5 Mistakes That Are Destroying Your Metabolism

You’ve heard it all before — if you could just boost your metabolism a bit, then you could achieve that goal weight on the scale and the muscles of your dreams. You may know that exercise and movement can boost your metabolism, but is a slow metabolism really to blame if you can’t seem to keep unwanted pounds off and get the body you’ve always wanted?

According to Mayo Clinic, your metabolism is the process that your body goes through to convert what you’re eating and drinking everyday into energy that you can use. Essentially, the calories from your food and drinks that you consume are then combined with oxygen to give your body the energy boost it needs to function. Your body uses energy to keep you alive (chewing, breathing, and circulating blood throughout your body all takes calories), and the minimum number of calories you burn a day without any physical activity varies greatly depending on your body size, sex, and age. The more efficiently your body goes through this metabolic process, the more efficiently you’ll be burning calories.

Think your metabolism needs a boost? Check out these five mistakes you’re making that are hurting your metabolism.

1. You’re not getting enough sleep

Sleep is your body’s time to restore, and it’s good for keeping your metabolism working properly as well. The San Francisco Chronicle explains that those who do not get the proper amount of sleep may have a higher chance of developing a metabolic disorder down the road. In addition to this, the hormones that are responsible for regulating your appetite, ghrelin and leptin, are also affected when you don’t get enough sleep, thus you’ll feel less satisfied after your meals and hungrier than normal, which affects your metabolism as well.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, and when you don’t get the amount of sleep that you should be getting, your body becomes less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that is necessary to help your body turn food into fuel. This can eventually lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, so it’s vital to your metabolism (and your overall health) that you’re getting the sleep you need. Hover around seven to eight hours of sleep a night for the perfect amount — any less than this and your metabolism may suffer, and any more than this will leave you at risk for weight gain, too.

Staying hydrated isn’t just the key to feeling more awake and boosting your workout performance — it’s also key to keeping your metabolism healthy and active. Shape explains that even if you’re only mildly dehydrated, you could be slowing your metabolism down by up to 3%, which can lead to weight gain in the long run. And, if weight gain is your primary concern, then drinking a few glasses of water before a meal is always a good way to manage how much you consume before you even start eating — you’ll naturally feel fuller, no matter how hungry you were.

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism published a study that found that drinking about 17 fluid ounces of water can increase the metabolic rate in healthy men and women by as much as 30%. And, the best part about this finding was that this boost in metabolism occurred within 10 minutes of getting hydrated. Boosting your metabolism doesn’t take much, so consider this the next time you’re thinking about reaching for a soda instead of water.

3. You’re not lifting weights

Before you jump on the treadmill at the gym and leave the weight machines and free weights in the dust, it’s important to keep in mind that weight lifting is what pushes your metabolism into high gear, not cardio. While performing cardio is important for getting that heart rate up and burning calories in the moment, it’s the building of muscle that’s going to keep your metabolism higher over a longer period of time, which keeps you burning more fat and calories even during your rest periods.

According to Men’s Health, there’s one type of weight lifting technique that skyrockets your metabolism higher than all the rest, and that’s the rest-pause technique. In this technique, you choose the heaviest weight for each exercise while still maintaining proper form, and you perform only a few reps (around six). Then, you rest for 20 seconds, and continue performing a couple of more reps. You rest for an additional 20 seconds, and perform as many reps as possible before stopping. Then, you rest for about two minutes before starting a new exercise. Working your muscles to their maximum, even if you only do a few reps at a time, heavy lifts boost metabolism levels higher than if you were using light weights.

4. You’re not eating enough protein

Protein is essential for building muscle, and if you’re hitting the gym consistently, your post-gym snack or meal should have plenty of protein to help repair your body and make it even stronger. While carbs and fat are also important components of your diet, it’s the protein that will keep you fuller for longer, and it’s also protein that will help keep your metabolism at a healthy level.

Digesting protein takes more effort from your body than digesting carbs and fat, says Livestrong. And, because your metabolism will be working harder and faster during digestion when you eat protein, there’s also a thermic effect that occurs that’s much higher with protein than it is with carbs and fat. The more energy that’s put into the breaking down of food, the more heat is generated within the body, which is what the thermic effect is referring to. Out of every 100 calories from protein that’s consumed, about 25 to 30 calories are burned just from this thermic effect during digestion. Also, the muscle that the protein in your diet has helped develop aids your metabolism, too.

5. You’re not going outside

Here’s yet another reason as to why you should leave your office during your lunch break and get outside as much as possible. Ben Spencer, a science reporter for Daily Mail, explains that sunlight doesn’t just provide you with vitamin D, but it also provides you with metabolism-revving benefits so that you can stay healthy even if weight lifting and eating protein aren’t on your to-do list. When you’re exposed to sunlight, your skin releases nitric oxide, which is key in keeping your metabolism healthy.

Researchers at Edinburgh and Southampton Universities studied the effects of sunlight on the metabolism with rats, and they found that it’s the nitric oxide that we release when we’re exposed to the sun’s rays that help us better process food and sugar. Though more research is needed to completely confirm this theory, studies previously have shown that nitric oxide is also responsible for lowering blood pressure. It’s clear that this substance may also have a positive effect on the metabolism as well, especially when combined with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise.