Metabolism: what it is and how to improve it. Metabolism - what is it?

Fast metabolism - is fast metabolism good or bad, how to slow it down and what to do about it.

Metabolism or, as it is also called, metabolism is the rate at which the body converts received nutrients into energy. Approximately 70% of incoming calories ensure normal functioning of the body: cell restoration, respiration, hair growth, blood circulation and other processes. About 10% of calories are spent on digesting food and the remaining 20% are used by the body for physical activity. The problem of obesity occurs when you saturate the body with many more calories than it needs. But if a person fast metabolism, then calorie consumption occurs much faster, which means the chance of gaining weight is much lower.

Slow or fast metabolism - what it depends on

The metabolic rate in the body is influenced by various factors. Question, how to speed up metabolism worries most often women after forty years. Why? For most people, after reaching the age of forty, metabolism slows down by an average of 5% and then continues to decline. It is also worth considering the fact that representatives of the stronger sex, as a rule, have a metabolism 10-12% faster than the opposite sex. Has its own influence and heredity, for some very fast metabolism from birth, and for some, on the contrary, it is slowed down, it is impossible to say unequivocally what is good and what is bad - ideal if the metabolism is normal.

Fast metabolism, how to slow it down and gain weight

And although most women are just trying to lose extra pounds, for some, the real problem is the inability to gain weight. After all, excessive thinness only causes pitying glances from others and threatens to deplete the body. Well, the cause of this problem is often very fast metabolism when all nutrients are immediately converted into energy. You can, of course, actively play sports and build muscle tissue, but the question is still how to make a fast metabolism, restoring health and a beautiful feminine figure remains relevant. Experts recommend following these simple rules to gain weight:

Fast metabolism - what to do to stay healthy, young and beautiful

Too fast a metabolism, as well as a slow one, has a bad effect on the health and blooming appearance of a woman. Normalization of metabolism- like a breath of life-giving moisture for the body. It is very important to constantly keep this process under control. In addition to a properly formulated diet, moderate physical activity and a healthy lifestyle, you should also pay attention to supporting your body with useful microelements, minerals and vitamins. The innovative drug VitaMinerals is simply ideal for this purpose. When your body is weakened by the struggle for a beautiful figure and fast metabolism, VitaMinerals will saturate it with such important elements and antioxidants, strengthen the nervous system, protect against viral attacks, improve emotional well-being, and regularly give a boost of energy.

Children, pregnant and lactating women should consult a doctor before use.

This may sound strange to most, but for many there is such a problem as how to slow down the body’s metabolism without harm to health. Superficial knowledge can sometimes be dangerous. Today, the Internet is filled with many articles written by incompetent authors who, using superficial knowledge, distort the basic concepts of metabolism, turning useful knowledge into potential harm for everyone who reads them. This list includes various mono-diets that are positioned as effective means for losing weight.

Naturally, such articles did not appear out of nowhere. Based on data in sports magazines, a myth has arisen that metabolic rate affects your own weight, and that lowering your metabolic rate can help you gain weight. This is a fundamentally wrong approach to business. Let's take a closer look at when, who and why you need to slow down your metabolism. And is it necessary at all?

Editor's note: The article about artificially slowing down metabolism was written for informational purposes only. We do not recommend that you slow down your metabolism on your own for any purpose. The principles of lowering your metabolic rate are presented solely for the purpose of making you aware of the dangers that await you on the path to an ideal and functional body!

Is it worth it?

It is much easier to slow down metabolic processes in the body than to restore them later. If your goal is weight gain (without priority), you should understand that artificially slowing down metabolic processes is always stressful.

First, the body will strive to recover from a state of stress, which can lead to excessive metabolism later.
Secondly, this is the optimization of resources, and if you reduce the speed of metabolic processes, then you automatically turn into a sedentary and slow-witted vegetable.

Let's consider the consequences of artificially slowing down metabolic processes.

Short term consequences

In the short term you can expect:

Decreased brain activity.
Enhanced production of growth hormone. This is a side effect. The body tries, through hyperplasia, to maintain a balance of strength even with reduced energy consumption, so that while maintaining overall strength, it can find sufficient sources for food in the future.
Decreased physical energy.
Constant sleepiness.
Gaining fat mass.
Constant irritability.
Changing daily cycles.
Decrease in strength indicators.
Decreased stamina.
Initial changes in internal organs, which later transform into numerous chronic diseases.

All this is due to the fact that in most cases metabolism slows down with a change in the catabolic-anabolic background, the body destroys itself, believing that it needs to optimize resources before prolonged hunger or other stress (- Textbook “Biological Chemistry”, Severin).

