"I have a slow metabolism."

“I can’t lose weight because I have a slow metabolism."

You know what…you may be right. The sad truth is you’ve likely caused it to become slow. Now do something about it.

First, what does that term mean?

Metabolism: the sum of the physical and chemical processes in an organism by which its material substance is produced, maintained, and destroyed, and by which energy is made available.

In simpler terms, metabolism is the process your body has to go through to power itself throughout the day, maintain your current energy levels, weight, and body composition. It’s how hot and efficient your engine runs.

Your metabolism is directly influenced by the amount of food you take in and the amount of movement you perform. If you have a slow metabolism, it’s probably because you’ve made it slow.

Fortunately, that’s an easy problem to fix. Here are three things you can do:

1. Increase your activity. Before I tell you to go exercise, which you should do, first think of the easiest ways to increase your activity. Here are a few ideas that don't require you to make changes to your routine and eliminate the excuses.

If you’re sitting down right now, stand up. There, you’ve just significantly increased your metabolism. Anything you can do sitting, try to do it standing.

Talking on the phone? Stand up and walk around.

Holding a meeting at work? Remove the chairs from the room. Not only will everyone’s metabolism wake up, but the meeting will be shorter. Awesome!

2. Increase lean muscle. Your body has to work harder to maintain lean muscle than it does to maintain body fat. Add more lean muscle to your frame through resistance training and you’ll increase your metabolism. By the way, I know a great fitness center in Bolingbrook and a personal trainer in Bolingbrook too!

3. Eating increases your caloric burn. When your body has to digest food, it uses calories. When you deprive yourself of food, your body slows down to conserve energy.

I'm not telling you to just eat and you'll be fine. You still have to balance your intake with the amount of calories you use throughout the day. But, slashing calories too low isn’t the answer. The key here is to strike the balance between eating too much, which most people do, and not eating enough to support your goals. You also need to be eating the right amounts of the right foods.

Your body uses energy (calories) to digest food. You use more calories to break down and digest protein than carbohydrate and fat. As long as you don’t have a condition that limits your protein intake, consider upping those levels and lower the levels of the other two, which you likely get enough of already. The Mayo Clinic suggests getting 10 to 35 percent of total calories from protein (assuming you do not have any dietary restrictions).

The truth is that everything except calorie balance is an excuse. We’re not gaining weight because we’re eating too little. Show me one person who died of starvation and was also overweight.

It is ultimately your food and beverage intake and your physical activity that determines how much weigh you lose, or gain. It's up to you take control and create an energy deficit by eating fewer calories and increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity.