If you’re seeing these signs of slow metabolism, it might be time to make a change. Learn how to boost your metabolism without going on a diet here.

Signs of Slow Metabolism (and what to do about it)

What comes to mind when you think about your metabolism? If the first thing that pops into your mind is “weight loss”, then you’re not alone. 

 

When searching “metabolism” on Google, one of the most popular follow-up searches is “how to increase metabolism,” which frankly makes me a bit sad. Why? Because this tells me that diet culture is winning. Instead of getting curious on how a healthy metabolism can help you put the nutrients in your diet to good use, tens of thousands of people are looking for answers on how they can ‘boost’ their metabolism, burn more fat and FINALLY start to feel better by making themselves smaller. 

 

But I can tell you right now that the answers you find on Google are not going to fix your problems for good, and they only tell a small fraction of the story when it comes to promoting healthy metabolism.

 

A healthy metabolism is NOT just about your ability to lose weight. A healthy metabolism is vital to SO many key functions within the body. Sure, when your metabolism is functioning well, you’ll be able to better achieve weight loss goals if you have them. But your metabolism also directly impacts your fertility, energy, focus, sleep and muscle building capacity. 

 

So if we’re experiencing issues with our metabolism, we might see that reflected in other aspects of our health. Believe me, I’ve been there right alongside you.

 

 

How My Eating Disorder Tanked My Metabolism

 

In college I had an orthorexic driven eating disorder, I studied abroad in Florence where I was highly anxious and truly could not relax. I was undereating and hypervigilant.  I returned from abroad at age 19 for my annual check up and my TSH was 5.8. My doctor saw the numbers and put me on a thyroid medication. The number here was the main driver – but how the number got there was not addressed. I was grossly underweight (BMI 17.9), overexercising, undereating, not sleeping enough – my body was stressed and my thyroid slowing down was the WARNING light that my body needed some support here! But I ignored this big, glaring red flag. Why?

 

I thought I was disciplined.

I thought I was healthy.

I thought I was “practicing what I preached” – aiming to live as a perfect picture of health.

 

Unknowingly I was depleting my body of nutritional resources, creating a cascade of physical and emotional stress, and taxing systems like my digestion, thyroid , mental health, and metabolism.

 

I share this aspect of my story, because I know I am not alone. So many of my clients and women today unintentionally undernourish their bodies with such positive intention in mind.

 

Diet culture paints a picture – that to achieve “health” or more often, a socially accepted physique, we must eat less, exercise more, cut out the “bad foods”, and start that new trendy diet.

 

The truth is that this is where so many women (including my past self) become misguided and create a platform to not feeling well in their physical body, mind, or health. Many of my clients have underactive thyroid symptoms and it shows up in their lab work – in fact, about ⅓ of clients unknowingly have thyroid autoimmunity via Hashimoto’s at play in their picture.

Signs of slow metabolism

 

There is a common misconception that your metabolism is only struggling when weight loss has become a challenge, but it’s actually so much more than that. A sluggish metabolism influences underactive thyroid, fertility challenges, weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, pcos, and so so much more. So we need to think bigger than just the number on the scale if we’re concerned about our metabolism. 

 

Some of the most common symptoms you might experience with an underactive metabolism include:

• Brain fog 
• Loss of the outer corner of your eyebrow 
• Depression 
• Weak or brittle nails with vertical ridges
• Poor memory
• Cold hands and feet 
• Carb cravings
• Tired lack of energy 
• Puffy face 
• Constipation 
• Insomnia
• Hair loss 
• Slower heart rate 
• Weight gain 

 

I can tell you I experienced every symptom on this list, again, unknowing that they were stemming from a greater root of deep and chronic undernourishment. I am here to tell you, if you are experiencing any of these common, but not normal symptoms – this is a message that your body is in need of support. So if this sounds like you, we need to dig in deeper.

What is the thyroid and what does it do?

 

Before we talk about how to fix slow metabolism, we have to understand what our thyroid is and how it works. 

 

I want you to think about your body as a home. In order for your home to feel comfortable and safe, we need so many different appliances to be functioning together in unison. To heat your home, you likely have a furnace. But we don’t turn the furnace on and off manually every day. We have a thermostat that reads the temperature of the room and tells your furnace when and how to run. But no matter how hard the thermostat tries to tell the furnace to produce heat, if there’s not enough gas and electricity available, the furnace won’t be able to transform energy into heat in order to warm your home. 

 

That’s your metabolism in a nutshell. Your thyroid is like a powerful furnace. It’s a butterfly-shaped endocrine gland located in your throat that produces hormones that are in charge of your basal metabolic rate, which determines how quickly or slowly your cells function. The faster your cells are functioning, the faster they will burn through our energy stores to fuel our body to function optimally. Working alongside your thyroid is the pituitary gland, which is like the thermostat. Your pituitary gland is a small gland in your brain that senses and will produce thyroid-stimulating hormone in order to tell the thyroid to do its job and secrete thyroid hormones. 

What is the difference between Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism and Hashimotos? 

 

When we talk about thyroid dysfunction, we typically break it down into two camps: hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. 