Long-term consequences

Long-term consequences associated with artificially slowing down metabolic processes can cause very unexpected consequences:

Violation of hormone synthesis.
Changes in hormonal levels with an emphasis on estrogen.
Continuous increase in adipose tissue, leading to extreme obesity.
Stomach ulcer.
Changes in the ratio of enzymes in the stomach.
Changes in insulin levels in the blood.
Destruction of brain cells.
Destruction of glycogen depot.
Fatty degeneration of the liver.
Atherosclerosis.
Cardiac ischemia.
Arterial hypertension.

And many other side effects. As a result, the body will still strive for balance, which will lead to jumps in metabolic rates and will ultimately undermine the athlete’s health.

Principles and reasons

Naturally, metabolism can be artificially accelerated. In this case, the principles of slowing it down lie in returning the body to a state of balance, i.e. a rollback to the previous way of life.

If you start playing sports and your body starts to become exhausted, then it is enough to reduce the intensity, which will again slow down the metabolism in the body and change the balance between and.

But still, there are painful signs of excessive pain that require medication and medical intervention. You can understand that your metabolism has gone beyond the norm in the direction of unintentional acceleration by the following factors:

Constant hunger. Especially if you eat regularly and a lot.
Excessive release of thermal energy (high temperature).
Increased physical activity accompanied by insomnia.
High blood pressure, tachycardia.
Tremor of the limbs.
Permanent weight loss.
Rapid onset of fatigue due to skipping meals.
A small amount of sleep during the day.
Changed daily cycles (three sleeps per day, 1-2 hours each, instead of the first 8-hour sleep).
Emotional instability, ultimately leading to nervous exhaustion and subsequent central nervous system diseases.

The presence of these signs indicates that it is best to consult a doctor.

In turn, with a slow metabolism, it is also not recommended to take measures on your own, since this may be an indicator of the following number of diseases and conditions (Textbook “Human Physiology”, Pokrovsky):

Hypothyroidism;
Lack of growth hormone.
Pathology of the adrenal glands.
Disturbance in the hypothalamic-pituitary system.
Hypogonadism.

When trying to interfere with the speed of metabolic processes, you should remember that artificially slowing down metabolism is a direct path to obesity, diabetes and heart disease!

Natural reduction in metabolic rate

Unfortunately, for many, a slow metabolism is not a blessing at all, but a punishment. So, after thirty, a natural decrease in metabolic rate begins, which does not stop until death. All this reduces energy and the amount of food consumed. And among athletes there are people with a very low metabolic rate. However, in order to keep themselves in shape, they need to follow the regime much more strictly. Usually they still speed up their own metabolism to create the necessary form, and then return it to balance.

The only advantage they have due to their low metabolic rate is the ability to maintain the acquired shape without any special consequences. Those. With the right diet and daily routine, they can remain dry all year round.

For those who are especially persistent

For particularly persistent readers who came to find out what to do to slow down their metabolism and gain weight, and they are not particularly bothered by the consequences, let’s look at what and how you can slow down your basic metabolism.

To slow down your metabolism you need to:

Determine your current metabolic rate.
Get ahead of the main factors influencing speed.
Change your diet.
Reduce motor and mental activities.
Get rid of artificial adrenaline stimulants (caffeine, etc.)
To sleep more.
Eat less often.

Well, or a life hack from the studio. Beer and... Beer, in the form of yeast structures enriched with fast carbohydrates, stimulates the increase in insulin. And sour cream will allow it to penetrate directly into the fat depot, practically without being metabolized into intermediate types of glucose. Slow down your metabolism and undermine your health - everything that is necessary to gain weight in the shortest possible time by any means.

Calculation of metabolic rate

Note: the formulas given in this section are presented for informational purposes only and do not in any way affect the actual metabolic rate of a person.

Metabolic rate is determined by many factors, ranging from the natural need for movement, mental stress, natural daily routine, etc. In order to calculate calorie consumption and, based on this, calculate your real metabolic rate, you can read the article presented on our portal about creating a caloric deficit by increasing natural exercise.

Otherwise, many people use the formula for calculating basal metabolism. It is also not perfect; it does not take into account the presence of glycogen reserves and fat deposits. But for people who are not involved in sports, you can use it, albeit with great caution.

For men

Basic index (66)+ (13.7* body weight)+ (5* height) – (6.8* age). So, for example, based on these calculations, a man weighing 73 kilograms, under 25 years of age and up to 185 centimeters tall consumes about 1650 kilocalories for basic needs. This figure is greatly overestimated, since such a man has about 15-17% adipose tissue, which does not consume energy. Accordingly, its real consumption is 1142 (- Wikipedia).

