What is slow metabolism? – how to fix it

The thyroid gland controls the metabolism. When there are problems or defects with the functioning of this gland, the metabolism is affected. Also, when any of these processes that allow your hormones to reach the cells in your body to stimulate and speed up the metabolism fails, a chaos is created in your body and that is what is called a “slow metabolism”.

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The thyroid gland is very sensitive to stress. In fact, stress affects this gland the most. The majority of women who have problems with their thyroid start to have problems with it right after some highly emotional or painful traumatic event. Some examples are after going through a bad divorce or after a painful and stressful childbirth. An automobile accident or losing a loved one can also cause thyroid problems. All in all, it is a gland that is seriously affected by stress.

On the other hand, the thyroid gland has specific needs for certain nutrients, vitamins and minerals that, if lacking, will impede its production of hormones. In order to function adequately, the thyroid cannot have any deficiencies of any of the following substances: iodine, zinc, magnesium,copper, manganese, selenium and the amino acid L-Tyrosine. If your body has a shortage of any of these needed substances, the thyroid could be affected and it could be a cause of hypothyroidism with the resulting “slow metabolism”.

If you suffer from a slow metabolism, and you also have several of the symptoms of hypothyroidism that were listed before, you might suspect that there are problems with your thyroid gland. The laboratory tests that exist are of some help, but they are not always 100% correct in detecting a hypothyroid condition.

Check Hypothyroid Category to know more about it

How to know your thyroid is functioning well

An effective and simple way to know if your thyroid is functioning well is to take your body’s temperature with a glass thermometer. The temperature should be taken at least 3 times throughout the day, and at least 1 hour after having eaten. You could do this for three days (9 measurements) and then your results should be averaged to find out your average body temperature. If the average temperature is equal to or less than 97.8 F or equal to or less than 36.5 C, there are problems with your thyroid. If your body’s temperature is low you will also have a “slow metabolism”. So taking your temperature serves as a way to find out if you have a “slow metabolism” or a normal one.

Your body temperature reflects how slow or how fast your metabolism goes. People that have a slow metabolism suffer and complain of being cold because in reality their bodies are colder than normal.

If you have suspected that you have a “slow metabolism” it is possible that the real cause is an undisclosed thyroid problem. This is the time when you should pull out the glass thermometer and find out if your difficulty in losing weight and “slow metabolism” is being caused by hypothyroidism. Not checking your body’s temperature will leave you with a mystery because if you happen to be hypothyroid all your efforts to lose weight could end in another failure. So, check your body’s temperature and find out for yourself if medical help is needed or not.

What affects thyroid function the most?

Another interesting piece of information is that nothing affects the thyroid more than stress. That is one of the reasons that it has been discovered that stress makes you gain weight. Like I mentioned before, the conditions of the thyroid that cause a “slow metabolism” affect a total of 8 women for every 1 man affected. In the case of a woman or a man the thyroid can be affected by experiencing some sort of family crisis, an accident, a sickness or a difficult problem. In the specific case of women the thyroid can be affected mainly after childbirth due to the severe physical and emotional stress that giving birth can have on the bodies of women. Perhaps that is why the majority of women lose their beautiful “newlywed” figure after having a baby; their thyroid is affected.

There are also certain vitamins and mineral deficiencies like zinc, iodine, selenium, magnesium and others that can create problems with the thyroid and can also prevent an efficient conversion from the T4 hormone to the active T3 hormone. In other words, nutrition is also a factor.

In recent years, a huge discovery was made that helped people with thyroid and metabolism problems considerably. The discovery had to do with the properties of organic coconut oil. Organic coconut oil, a natural product, increases your body temperature and your metabolism and helps people that have had difficulties in losing weight as a result of having a “slow metabolism”. Taking a dose of this natural oil every day has allowed many people, who before lost weight very slowly, to now lose weight at a more satisfactory speed. Organic coconut oil contains a saturated fat called “medium chain triglycerides” which notably and measurably increases your body temperature and metabolism. In fact, in taking a daily dose of organic coconut oil, you can then take your temperature and see the increase. The increase of your body temperature also causes an increase of your metabolism and more ease in losing weight.

