Metabolism and Weight Gain

Sorry, but your metabolism isn’t to blame for your weight gain

A lot of people like to blame their weight gain on their “slow metabolism.” While it’s true that some people do have a slower metabolism than others, the vast majority of people who are overweight are that way because they’re eating too much and/or exercising too little. In other words, it’s not their metabolism’s fault.

How Metabolism Works

Before we dive into why your metabolism isn’t to blame, let’s first take a step back and understand how metabolism works. Your metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns in a day. There are a few different factors that affect your metabolic rate, including:

• Your age: As you get older, your body gradually starts to burn fewer calories. This is one of the reasons why it can be harder to maintain a healthy weight as you age.
• Your gender: Men generally have a higher metabolic rate than women because they have more muscle mass. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, so men tend to burn more calories even when they’re at rest.
• Your activity level: The more active you are, the more calories you’ll burn. That’s why people who exercise regularly tend to have a higher metabolic rate than those who don’t.
• Your diet: Believe it or not, what you eat can also affect your metabolism. Foods that are high in protein take more energy for your body to digest than carbohydrates or fats. As a result, you’ll burn more calories digesting them.
• Certain medical conditions: Some medical conditions, such as an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) or Cushing’s syndrome, can cause a slow metabolism. However, these conditions are relatively rare.

Sorry, but Your Metabolism Isn’t To Blame

Reasons For Weight Gain

Now that we understand how metabolism works, let’s talk about why your metabolism isn’t responsible for your weight gain. There are two main reasons for this:

1. The number of calories you burn in a day is only marginally affected by your metabolic rate.
2. Even if you do have a slow metabolism, there are ways to counteract it.

Let’s start with the first point. While it’s true that some people do have a faster metabolism than others, the difference in the number of calories burned per day is usually pretty small—we’re talking about 50-100 calories at most. And when you consider that the average person eats about 2,000-3,000 calories per day, this difference is negligible. In other words, whether you have a fast or slow metabolism doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things—you’re still going to gain weight if you’re eating more calories than you’re burning off each day.

Conclusion: If you’re trying to lose weight and not seeing results, chances are it has nothing to do with your metabolism—it’s just plain old math (or lack thereof). The bottom line is this: if you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to create a calorie deficit by eating less and/or exercising more. That’s the only way to see lasting results.

Physiques Gym has a team of coaches, online or in person, who will work with you to create a plan that helps you reach your goals and keep the weight off for good. What are you waiting for? Schedule an assessment to start changing your habits today!

Cara Barnes
Physiques gym Personal Trainer and Fitness Coach