For women

The formula is similar, only the numbers and coefficients are different. Basic index (665) +(9.6*body weight)+(1.8*height) – (4.7*age). We look at a girl of similar build and age. The basic requirement is only 150 kcal lower than that of a man. And if you remove the fat factor, the results are almost identical. 1106 versus 1142 kcal.

And from this we can draw the following conclusion. The formula is not accurate, does not take into account many factors, and most importantly, it is meaningless, since, despite different coefficients and basic indices, the discrepancy in results for men and women is measured at 100-150 kcal. This means that the second formula, as well as the basic indices, were created exclusively as a marketing ploy.

You can check the results of the formula using the table. The table is calculated for net weight, excluding body fat.

Men		Women
Kg	(kcal)		Kg	(kcal)
3	150		32	1200
4	200		34	1235
5	260		36	1270
6	320		38	1305
7	370		40	1340
8	450		42	1370
9	510		44	1395
10	560		46	1420
11	610		48	1450
12	660		50	1480
13	700		52	1510
14	750		54	1540
15	790		56	1570
16	820		58	1600
17	850		60	1625
18	880		62	1655
19	910		64	1685
20	940		66	1710
22	990		68	1740
24	1040		70	1770
26	1080
28	1115
30	1150
82	1815
84	1830
86	1840

Products that regulate metabolism

What foods can really seriously slow down your metabolism? There are two main ways to do this.

The first is to use products that make the insulin factor jump. In this case, the decrease in metabolic rate will be more painful and accompanied by greater side effects.

To do this you need to use:

Lots of fat and sweet at the same time.
Ignore proteins.
Eat food with a large gap in time.

As a result, a feeling of hunger within 15 minutes after eating, and then, due to the deficiency that has arisen, the body will independently begin to slow down its metabolism and accumulate everything received into the fat layer.

Option two is less painful. Here you will have to worry about both the calorie content and the nutrient composition. If your goal is to reduce metabolism as much as possible in order to reduce catabolic processes (for example, after a course of anabolic steroids), then you will have to change your nutrition plan as follows:

Create a sustainable 30% calorie deficit. From this threshold, the body begins to react and reduce metabolic processes in speed.
Eat the most complex carbohydrates. Only whole grain cereals with a high fiber content.
Consume large amounts of omega 3 and omega 9 saturated fatty acids at a separate time from carbohydrate intake. The breakdown of fatty acids is a labor-intensive process that will take your body for a long time.
Eliminate all fast and complex proteins from your diet. Only cottage cheese and casein-containing. Possible.

As you can see, foods that slow down your metabolism have nothing to do with weight gain. And they are usually used both for drying and to accelerate metabolism. Only the serving combination and the number of meals changes.

Drugs that have a side effect of slowing metabolism

The list of pills to slow down metabolism includes:

Drugs that reduce stomach acidity. This is a category of antiulcer drugs, due to the decrease in acidity - metabolic processes, in particular breakdown, proceed more slowly.
Preparations containing large amounts of estrogenic stimulants. Ordinary female hormones that can be purchased without a prescription at any pharmacy. An excess of estrogen will cause the body to begin storing energy in case of unexpected hunger strikes and pregnancy.

Fun fact: This will happen regardless of whether you are a man or a woman. An excess of estrogen will in any case lead to weight gain, since the body, with such a change in hormonal levels, will not understand its causes.

Drugs that affect insulin secretion in the body.

The main recommendation is to never slow down your metabolism unless you have specific, severe diseases. In this case, consult a doctor who will prescribe a specific course of treatment. If you just want to gain weight quickly, but at the same time you think that your metabolism is too high, then you are in an advantageous position in relation to most athletes.

With a fast metabolism, you can create an increased positive calorie balance, which will be stored more quickly in glycogen. This means that to gain muscle mass and overall weight, you will have to:

Increase the amount of proteins and carbohydrates in proportion to costs (by about 30-40% of the current calorie content).
Use fast metabolism as your ally, replenishing your body with food 5-7 times a day (in large portions).
Train intensely but briefly. So, you will increase protein synthesis in the body, and at the same time you will not consume much glycogen.

As practice shows, it is ectomorphs that make the biggest and strongest athletes of our time.

True, sometimes in order to gain weight you need to change your hormonal levels (for which AAS are most often used, but you can also get by with natural stimulants). For example, even Schwarzenegger was very thin and had a fast metabolism. This allowed him, at the peak of his career, to have a minimal reserve of adipose tissue in the off-season, and to have one of the most outstanding relief, with an extremely thin stomach.

Bottom line

The editors once again warn you that artificially reducing your metabolic rate will not lead to anything good. In the short term, you will only reduce your body's energy consumption and experience decreased energy, drowsiness, and poor health. Your immunity will definitely deteriorate, since the body’s response rate to harmful factors will decrease significantly.

