So You Think You Have A Slow Metabolism?
Do you mysteriously gain 5 lbs just by looking at a slice of pizza? Do you have a love / hate relationship with carbs? Have you ever blamed your weight gain or lack of weight loss on having a slow metabolism? Well I have one thing to say to that, and I hope that you don’t get offended. Fuck that! I myself am an Endomorph who was diagnosed with Low T back in 2015. Needless to say I was not dealt the best hand when it comes to genetics. What you need to realize is that like most things in life, some rules can be bent, others can be broken. You have to think of the things that they haven’t thought of yet. You have to be willing to experiment, clear your mind, and try something new sometimes to achieve results. I spent the last 6 years experimenting with countless diet and training strategies and I think I’ve finally found the most effective ways for Endomorphs to burn fat. I am very excited to share with you what I believe to be the 7 best hacks to help you ramp up your metabolism and speed up your fat loss. If you are willing to put in the time and the energy I can help show you the way that worked for me.
What Is Metabolism Anyways?
Your metabolism is the sum of everything your body does. Every time you eat, enzymes in your body’s cells break down the food and turn it into energy that keeps your heart beating, your mind thinking, and your muscles burning during an awesome workout. A fast metabolism means that you burn more calories even while at rest. The more calories you burn, the more weight you can lose. The speed of your natural metabolism is usually determined by your genetics and also your lifestyle. Given we can’t do much to change your genetics, there are a few ways that we can tweak what you’re working with so that you can burn fat as efficiently as possible.
Get Your Blood Work Done
This is not so much of a hack but more of a requirement before we go any further. I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to get your blood work done so that you can determine if there are any underlying issues that could be causing your metabolism to slow down.
There are many factors that could be causing your body to perform sub optimally but here are a few that I would definitely have your Dr. check out:
- Total Testosterone Levels
- Free Testosterone Levels
- Estradiol
- Vitamin Deficiencies especially B & D
- Thyroid
- Metabolic and Lipid Panels
If any one of these are out of whack, you could not only be at a severe disadvantage when it comes to losing weight, it could be affecting your overall health both physically and mentally. Do yourself a favor and have your Dr run these labs. You’ll thank yourself and be able to give yourself ease of mind.
Eat Smaller Meals Throughout The Day
There is no shortage when it comes to the amount of diet strategies that are available to you today. One of the best ways to rev up your metabolism, in my opinion, is to eat 6-8 small, balanced meals throughout the day. Does this sound like a lot to you? It’s really not as bad as you think it is. Also, when I say meal, I just mean anytime you are consuming protein, carbs, and fats. This can include something as simple as a protein shake.
Everyday when I wake up I immediately start my day with 1 scoop of Whey protein. This is a great way to keep your body in an anabolic state throughout the day. This is also a great way to keep your blood sugar levels balanced throughout the day.
What we want to avoid is having sharp spikes in our blood sugar levels. This comes from eating larger, carb heavy meals. When your blood sugar spikes so does your insulin. Depending on how sensitive you are to insulin this could result in a small amount or a large amount. While this spike is occurring, your body is now in fat storing mode. Definitely not something we want! Have you ever had a big lunch, like a giant chicken parm sub and then found yourself ready for a nap at 2pm? This is because of the spike that just occurred. By avoiding these spikes we keep our insulin levels in check, which is something we want when it comes to burning fat and building muscle.
Try Carb Cycling
Carb cycling is a diet strategy where you alternate high and low carb days. On your high carb days you keep fats low and on your low carb days you increase your fats. Protein remains consistent regardless of the day. How you determine which days will be your high and low days will be based on your lifestyle and your training schedule. High carb days should be on days where the training demand is much greater. I personally made my high carb days on back and leg day. Chest day is usually a medium carb day and everything else is a low carb day. The typical schedule is 2 low carb days followed by 1 high carb day.
Why is this effective at burning fat? First, let’s take a quick look at what each macronutrient purpose is and what is does when it comes to bodily functions.
Protein is used to build and repair muscle and is usually the least likely to be stored as fat.
Carbohydrates are used as the body’s primary source of fuel. This is great because it gives us the energy we need but the problem is having too much of a good thing. If we don’t use all of the fuel that is supplied, the fuel will spill over from it’s container and the carbs that spill over will be more likely to be stored as fat.
Fat is used to regulate our hormones and is also used as a stored energy supply. It’s definitely the macro that keeps us feeling good.
Imagine that when you eat carbs they are being put into a fuel container much like when you put gas into your car. What happens if you try to pump in too much gas? It will spill over and you might find yourself in a situation from Zoolander. Not a pretty sight. By cycling our carbs we are preventing the container from getting too full and spilling over. What’s even better is that once the container gets low your body is going to need to get its fuel from somewhere else so it will go to it’s fat stores for energy! So not only are we preventing spill over, we’re also increasing our chances of burning stored fat as fuel. Awesome!
Check out this carb cycling calculator to help guide you in creating a plan for rapid fat loss.
Eat More Protein
Protein is the building block to muscle. The more muscle that we have the more calories we burn at rest. So just by having more muscle we can get away with being able to eat more calories throughout the day while staying lean. Try to get as much of your protein from whole food sources like chicken, beef, eggs, fish, and dairy. If you are trying to build muscle, try to get at least 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. If you are a 200 lb male this would equate to 300g of protein daily. It’s ok if you overdo it a little with the protein because the body will most like get rid of any excess and it is not likely to store it as fat. During my 12 week transformation I upped my protein to almost 400g a day and noticed that the more protein I would eat, the leaner I got.
Do Low Intensity Cardio Mixed With HIIT
When it comes to cardio believe me when I say that I’ve tried it all. I’m actually a big fan of running and at one point was even training for a half marathon a few years back. Having said that, I also never seemed to be able to achieve the muscular look that I sought after. I would be lean but I would lose a lot of size when running. During my recent 12 week transformation I decided that I was going to do things differently. I follow the bodybuilding scene pretty religiously and I always see these guys doing the stairs. I really never thought much into it, but it just seemed to click that if these guys are getting shredded, and keeping all of that muscle, why couldn’t I? Obviously a lot of you are probably thinking because of steroids, but when it comes to fat loss it really comes down to diet and the type of cardio you’re doing.
I found that by doing 1 hour of low intensity cardio, everyday, split between the stairs, treadmill, and the elliptical gave me very fast fat loss results. I was taking weekly progress pictures and I was seeing weekly changes. This was very exciting to me. All of these years I had been killing myself doing long distance runs and HIIT with minimal effect. Low intensity cardio coupled with carb cycling turned out to be a killer fat loss combo. The only time I would really recommend HIIT or other forms of cardio would be to breakthrough plateaus. To be honest I never really hit a plateau but I didn’t really try to get leaner than 8% body fat. I feel that if I was to try and get to 5%, I would have to switch it up with some HIIT to shock the body into burning more fat.
Lift Heavy!
Lifting heavy, using compound movements like deadlifts, squats, and bench press is a great way to help speed up fat loss. These movements recruit almost all of the muscle fibers in your body to perform these lifts. This in turn helps you to build muscle, increase HGH production, and increase testosterone production, which in turn helps to burn fat. Heavy movements with squats and deadlifts also shock the central nervous system (CNS). This causes the body to go into a frenzy looking for fuel to help it recover. If you’re carb cycling, and your stores are depleted, your body will look to fat for its fuel. So if you find yourself hitting a fat loss plateau give some heavy squats and deadlifts a try.
Try A Fat Burner
Believe it or not, fat burners actually do help you burn fat to a certain degree. This is ONLY if everything else is in working order. If you’re diet and training is on point, fat burners will give you an added edge to burn additional fat. They will NOT magically work by themselves. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can pop a few fat burners a day and the fat will just melt away. I would also hold off on taking the fat burners until you think you’re hitting a plateau. By waiting, you give yourself a better chance at breaking through the plateau when you introduce the fat burner.
Good fat burners will contain as least a few of the following:
- Caffeine
- Ephedrine
- CLA
- L-Carnitine
- Green Tea Extract
- Yohimbe
Wrap Up
So there you have it. These are my 7 hacks to help speed up your slow metabolism and achieve the rapid fat loss that you desire. One thing that I’m not taking into consideration in this article are side effects that may be occurring from any medications that you might be taking. These are unfortunate to say the least. However, if the meds are causing some weight gain, applying these strategies might be able to help counteract it.
I hope that you were able to find this information useful. Just remember to hang in there if you’ve been struggling to lose that stubborn weight. If you try these methods and stay consistent you are sure to see results. It does take time but ask yourself one question. Where do you want to be in 12 weeks? Anything that’s worth having in the world is worth fighting for!
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