Stress produces cortisol and it was also discovered that cortisol interferes with the thyroid gland, which lowers the metabolism. So, this is another way in which stress lowers the metabolism, because it interferes with our thyroid.

The best way to find out if stress is affecting you too much and to see if it is one of the reasons that you are experiencing a slow metabolism is to take note of your quality of sleep. Since the cortisol hormone is an ALARM hormone it creates a strong state of ALERT in the body that doesn’t allow us to sleep peacefully. To the body’s cells cortisol is like an urgent warning of impending danger. Cortisol excites the cells and puts them in a state of ALERT, thus you won’t sleep well when under stress.

Digestion and metabolism

When food creates gases inside our body it is only because there is something fermenting or decomposing. A healthy digestion doesn’t produce gases or bad odors.

In my experience, I have seen that simply reducing refined carbohydrates and increasing the consumption of water can do miracles. People that do it stop using antacid medications and start enjoying good digestion and are given a more agile metabolism that helps them lose weight or maintain their figure.

At times, we tend to think that the solutions to our problems should be complex when, really, we have the remedies right under our noses. If a person suffers from heartburn, ulcers, acid reflux or other digestive problems it will be nearly impossible to lose weight. The solution could be as simple as avoiding soft drinks (examples: Coca Cola®, Pepsi-Cola®, 7-Up®) that are acids, increasing the consumption of water and reducing refined carbohydrates. In a short time the person will experience a marked improvement.

In principle, everything that makes digestion difficult will also have the effect of reducing our metabolism and everything that makes digestion more efficient will speed up our metabolism. Bad digestion will produce bad absorption of nutrients. Bad absorption takes the body to a very low state of cellular energy. This low energy state contributes to what is called a “slow metabolism”. In order to lose weight and speed up your metabolism, it is essential that you improve your digestive process.
In my search for the reasons behind the slow metabolism I discovered that food intolerances really do exist. When we eat any food that our body doesn’t like, the metabolism slows down and it makes it impossible for us to lose weight.

In working with thousands of people that wanted to lose weight We have found that the foods that cause the most “intolerances” are corn, soybean and wheat. When your body is “intolerant” to one or several of these and you ingest them, your metabolism becomes stagnant and your body will not get rid of the fat.

Corn is the main source of the sweetener used by the industries that manufacture soft drinks. The sweetener product is called “high fructose corn syrup” or HFCS. For example, Coca-Cola®, as well as pretty much every other soft drink, is sweetened with corn syrup. Corn syrup is found in many prepared foods because it is a very economical sweetener and that’s why manufacturers prefer it. There are some people that simply cannot lose weight if they consume any product derived from corn because they happen to have an intolerance to corn or corn derived products. It has taken me a lot of work to figure this out. Working with thousands of people that wanted to lose weight, I saw that this was the case.

Food intolerances have to do with hereditary factors. Some of our ancestors came from Europe, others from northern countries, others from Africa, while others came from the Orient. We all carry different genes that determine which foods are acceptable and those which are not acceptable for our bodies. Food intolerances are like allergic reactions but without obvious symptoms. They are reactions to certain foods that don’t belong in our genetic heredity. In other words, they are the foods that didn’t exist in the areas where our ancestors developed.

Aside from the difficulty in losing weight and the slow metabolism that corn, soy and wheat can cause, there are several warning signs that can be noted when we eat any food that our body doesn’t agree with. In many cases, when we eat a food for which our body has intolerance, it creates: mucus, stomach gases, intestinal gases, water retention or constipation. Sometimes you can also feel a certain tiredness or weakness after consuming one of your offending foods.

Don’t try to eliminate corn, soy or wheat from your diet. Try to DISCOVER which ones your body rejects and avoid them. I discovered that my only intolerance is to wheat. Since then I found that I can lose weight whenever I want. I just lower my intake of refined carbohydrates and eliminate wheat. My wife is intolerant to corn; she has to avoid corn in order to lose weight. Some people are intolerant to all.