But the worst thing is that in the long term, a slowdown in metabolism leads to one single consequence - obesity and disability. Therefore, if you play sports and decide for some reason that your metabolism is too high to gain muscle mass, then you are simply undernourished in calories. Believe me, with a fast metabolism, gaining a lot of weight is much easier than getting rid of fat with a slow one.

Metabolism is a word that is heard by everyone who is losing weight. It is believed that it needs to be “accelerated” to full capacity, and then you can trick the body and burn more calories in the same time. Almost like a secret button that you have to press. That's why metabolism-boosting foods, diets, and workouts are so attractive. Read in this article about what metabolism is in general and why it can be fast and slow.

What is metabolism?

Evolutionarily, the human body strives to maintain the ideal weight and fat percentage from a survival point of view, which are set by genetics. This protects a person from any extremes: both from exhaustion and from obesity. Both reduce the chances of passing on your genes to offspring in the wild.

The “ideal” weight for survival is controlled by a part of the brain—the hypothalamus. It is he who slows down or speeds up the metabolism if he sees any deviations from the norm for a particular person. With the help of a variety of substances - hormones, the level of glucose and amino acids in the blood and much more - it collects information about what is happening in the body: whether there is enough fat stored, whether food is regularly supplied, how high-calorie it is.

Comparing the data with the “ideal” genetic setting, the hypothalamus turns the metabolism up or down, depending on the situation. Let's look at examples of what an ideal metabolism looks like.

If a person has eaten an unusually large amount for one or more days, his appetite itself decreases in the following days. A person will eat less without noticing it. At the same time, he will be more mobile and active. And even if he does gain excess weight during vacation or holidays, he will quickly get rid of it as soon as he returns to normal life, without doing anything special to lose weight. The hypothalamus will regulate appetite and activity levels to bring the system back into balance.

And the opposite situation. The same person suddenly began to eat unusually little for himself: he went on a diet and stopped eating due to stress and busyness. In response, the hypothalamus increases appetite in the following days to make up for the average caloric intake. At the same time, it reduces activity - the person becomes more lethargic, sleepy, moves less and, at the first opportunity, wants to sit or lie down.

It turns out that a person with a healthy metabolism can have approximately the same weight for many years without doing anything special.

How does the hypothalamus do this?

The brain controls appetite through a variety of mechanisms.

Reduce appetite, glucagon, obestatin, neuropeptides S and FF, cholecystokinin, neurotensin, enterostatin, thyroid hormones and other hormones.
Amino acids and glucose in the blood are a sign that a person has eaten.
Full stomach: it has sensors for mechanical distension. They tell the hypothalamus about food inside.
Contraction of the gallbladder and its production of bile after eating.
Intestinal filling.

The following chemicals increase hunger and push a person to search for food and craving for certain foods, especially high-calorie ones: ghrelin, neuropeptide Y, orexin, galanin, noniceptin, motilin, B-endorphins, etc. As well as low levels of glucose and amino acids, empty stomach.

A person begins to receive greater pleasure from food - from its taste, smell. Food becomes a source of pleasure. Dopamine and endorphins are responsible for this, which are released every time a person eats.

This is an excellent defense mechanism against starvation and exhaustion: if we were indifferent to food and not motivated to seek it, we could not receive almost narcotic pleasure from it, things would be bad with survival. Although, today this plays against us: we no longer need to look for food. The most delicious, fatty and sweet food is in abundance at arm's length. Because of this, dopamine and endorphin receptors are bombarded more often, stronger and more than nature intended. This disrupts all the internal settings of the body in terms of eating behavior.

Fast and slow metabolism

The metabolic situation described above is ideal. In life, sometimes everything seems to be the other way around: the more a person eats and moves less, the less he wants to move and eat more. And someone is thin, eats very little and cannot eat anymore.

To understand about fast and slow metabolism, you need to know this. The human nervous system consists of two sections. The first is the central nervous system. It consists of the brain and spinal cord. The second is the autonomic nervous system. This is the main regulator of metabolism. It controls the functioning of the glands, organs, digestion, manages the nutrients supplied by food, and does other things important for life.

The autonomic nervous system has two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Sympathetic nervous system in life it turns on during times of mental or physical stress, and in the wild - during flight, defense or attack. It “accelerates” metabolism and is responsible for the mobilization of energy from reserves and its use. It controls the functioning of the muscles, heart, thyroid gland, reproductive system, and stimulates the release of adrenaline.

Parasympathetic nervous system restores the body after stress. It “slows down” metabolism, stimulates digestion, accelerates the absorption of nutrients and their storage. It also controls the immune system.

Depending on the situation - stress or recovery - any person turns on either one or the other branch. But some people each can dominate most of the time. This determines the metabolic rate.

It is important to understand: when talking about fast and slow metabolism, we are not talking about metabolic diseases that need to be treated by a doctor. Everything else is within the normal range of a healthy person, but with deviations in one direction or the other.

Fast metabolism

People with a dominant sympathetic nervous system are the lucky ones for those who spend their entire lives trying to lose weight. They are slim and have no problems with being overweight.

These are usually lively, active, emotional people, with fast, sudden movements. Their pulse is more frequent, and their blood pressure is increased. Their thyroid glands are more active. They are always a little nervous, excited about life and spend a lot of energy during the day. They don't get fat, but they also have difficulty gaining muscle.

Slow metabolism

People with a dominant parasympathetic nervous system gain weight easily but have difficulty losing weight. E sometimes sedentary, calm, relaxed, and in extreme cases - apathetic, lethargic people. They quickly absorb nutrients, which, coupled with a very good appetite, creates problems with excess weight.

In response to excess food, the hypothalamus may not reduce appetite in the following days, as it might in an ideal situation. One of the metabolic problems is poor sensitivity of the brain to leptin.

Leptin is a hormone produced by adipose tissue. With its help, the hypothalamus sees the amount of stored energy (fat) in the body. Lots of fat = lots of leptin. The hypothalamus reduces appetite and increases activity, because there is no need to be afraid of starvation. Low fat = low leptin, which means there is little energy, appetite needs to be increased, and the desire to move needs to be reduced.

But sometimes the hypothalamus does not see leptin, even if there is a lot of it and fat. This means constant hunger and decreased activity. A person begins to eat more and more over time.

Sometimes poor leptin sensitivity is acquired, due to poor lifestyle and excess weight. And sometimes it is genetic, when a mutation in the structure of the hormone itself or in the receptors of the hypothalamus prevents the signal from being received correctly.

If a person with a slow metabolism suddenly decides to go on a starvation diet, great suffering awaits him: his appetite becomes simply brutal. Begins to crave everything fatty, sweet or salty. Activity drops very significantly and puts him in amoeba mode with constant thoughts about food, bad mood, lack of strength and libido. The function of the thyroid gland worsens even more.

Added to this is the low sensitivity of muscle cells to insulin, which makes fat storage easier.

From an evolutionary point of view, those who survived were those who could store more fat to survive famine, long winters and pass on their genes to their offspring. Now this is no longer an evolutionary advantage, but many of us carry these genes and struggle with excess weight throughout our lives.

Change in metabolic rate

Before this, we were talking about things that were partly genetic. But man is not a closed system. We are greatly influenced by the environment. A hundred years ago, metabolism was less dependent on it. But today we have an abundance of food - fatty, sweet, high-calorie, always available. We move less - we have cars, subways, planes, and all kinds of technology make life easier.

A sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, stress, lack of sleep - all this disrupts the weight self-regulation system and disrupts eating behavior. The hypothalamus ceases to correctly perceive the body's signals, the muscles lose sensitivity to insulin. In the worst scenario, metabolic syndrome develops - type 2 diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis, which often go together and reinforce each other.

And if it’s difficult to fight genetics, a lot can be done with lifestyle. Even the most genetically hopeless person is capable of great change.

"Acceleration" of metabolism

It is not correct to talk about “accelerating” metabolism. Instead, you need to think about how to return it to normal. Severely accelerated metabolism is a serious disease (for example, Basedow's disease).

What reduces metabolism? Sedentary lifestyle, lack of strength training, lack of muscles, addiction to sugar and saturated fats, eating disorders. And this is “treated” by changing your lifestyle.

You'll lose weight, restore your cells' sensitivity to insulin through diet and strength training, and your metabolism will return to as normal as possible. You will learn to eat when you are hungry and not eat when you are full, stop bombarding your brain with endorphins from high-calorie foods, and improve your sensitivity to leptin.

But it’s not the other way around: first “accelerate” the metabolism, and then lose weight at these speeds. There is absolutely no point in speeding up your metabolism to lose weight. It returns to its normal state during the weight loss process.

For example, as you read this article, your metabolism is working at full capacity, performing many complex tasks simultaneously: generating energy from substances obtained from food, synthesizing hormones and enzymes, destroying old cells and creating new ones, and so on. Are you tired of reading? Of course, it is metabolism that is responsible for the biochemical reactions that occur in the brain. Your metabolism works like a wood stove that burns calories to turn them into energy and thus ensure the continuity of all body functions. The stove will work better the more wood you add to the stove.

