Is there such a thing as a slow metabolism?

Yes! Your metabolism is the speed at which your body absorbs and uses calories. I'm thin and have a really fast metabolism. Two things increase your metabolism: exercise and eating.

Very thin athletes eat a lot of food, several thousand calories a day, and don't gain a pound. They have fast metabolisms. A high percentage of lean body mass increases your metabolism (muscles = hunger). People with a low percentage of lean body mass have slower metabolisms because fat isn't hungry. You feed muscles, not fat. If you have more muscle, you need to feed it more.

Slow and fast metabolisms are not myths. Please message me if you would like further clarification. I'm happy to provide more examples and explanation.

In for answers.

I believe that peoples metabolisms vary some, ie. ectomorphs who eat everything but never gain weight.

But at the same time I feel like people use "slow metabolisms" as a cop out

I had my metabolism tested by a MetaChek machine (indirect caliometry). My RMR tested to be 25% higher than "normal" (ie: Harris-Benidict Formula).

http://www.korr.com/products/predictive_eqns.htm

Above indicates how close the various formulas are as far as predicting your metabolism (ie: what percentage of people are over or under the norm).

Definitely, my ex could eat for England, (Scotland Wales and Ireland too) and not gain an ounce, he started working at cadburys when you could eat the chocolate but not take any home and he ate a whole bread basket of coffee creams chocolates in a week on top of all of his usual meals. He wasn't muscular, in fact has a hard time building muscle but he never gained any weight in the 14 years we were together.

When I first started trying to lose weight I tried 1500-1800 calories and gained 3lb a month for the 4 months I tried those calories, I then dropped to 1200-1500 and stayed the same for 4 months basically indicating my maintenance calories will be around 1350. And that is why i'm struggling to lose weight, I know I need to up my exercise to increase my metabolic rate but emphysema and asthma make it extremely hard.

Don't forget about the thyroid and thyroid conditions! It plays a huge role in how fast or how slow your metabolism actually works. Someone I know had hypothyroidism, causing them to gain large amounts of weight because the thyroid was not working up to par. After getting on medication, the thyroid activity level was regulated, and they lost a lot of weight - the metabolism sped up.

As for hyperthyroidism, that's when the thyroid OVERworks, therefore causing a metabolism that works like crazy.

Hope this helps

I wonder if someone with hypothyroidism can speed it up with diet and exercise alone?

I had my metabolism tested by a MetaChek machine (indirect caliometry). My RMR tested to be 25% higher than "normal" (ie: Harris-Benidict Formula).

http://www.korr.com/products/predictive_eqns.htm

Above indicates how close the various formulas are as far as predicting your metabolism (ie: what percentage of people are over or under the norm).

Interesting how nearly 30% are above average, but only 4% below. Hmmm.

That's the percentage that were greater than 10% higher or lower than "normal".

60+% were within 10% of "normal".

Don't forget about the thyroid and thyroid conditions! It plays a huge role in how fast or how slow your metabolism actually works. Someone I know had hypothyroidism, causing them to gain large amounts of weight because the thyroid was not working up to par. After getting on medication, the thyroid activity level was regulated, and they lost a lot of weight - the metabolism sped up.

As for hyperthyroidism, that's when the thyroid OVERworks, therefore causing a metabolism that works like crazy.

Hope this helps

I wonder if someone with hypothyroidism can speed it up with diet and exercise alone?

Nope, if you are hypothyroid you must take medicine to fix it. If you're just a little off you can be OK, but if you have autoimmune thyroid disease like I do, your body will keep attacking your thyroid until it is completely dead....so you will just get worse and worse. And eventually, you would actually die from it...."myxedema" is the end stage. So I have to take my med for the rest of my life. Fortunately it's just one little pill a day and it's cheap even if you don't have insurance.

metabolism definitely changes from person to person. a lot of it is genetics and health level. you can improve your metabolism by exercising consistently or you can beat your metabolism (if it is slow) by eating less (in order to lose weight).

lestahling,

Because of my own weight issues, I have some insight into this. The "fast metabolism" which keeps a person thin is really a myth. You have friends to seem to stay thin naturally, but exactly what is going on is not always obvious. They may be thin because they just don't want to eat very much. Or they may struggle with their weight and you just don't know about it.

Metabolisms do vary with genetics but usually not by anything really noticeable. But even if you do have a fast metabolism it doesn't mean you will stay thin. If you eat more calories than you burn you will get fat. There may be "naturally thin" people around but their thinness isn't cause by their metabolism.

In my family there is a gene which causes very fast metabolisms and I received a copy of it. My RMR does measure about 30% higher than expected and the excess calorie burn seems to be that much or more when factors like exercise and being a growing kid are taken into account. When I was 12 I ate more than my 16 year old brother, sometime by 2x. I never gained weight in high school and a diet never crossed my mind. In college, probably because of less exercise and maybe just being a year older, I gained 15 pounds in about 8 months. I tried dieting. They said I should eat 1700 cals/day to lose weight but after a 1200 cal breakfast (yes, that what I eat!) and a small 500 cal lunch I was still hungry and that was supposed to be everything for the whole day! I couldn't even stick to a 3000 cal/day diet.

For me the only thing that works is exercise. I need to work out 2 hours every day and watch my diet. I cannot eat too many carbs, nothing like ice cream, and only small amounts of pizza etc. Mostly I eat vegetables with some meat and smaller amounts of rice or bread. I eat slowly and never until I am 100% full in order to insure that I don't over eat. Even so I still eat around 4200-4500 calories a day but I need to stick to my routine or gain weight.

Now the funny thing is that my friends all say, "Oh my God! you are so lucky! You can just eat and eat and eat and not gain weight". It is hard to convince them that this is not true. I also wish I could eat anything and not gain weight! What's the difference between sticking to a 4000 cal/day diet or a 2000 cal/day - nothing except I pay twice as much for food. I actually think my metabolism/appetite situation makes things harder for me. And I've notice that some of my friends, who think I'm so lucky, can stuff themselves to the gills at a party and make up for it by eating almost nothing the next day. If I eat too much for dinner my stomach will demand a larger breakfast the next morning and then a larger lunch etc. and soon I am gaining weight. I have to be very careful. So I am a girl with an extremely "fast metabolism" who struggles with weight. My friends sometimes assume I have "that mythical fast metabolism" which I real don't. They are envious of the myth not the reality.