Breakfast and metabolism

One of the worst habits of overweight people is that they don’t eat an adequate breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for anyone, but most especially for those people who want to lose weight and recover their metabolism.

a “repair” period. While sleeping, all of the basic functions of the body slow down and even our breathing is much slower than normal. In order to sleep it is necessary that the metabolism and production of energy slows down in the body. Experts estimate that our metabolism becomes as much as 40% slower while we are sleeping.

When you wake up in the morning your metabolism stays at a slow speed until one of two things happens: you eat food (which gives your body the signal that it should increase your metabolism) or you exercise (which forces the body to increase its production of energy and the metabolism). In other words, only two things increase the metabolism early in the morning, eating or exercising.

It has been found that proteins (meat, egg, cheese, etc.) and fats increase the metabolism more noticeably than carbohydrates (bread, flour, sugar, oats, etc). If one wants to “awaken” their metabolism early in the morning their breakfast should be high in proteins and low in carbohydrates.

People who don’t eat breakfast and try to go throughout the morning with coffee and a piece of bread, are little by little slowing down their metabolism because they simply aren’t “waking” it up. The experience of helping thousands of people lose weight has shown me that a breakfast high in proteins (eggs with ham and a half-slice of bread) gets a person to increase

their metabolism and gives him a chance at losing weight. If the morning protein is in the form of a whey protein shake, then the results will be even better.

Medications that makes your metabolism slow

When we are interested in fighting a “slow metabolism” we have to learn to distinguish which are the medications that lower our metabolism, and antidepressants definitely make you gain weight. Your psychiatrist can insist that these are just “stories” but if you look at your waist line you will see that what I am telling you is true. Your clothes don’t lie!

Another group of medications that lower the metabolism and make you gain weight are diuretic medications that are used to lower your blood pressure. It turns out that everything that increases water in your body tends to increase the metabolism and everything that lowers the water level of your body decreases it. Diuretics work by lowering water levels in the body to lower the pressure. Numerous times I’ve seen how a person starts having a much slower metabolism after starting to take diuretic medications.

The best way to lower your blood pressure is to lose weight. There is a direct relation between being overweight and having high blood pressure. Losing weight almost always gets your blood pressure to go back down to normal. Your body fat produces a substance called “angiotensinogen”, which is associated to high blood pressure. The more fat there is in your body, the more tendencies there will be for you to have high blood pressure. If you lower your body fat, your blood pressure lowers and normalizes, unless you have one of those very rare cases of high blood pressure caused by stress or emotions. Losing weight and lowering your body fat are the real solutions.

If you currently use a diuretic medicine to lower your blood pressure, don’t make the mistake of stopping its use until you have lost weight and your blood pressure has gone back to normal. These medications can’t be stopped or reduced without the help of your doctor.

Other medications that make you gain weight are those that are used for inflammations in your body. For example, the inhalers that asthmatics use, cortisone injections for back inflammations or cortisone tablets (Prednisone® an others) for other inflammatory conditions like arthritis. These are medications chemically related to cortisone. Cortisone is a hormone that is identical to the cortisol that our body produces in the adrenal glands. It is called “cortisone” when it is produced by the pharmaceutical industry and “cortisol” when our body produces it, but they are basically the same hormone.

Learn more about Obesity and hormones

All in all, what you need to know is that there are medications that decrease your metabolism. Naturally, medications can be necessary depending on the condition. But it is also true that when a person increases their metabolism and loses weight, a majority of their health problems improve or disappear completely. I’ve seen hundreds of cases of people that have lost weight and get to the point where their doctor discontinued the medications they took for their condition. The human body has an apparently infinite ability to recuperate from any condition when we give it the help it needs to do so.

The effect of exercise on metabolism

It has been proven that physical activity increases the metabolism and a sedentary life decreases it. The human body is a living organism that learns and adapts to existing conditions. When we stop using our muscles they become flaccid. When we use them they grow and strengthen. Our body adapts to our lifestyle.

Now, even though the former is true, I’m not going to ask you to start exercising if you feel your metabolism is very slow. It’s not the time to criticize you because of your lack of desire to exercise your body.