Hyperthyroidism is when the thyroid is hyperactive, meaning it’s function is being upregulated more than it should be. Your thyroid will be churning out T4 in excess, which can lead to symptoms like ​​a fast heartbeat, increased appetite, anxiety, sensitivity to heat, or sudden weight loss. There are a few underlying causes of hyperthyroidism, which could include thyroiditis, a thyroid nodule or Graves disease, which is an autoimmune condition.

 

Hypothyroidism is the opposite. This is what we’re talking about when we think about having a ‘slow metabolism.’ When your thyroid stops producing thyroid hormones at optimal rates, your basal metabolic rate will slow down, which can lead to weight gain as your body opts to store nutrients instead of use them for energy. This is what I see most commonly in my female population in my practice. One of the underlying causes of hypothyroidism can be Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid and leads to slowed production of thyroid hormones. 

5 Top Drivers of an Underactive Thyroid 

 

Let’s circle back to the example of the furnace for a moment. If your furnace was slowing down and your home was getting too cold in the dead of winter, you wouldn’t shut off your gas and electricity, would you? No, of course not! So why is it that the first thing we do when we’re concerned we have a slow metabolism is to start restricting our diet?

 

We need to be FUELING our metabolism, not cutting off the energy supply. And yet, so many of my clients start restricting calories the moment they’re concerned about a weight loss plateau. But all this does is strip your body of the nourishment it needs to function optimally, because when we restrict calories, we’re also restricting vitamins and minerals. 

 

Here are 6 of the biggest metabolism mistakes that might make matters worse:

• Undereating – While it seems intuitive, it is extremely common for women to chronically undereat without even realizing. The body undergoes a stress response as a result of lack of energy supply and nutrient deficiencies, influencing sex, thyroid and stress hormones. In states of fasting or caloric restriction, the thyroid responds very accurately and will stop burning energy at a high rate in order to conserve energy, meaning your metabolism will slow down as you continue to restrict calories. 
• Poor mineral balance – Taking hormonal birth control, the halogens present in water and chronic low mineral status, specifically potassium, magnesium, iron, copper and iodine all influence our thyroid function.
• Imbalanced gut health – If your gut isn’t functioning optimally, neither is nutrient absorption. So while we may be including all the nutrients we need in our diet, our body may not be able to use them if we’re struggling with chronic inflammation, stress, infections or dysbiosis. Additionally, your gut is directly involved in the conversion of the inactive version of our thyroid hormone, T4, into the active form, T3. So if our gut isn’t healthy, we can certainly see dysfunction of our thyroid hormones. 
• Chronic stress – When our stress is out of control, we often see elevated levels of cortisol, which in turn can lower the conversion rate of T4 to T3, the active version of our thyroid hormone. But this doesn’t just mean emotional stress. This can also include under-eating and over-exercising, both of which are perceived as a threat and stressor to our bodies. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a big feedback loop that allows our body to respond to stress in order to maintain homeostasis at all costs, and sometimes these costs include compromising the function of other systems such as our thyroid and fertility.
• Poor blood sugar balance – All aspects of our hormonal health can impact one another. This means that our insulin sensitivity and function can directly impact our metabolism and thyroid function. The is If we’re not practicing habits that support blood sugar balance, and therefore a healthy insulin response, Too much or too little insulin can directly impact thyroid hormone conversion.
• Irregular circadian routines – Quality and duration of sleep both directly impact your thyroid function, and vice versa. If you’re not supporting yout thyroid health, your sleep can become impaired.

How to improve your metabolism and thyroid health

 

If you’ve made it this far and some of this is really hitting home for you, it might be time to take inventory and assess whether or not it’s time to make lifestyle changes to support your metabolism.

 

Oftentimes conventional medical practices approach the subject of hormone balance by providing exogenous hormones like thyroid or HRT. While these methods may be beneficial for some, I commonly see women restore thyroid function and achieve balance by simply eating enough, incorporating nutrient dense, nourishing foods, reducing elements of both physical and emotional stress, and eating consistently throughout the day!

 

In my practice, I work with women to find an answer to the question “WHY is this happening?” instead of jumping straight to “how do I fix these symptoms?”

 

If you’re really hoping to get to the root of your slow metabolism, we need to take a look at: 

• Energy availability – are you eating enough at regular meal times to fuel your metabolic rate and support your body’s natural rhythm?
• Blood sugar balance – Are you building meals that support your blood sugar and insulin response?
• Nutrient availability – Is your diet inclusive of a wide variety of vitamins and minerals?
• Muscle to fat ratio – What is your unique body composition and how is that impacting your metabolism?
• Physical activity – How much are you moving throughout the day?

 

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You can partner with your body to nourish your hormones and metabolism. The first step on this journey to healing your hormones and metabolism (and putting a stop to other significant symptoms or conditions developing) is to create a rhythm of consistent deep nourishment vs. restriction.

 

If you are ready to get started on this journey, I have just the resource for you. Our 7- Day Nourishing Hormone Meal Inspiration guide is your first step to building a foundation for a healthy metabolism and nourished hormones. And if you’re ready to start digging into the root cause behind your metabolism struggles, sign up for a free discovery call and start paving a path towards hormonal synchronicity.