Genetic factors that lead, for example, to chronic diseases such as hyperthyroidism, a disease caused by a decrease in hormones produced by the thyroid gland, cannot be changed. In this case, changing your habits will not greatly affect your metabolic rate.

Metabolism also varies depending on gender and age. In women it is 10-15 percent slower because they have more fat tissue than muscle tissue, which requires more energy to maintain. Peak energy expenditure occurs at 23-24 years of age, then metabolism begins to decrease. In old age, muscle mass decreases sharply, and the energy that comes from food begins to be stored in fat. And yet, all other things being equal, there remains that 20 percent that we can use by changing habits.

Speeding up your metabolism: 9 basic rules

1. Change your sedentary lifestyle

Any physical activity in itself increases overall energy costs. But the benefits don't stop there. Regular exercise supports the conversion of glucose and fats into energy without the need to produce the hormone insulin, which inhibits the activity of the fat-digesting enzyme and helps transport sugar into fat cells, which spurs fat synthesis. Interestingly, even after you stop exercising, the body continues to burn energy at a higher rate for some time. If you have half an hour of accumulated activity every day, your health will improve significantly. Replace the elevator with taking the stairs, get off the bus one stop earlier, or go to the bakery every morning. This is enough to give your metabolism a sufficient boost.

2. Weight training

Although all workouts help increase metabolism, these are the ones that are most effective. Your metabolic rate can be increased by building muscle mass. Muscle requires more energy than fat tissue. Therefore, they burn calories even at rest. Thus, by working to increase muscle tissue, we speed up our metabolism. For those who are not comfortable with such exercises, here are two pieces of advice: you can start with local ones, gradually increasing the load, and from any age, the goal is to replace fat tissue with muscle tissue.

3. Eat fat burners

Have you already heard about thermogenics? These are foods that are difficult for our stomach to digest, and therefore spend more energy, speeding up metabolism. Thermogenics include teas rich in stimulants, red pepper and ginger. But there are no convincing studies proving their influence on the speed of functioning of our body. But such a fat burner as fiber is well known. Therefore, fruits, vegetables, and coarse bread should make up the majority of your diet.

4. Consume carbohydrates regularly

Carbohydrates provide your firebox with the raw materials that are converted into energy and enable your body to perform its functions. Moreover, it is a building material for muscles, and “firewood” for burning the body’s fat reserves, which is used in various diets for weight loss. How to comply with the measure? The secret is what carbohydrates you consume and how much. In this sense, nutritionists again recommend rice, whole grain bread, vegetables, and fruits.

5. Proteins and fats are also very important

The best diet is one that combines all nutrients in sufficient quantities. Restrictive one-sided diets undoubtedly cause harm to health, endocrinologists believe. And vice versa. Protein foods, for example, slow down the absorption of carbohydrates. As a result, more energy is wasted during metabolism. In addition, protein is the main raw material for building and repairing muscle tissue. Fats accompanied by carbohydrates help stabilize blood glucose levels, increasing the feeling of fullness and preventing you from eating more than you need. Another note: if you don't have enough fat to burn, your body will use alternative fuel - yes, muscle tissue, which is needed for intensive energy consumption. The best protein is found in meat, fish, legumes and soy products. Healthy fats include unsaturated ones, which are found, for example, in avocados, olives, nuts and soybeans.

6. Eat as many small meals as possible

Research shows that those who split their meals into more meals per day lose weight. When we do very long intervals, this is a signal for the body to create a reserve, that is, fat deposition. Metabolism slows down and calories are burned more slowly. Worse, in order to replenish energy in the absence of food, the body may begin to eat its muscle tissue. Fasting is always interpreted by the body as a period of food shortage, a threat to survival. Therefore, it is ideal to eat every three hours.

7. Eat at certain times

Decide at least approximately on a meal schedule. The body will know when it receives an additional source of energy and will not do “rash things”, such as generating glucose. If you eat as you have to, then he “loses orientation” and begins to accumulate fat.

8. Get good sleep

If you sleep less than 8 hours, the burning of carbohydrates, which are stored in fat, slows down. Lack of rest at night, which allows for deep sleep, has implications for the production of growth hormone, which helps regulate the ratio of muscle to fat mass in adulthood. Without these hormones, you lose lean body mass and your metabolism plummets.

9. Drink plenty of water

All our cells contain water, and all chemical and hormonal reactions of the body depend on its quantity. If the body is dehydrated, then our mood and physical activity are significantly reduced. Water is essential for more efficient use of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, which are the fuel for our metabolism. Ideally, you should drink eight to ten glasses of water a day, and also in small portions. Place a bottle with one and a half liters of water on your desk and drink from it throughout the day, nutritionists advise.