The years that I’ve spent helping people with “slow metabolism” have taught me to observe what works and what doesn’t work. The fact that you have a slow metabolism, proven by your difficulties in losing weight, does not mean that it is time to start doing exercise or buying a membership to a gym. Exercise is a great help and is vital in being able to recover the maximum possible of your metabolism, but everything in life has its appropriate time and exercise is not an exception to this rule.

Logic tells us that to be able to exercise, a person needs to expend energy. But people with slow metabolisms have very little energy! That’s exactly what having a “slow metabolism” means, it is having too little energy because your metabolism is what produces the body’s energy. People that suffer from a slow metabolism are always tired and feel weak. It is illogical to ask a weak and tired person to spend whatever little available energy they have by going to the gym and exercising. It’s like trying to go on a spending spree with no money available in your checking account. In order to spend some energy in exercise you must first have it available.

When a person with a slow metabolism that is also overweight or obese gets into an exercise routine, they put themselves at risk of failing in their attempt because it is forcing their body to a point that is further than the limit of their capacity. Over seventy percent (70%) of people with new gym memberships stop going within just a few weeks of having started and paid their annual membership fee. They are weak, tired people that really don’t have the necessary energy to exercise for very long without collapsing from exhaustion. They are people that have a slow metabolism.

The solution to this problem is to apply the CORRECT SEQUENCE. In life, things have a sequence; they have an order. The correct sequence of actions is: improve your nutrition and metabolism to obtain more energy and then use this new energy in an exercise routine that increases your metabolism even more. In other words, it is depositing enough money in your checking account so that later you can go write checks to spend the money. Using checks without having available funds in your bank account leads to “bounced checks”. In the same way, doing exercise without first having enough energy makes us fail in the attempt due to the lack of energy to continue.

Nervous system and metabolism

You shouldn’t confuse having an EXCITED or a PASSIVE nervous system with having a “slow metabolism” or a “fast metabolism”. Here we are referring to the NERVOUS SYSTEM and what you want to find out is what your dominant NERVOUS-SYSTEM TYPE is. Given that your nervous system delivers the signals that control your glands which turn around and produce hormones that control your bodily processes and energy, we can conclude that the state of your nervous system is going to have a strong influence on your metabolism.

An EXCITED nervous system forces your body to produce an excess of the stimulating and stress producing hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which inevitably have an effect on the metabolism. A PASSIVE nervous system, on the other hand, causes the production of calming substances like serotonin, but it also produces lesser amounts of the thyroid hormones that control energy production and the metabolism. This is why people with a PASSIVE nervous system have a greater possibility of having hypothyroidism and a slower metabolism.

The “slow metabolism” and conditions like hypothyroidism are much more common in people with PASSIVE nervous systems. First of all, let’s be clear that both the EXCITED and PASSIVE nervous systems can cause obesity because they are extreme conditions in which there isn’t a BALANCE. The result for both of these conditions is a hormonal imbalance.

It is important that you take your body’s temperature 3 times a day for a few days to find out how well your thyroid is functioning. If you have been suffering from a “slow metabolism”, low energy levels, depression or some other odd health conditions, you should suspect a thyroid problem. Many times the thyroid condition can’t be detected by the thyroid laboratory exams because it may be what is called a “sub-clinical hypothyroid” condition meaning a thyroid condition that has all or most of the symptoms (depression, hair falling out when combing, insomnia, slow metabolism, etc.) but doesn’t show up in the laboratory exams. The standard laboratory tests for the thyroid tells you how much quantity of the thyroid hormones you have in the blood, they don’t tell you how well your body is using those hormones at the cellular level to produce energy. Taking your body’s temperature gives you a better index of how efficiently your body uses the thyroid hormones to produce energy (measured as body heat). Dr. Denis Wilson, the developer of an alternative therapy (Wilson Thyroid Syndrome) that has worked for some people to rehabilitate the thyroid has written an interesting article where he explains it this way:

“Looking at blood tests to see if the body’s cells are being sufficiently stimulated is a little like looking at your car’s gas gauge instead of the speedometer to see how fast you’re going. Sure, you need gas to go but you never know how fast you’re going until you look at the speedometer. A thermometer is like a speedometer. It tells you just how fast your body is going. A blood test is like the gas gauge; it shows whether or not you have plenty of raw materials.”

