The metabolism is a funny thing. After all, it’s not like a specific organ that you can point to like your heart or lungs. It’s not even like a circulatory system where you can track the veins throughout your body. It’s more of a combination of processes than an actual thing that you’d be able to see in a scan.
That’s why it’s so hard to know exactly how your metabolism is performing. Still, whether your metabolism is running fast or slow plays a huge role in being able to lose or maintain your weight. I’ve had times when I’ve known I’ve made mistakes in my dieting – ahem, fad dieting – when I’ve caused my metabolism to slow down so much I’ve wondered if it has ground to a halt.
The problem is that a slow metabolism can mean slow weight loss. It can also mean that it’s easier to gain weight. What’s worse is that it’s way easier to slow down your metabolism than it is to speed it up.
Whenever I start a new eating or exercising technique, or if I find that my weight is shifting in a way I can’t really explain, I look to other signs to let me know whether my metabolism might be playing a role in what’s going on in the bigger picture. Obviously weight can go up and down for a lot of reasons, particularly on a bathroom scale that doesn’t know the difference among fat, muscle or even water weight.
Still, here are the signs I watch for that my metabolism may be sluggish at the moment. These let me know that I should be doing something to get things moving again:
• Fatigue – This doesn’t mean a little bit of sleepiness in the afternoon and grogginess at night. It means I’m tired. Really, really tired, practically all the time, every day for several days. To get over this, I try to eat more veggies and drink more water. This often makes a huge difference in boosting energy levels. The key is to resist the baked goods (my cake!!!) and sweets. When I’m really sluggish, I take the energizing supplement 3G BURN to jump-start my day. It always works wonders!
• Dry hair and skin – If you have always had dry hair and skin, that might be something that is a part of you. However, I find that when my metabolism is low, my skin and hair will suddenly seem much drier. It’s a noticeably, flaky and embarrassing difference. In these cases, I focus more on hydration, but I also try to remind myself to eat more nuts and seeds as well as fish like salmon and rainbow trout.
• Sugar cravings – For me, this is the worst symptom. I have sugar cravings at the best of times. However, when my metabolism drops, I feel like I need sweet foods to survive. I find myself on the hunt for them in my kitchen. If I know there aren’t any sweets there, I’ll still check, just in case they’ve magically appeared since the last time I looked. Eating a piece of fruit or some berries can often help to overcome that struggle. I keep my secret weapon of a frozen banana blended with pure cocoa powder for true emergencies.