Surely every person has a friend who, no matter how much he eats, always remains slim, fit and even too thin. Usually such people are envied because they don’t have to go on diets, track their weight daily and have complexes about their shape. A fairy tale, not life! In fact, everything turns out to be not so rosy at all.

What it is

Rapid metabolism is a metabolic disorder when the body digests incoming food at an accelerated pace and immediately converts it into energy. Catabolic processes (breakdown of complex compounds into simple ones) predominate over anabolic ones (synthesis of new ones). As a result, it is impossible to save anything in reserve: neither fat depots nor muscle mass are formed. Hence the eternal thinness and constant appetite.

One of the main regulators of metabolism is the autonomic nervous system. It has two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

The sympathetic begins to act during stress and excessive stress - both mental and physical. To protect the body in such stressful living conditions, it speeds up metabolism and begins to actively spend all accumulated energy reserves. In this case, the pancreas, thyroid gland, gastrointestinal tract, and heart muscle become overloaded. Hormonal levels are disrupted.

The parasympathetic nervous system comes into play after the sympathetic nervous system to help the body recover from stress. It slows down the metabolism and gives the organs a break from excessive stress.

So these two branches should work normally. But due to various circumstances (congenital pathologies, heredity, rhythm of life, prolonged depression), the sympathetic can dominate - constantly or for a long time. It is she who provides too fast.

Causes

Reasons why a person may have a constant increased metabolism:

heredity;
disturbances in the functioning of the hypothalamus (due to a tumor, hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury or inflammation);
improper functioning of the endocrine glands;
genetic diseases.

There are factors that speed it up for a while:

taking certain medications;
severe infectious diseases;
extensive foci of inflammation;
smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction;
depression, nervousness, psychosis;
too much muscle mass;
improper sleep patterns;
grueling workouts;
hard physical labor.

Symptoms

Typically, signs of a fast metabolism appear both externally and through how you feel. In order to promptly recognize disorders, you need to know how accelerated metabolism affects…

...figure:

thinness, and sometimes it can be painful when the BMI is below normal (“skin and bones”), or it can be acceptable (the figure is thin, but slender);
lack of fat layer;
lack of muscle mass, with the exception of athletes involved in drying the body.

...food:

increased appetite;
constant feeling of hunger (even after a large meal);
the daily caloric content of the diet exceeds the norm (calculated taking into account individual parameters);
frequent bowel movements (2-3 times a day);
vitamin deficiency, since nutrients do not have time to be absorbed by the body.

...the nervous system:

irritability, nervousness;
insomnia;
high physical activity, irrepressible energy, such people are usually in a hurry somewhere and cannot sit still;
hand tremors

Since fast metabolism is associated with hormonal levels, it can manifest itself differently in men and women.

Signs in women:

thyroid diseases: hypothyroidism, goiter, autoimmune thyroiditis, Graves' disease, nodes, cancer, euthyroidism;
behavior and mood, as during PMS due to changed hormonal levels;
Stein-Leventhal syndrome;
ovarian-menstrual cycle disorders;
infertility.

Signs in men:

inability to pump up muscle mass, despite all efforts;
decreased libido, impotence, infertility;
benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Advantages and disadvantages

Some people believe that a high metabolism is the dream of every person, as it allows you not to limit yourself in food and at the same time not to gain excess weight. Those with this feature do not always agree with this point of view, since they know the situation, as they say, “from the inside.” So after all: is a fast metabolism good or bad? To answer this question, we need to look at both sides of the coin.

pros

No dietary restrictions;
no need to constantly monitor your weight;
no constipation;
the risk of diseases caused by excess weight is reduced: diabetes, hypertension, hepatosis and many others;
Eternally charged with energy ensures high productivity; usually such people are valued at work for their mobility.

Minuses

Firstly, the lack of body fat and low weight lead to such undesirable consequences as:

weakened immunity;
neuroses, prolonged depression, mental instability and even personality and behavioral disorders;
systematic sleep disorders that reduce quality of life;
eating disorders;
reproductive system disorders: infertility, inability to bear a child;
malaise, poor health;
rectal syndrome (frequent urge to go to the toilet) in some situations can be extremely inappropriate;
painful feeling of constant hunger.

Secondly, the lack of muscle mass does not flatter the figure at all and makes it painfully thin, not slim. This has a particularly negative effect on the male body.

Thirdly, problems may begin in interpersonal relationships, with social adaptation, since nervousness and irritability make a person unbearable for others.

According to recent studies, people suffering from accelerated metabolism in a chronic form age faster.