DISCOVERIES OF NATURAL SUBSTANCES

Various natural substances have been discovered that help improve or recover the metabolism. They are substances that are extracted from foods, herbs or plants that have a positive effect on your energy and help fight a “slow metabolism”.

The scientific discoveries that have been made on some of these natural substances are relatively new. This is the case with the natural substances called “adaptogens1”, which were originally discovered and researched in Russia.

The others are natural substances that have been known about for hundreds of years like magnesium, zinc or selenium, but there have been recent discoveries as to their importance in improving the metabolism.

The medications that have been developed to help you slim down are really just chemicals that are looking to block fat or speed up the metabolism, but they do it in a way that isn’t very natural for your body. That’s why those medications always bring some sort of unpleasant side effects along with them.

They are chemicals that don’t belong in your body. Recently, the manufacturer of the doctor prescribed, weight loss medication, Xenical®, that has been on the market for quite a number of years, got approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell an over-the-counter (without prescription) version of their Xenical medicine called “Alli”®. It was a brilliant marketing scheme that will help them make billions of dollars at the expense of those naive consumers that don’t know about their metabolism. The truth is there are no “miracle pills” out there anywhere. This new over-the-counter medication, Alli®, works by blocking all the fats from entering the body and thus the person using it will have a lot of fat coming out of their rear end. But, the problem here is that this substance will block ALL fats indiscriminately and that means that it will also block all the “good fats” that are part of our daily vitamin needs, like vitamins A, E and D. That means that you will actually be depriving your body of some essential vitamins while trying to lose weight. Well, that will not work for you.

On the other hand, supplements that are formulated based on natural substances, work in favor of your body and are accepted by your cells, without causing side effects and yet are very effective. That’s why I always recommend the use of natural supplements instead of medications.

METABOLIC PROTEIN

Nutrition, in general, is a really important factor to boost your metabolism. For people who suffer from a “slow metabolism”, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That is also true for those that are interested in maintaining their weight.

The best way that we have seen to start the day and give your metabolism the impulse to “wake up”, is to drink a whey protein shake for breakfast. This doesn’t mean that you have to drink a shake every day. You can occasionally have a 2×1 diet™ or 3×1 diet™ breakfast with fried or scrambled eggs or an omelet with a little piece of bread. However, a couple of fried eggs could never boost your metabolism like a whey protein shake such as METABOLIC PROTEIN™ would.

METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shakes aren’t common shakes like the ones that are sold in natural food stores or the ones that bodybuilders use to increase muscle. They are shakes that are formulated to boost the metabolism. The necessities of a person with a slow metabolism aren’t the same as bodybuilders or people who don’t have this problem.

METABOLIC PROTEIN™ is a product of advanced nutritional technology. It’s what is called a “meal replacement” because it contains ALL of the vitamins and minerals; therefore, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) requires it to be called a “meal replacement”. Common protein shakes aren’t “meal replacements” because they aren’t complete foods and don’t qualify for this classification by the FDA. A common protein shake is a protein “supplement” to supplement a normal diet, but you can’t drink it as if it were a complete meal. METABOLIC PROTEIN™ is a “meal replacement”. In other words, it is a complete meal. METABOLIC PROTEIN™ can be used to replace dinner if you don’t want to eat some other type of food for dinner. Generally you only drink it once a day for breakfast, but you could repeat its use if necessary.

If some days, you decide to have a METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shake in the evening, make sure you don’t add a dose of the COCO-10 PLUS™. COCO-10 PLUS™ causes a quick boost to your metabolism and provides energy. You wouldn’t want this energy when it is time to go to sleep, because it will wake you up. That’s why COCO-10 PLUS™ should be used in the morning or early in the afternoon, but never at night.

