19960405. PMID: 8878356.