Diagnostics

When contacting an endocrinologist, various diagnostic methods are prescribed. These include:

blood test for hormones;
general urine analysis;
Dopplerography, duplex or triplex scanning, angiography of the carotid arteries (can identify problems with the hypothalamus);
multilayer computed tomography or ultrasound of internal organs, the functioning of which could be affected due to rapid metabolism;
An electrocardiogram shows whether there is excessive stress on the heart muscle.

When identifying this violation, you should definitely find out its possible cause and determine whether it is temporary or permanent. If this is a transient phenomenon, treatment is prescribed and recommendations are given on how to slow it down and bring it back to normal. If the pathology has acquired a chronic form, you can make you feel better and help the body with a set of measures, but in general you will have to adapt somehow.

What to do

Step 1. Change the power system

Three meals a day

Most often, too fast a metabolism instantly burns all the calories coming from food. Therefore, people with this feature eat a lot and constantly. But this does not help: metabolism does not slow down in this way. To begin with, experts advise accustoming the body to order, so that it knows that food is delivered to it strictly on time and not at all as often as it is accustomed to it. The ideal regimen is three meals a day without snacks. At first he will rebel, so it will be quite difficult: hunger, rumbling in the stomach, constipation and other troubles will spoil life. However, after a week, the body will have no choice but to adapt to new conditions and rationally use the “fuel” with which you supply it.

Proper breakfast

It is the morning meal that starts the metabolism for the whole day. To slow it down at least a little, organize it correctly. Under no circumstances should you miss it. Start eating no earlier than 45-60 minutes after waking up (first wash your face, do exercises, walk the dog). Serving size - no more than 200 g (or about the size of your fist). The basis is carbohydrates and maybe a little protein. For example, milk oatmeal with fruit and black coffee with marmalade or marshmallows.

All nutrients must be present in the correct proportions in the diet. Fats are required, but only: instead of sausage, lard and pork - fatty fish, olive oil and nuts. Limit proteins, as they require too much energy to digest. A piece of chicken breast, a glass of fermented milk drink and 1 egg - this will be enough per day to satisfy the body's needs. Choose carbohydrates, as they will be digested literally within half an hour and will not speed up your already fast metabolism. It’s better not to get carried away with fiber.

white bread, baked goods, sweet pastries;
fatty fish: sturgeon, catfish, salmon, sardine, stellate sturgeon, herring, sterlet, all canned food;
marmalade, jelly candies, dark chocolate;
carbonated drinks (not energy drinks);
pasta, white rice;
from vegetables - potatoes and corn;
avocados, bananas, grapes, pomegranates;
fermented milk products with a high fat content;
butter and vegetable oils;
nuts, dried fruits, candied fruits.

But less citrus fruits and spices, as they speed up the metabolism.

When including these foods in your diet, remember that not all of them are healthy. Therefore, as soon as you feel that your metabolism is returning to normal and is no longer as fast as before, tidy up your diet by clearing this list of fluffy baked goods, sweets and soda. Otherwise, there is a risk of overdoing it and gaining extra pounds.

Step 2: Adjust your workouts

Firstly, fast metabolism is typical for those who are too keen on sports and all kinds of drying. If muscle mass has almost completely replaced fat mass, problems cannot be avoided. In such a situation, you urgently need to review your training program, add anaerobic exercise, visit the gym less often, and forget about building muscles for a while.

Secondly, you shouldn’t give up playing sports completely. Experts advise performing a set of exercises for morning exercises every day, and at a measured, not fast, pace. Will also fit. Treadmills, dancing, and shaping will have to be postponed for a while. A couple of times a week you can lift weights, barbells, and dumbbells.

Step 3: Experiment with your sleep routine

To speed up a slow metabolism, the rules regarding sleep are simple and clear: you need to sleep at least 8 hours a day. So, in order to slow down the fast one, we do the opposite and allocate as little time as possible to sleep? It is a trap. If you stay awake at night, your body will continue to burn calories intensively and the situation will only get worse. Experts advise sleeping 6 hours a day, and 1 or even 2 hours of them should be before midnight.

When organizing a 6-hour sleep, carefully monitor your well-being. If after a week you still don’t get enough sleep, add another half hour. If the symptoms of rapid metabolism have not gone away after this time, take it off for half an hour. That is, act according to the circumstances, adjust the regime. Look for the middle ground that will allow you to solve this problem.

Herbal medicine can also come to the rescue in such a situation. There are medicinal plants, infusions of which can slow down metabolism. These are cumin, hawthorn, St. John's wort, stinging nettle, burdock root, coltsfoot, peppermint, wormwood, motherwort, chamomile, chicory, rose hips.

If none of these tips help, there is only one way out - make an appointment with an endocrinologist. Typically, in such cases, antimetabolites, proteins, tableted yeast, hormonal and iron-containing drugs are prescribed.