Most of the whey shakes that are on the market have another problem, along with not being “meal replacements”: they taste bad. This is a real problem because how could you drink a whey protein shake every morning if it turns into a nightmare just to swallow it?

METABOLIC PROTEIN™ tastes good. After hundreds of tests and having tested all of the shakes that are on the market, we can say that you won’t find a better tasting shake than METABOLIC PROTEIN™. In fact, it is sold with a “satisfaction guarantee” offer, that allows to you return it for complete credit if for some reason you don’t like the way it tastes.

It comes in 3 flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Each flavor has its fans. Some people like to add a different touch to the vanilla shake by adding almond extract or cinnamon to it. Everyone is boss when it comes to the subject of flavors. The flavors are a question of personal taste. In tests that we’ve done, METABOLIC PROTEIN™ had an acceptance rate of more than 95%.

METABOLIC PROTEIN™ contains powerful enzymes1 that increase the absorption of the whey protein amino acids to up to about 98%. A dose of METABOLIC PROTEIN™ provides a metabolism increase for many hours. The metabolism increase is due to the fact that the amino acids are made almost entirely (98%) available to the cells as sources of energy. Only 70% or less of common proteins are absorbed when they aren’t taken with special enzymes that increase their absorption.

The METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shakes also contain a high dose of the amino acid L-Glutamine. This amino acid controls cravings and eliminates the desire to eat sweets or sugar. It has been used to control diabetic’s glucose levels. Using L-Glutamine also eliminates the possibility of having a “low blood sugar”, also known as “hypoglycemia”. When you have a METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shake for breakfast, it won’t be so easy to “mess up” because your insulin and glucose levels are kept stable. You won’t feel hunger or cravings.

The quickest way to boost your metabolism and slim down is to add a dose of COCO-10 PLUS™ to your METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shake. You generally want to prepare it in the morning, with a blender or a shaker cup, so that you can combine the two supplements together. COCO- 10 PLUS™ doesn’t change the flavor of the METABOLIC PROTEIN™ shake.

Take into consideration that the coconut oil in COCO- 10 PLUS™ will change to a solid fat if your shake is made cold, by using very cold water or ice cubes. The solution is to blend the METABOLIC PROTEIN™ with the water first and to add the COCO-10 PLUS dosage last, right before you drink it. This way you don’t give the coconut oil enough time to solidify and the shake is creamy and pleasant.

METABOLIC VITAMINS

As discussed in the section called THE POTENCY OF YOUR VITAMINS IS IMPORTANT, your body will not recover from a “slow metabolism” if you don’t give it what it needs to increase the metabolism.

We have seen this at least a thousand times: someone wants to slim down but they do not want to spend money on a high potency vitamin and mineral formula. So they run to their nearest Target, Sam’s or Costco store and purchase some cheap vitamin formula. Some weeks later the person is disillusioned with the results of their weight loss efforts. At this point the person is feeling gloomy and can’t realize that in the subject of the metabolism, you can’t cut corners. You need to use a HIGH POTENCY vitamin formula to boost your metabolism or you will fail.

The body is an incredible organism. It’s an entity that does its best to survive despite all the damage that we constantly throw its way. Yet, it is an organism that has some basic needs that, if unfulfilled, will eventually hamper its proper functioning. Cars run on gasoline, oil and water. Bodies are a little more complicated in design than a car and need some 30 or more different vitamins and minerals to survive. Some of the body’s needs are in extremely small quantities like micrograms. A gram weights as much as a paper clip and a microgram is a gram divided in 1,000,000 parts. Yet, if for example, the body needs a very small amount of a mineral like selenium and it doesn’t get it, then the thyroid gland will be affected and your metabolism will drop like a rock.

If you can’t find a high-potency vitamin and mineral formula in your area, we recommend our METABOLIC VITAMINS™. This is a vitamin and mineral formula with a proven track record. People who use them can feel the difference, as it shows itself in their slimmer bodies and an obvious high energy feeling.

These vitamins are really potent. Thus, they can never be taken on an empty stomach. They go well with your morning METABOLIC PROTEIN™ whey protein shake or with your lunch.