Some of the biggest areas of fear in the health space are caused by believing myths about metabolism. This one word can instantly send a lot of people into a panic. The fact that some of you reading this might be in a cold sweat thinking about your metabolism is exactly why we’re talking about this topic today.
The word “metabolism” has been thrown around like a weapon for decades. It’s been used to sell countless diet programs, exercise regimens, and of course there are those lovely pop-up ads with the catchiest one-liners:
“This one food is ruining your metabolism”
“Find out how to drop all your belly fat by getting rid of these 5 foods”
“This trick is the key to losing those last stubborn pounds”
The power that these words can have over your view of yourself and your health is strong. When the only things you hear about metabolism are coming from a place of fear-mongering, OF COURSE you feel like your metabolism is this scary monster that you have to slay by eating all the right foods and avoiding all the wrong foods.
What makes things even more stressful is that these “right” and “wrong” foods seem to change by the minute. How do you know if you can trust yesterday’s information, or today’s? How do you know whose opinion is right? How do you know if you should avoid “these 5 foods,” or just “this one food” – or maybe, remove an entire food group?
I’m here to tell you – it’s totally valid to be overwhelmed by all of the information on the internet (and sometimes while out to dinner with your girlfriends). But as someone who has spent 6 years studying the human body, the digestive system, food, and specific nutrients, I love being able to break others free of thoughts that were instilled by some really bad marketing strategies.
If you take away nothing else from this post, I want you to know 2 things that hopefully will stir up a sense of hope and empowerment in your health journey:
- It’s likely that most of what you know about metabolism is wrong.
- Understanding your body leads to freedom in your health journey.
First, allow me to debunk a few myths about metabolism you may be believing.
3 Myths About Metabolism
Myth #1: Your metabolism is one thing, and it only takes one wrong food to mess it up.
Your metabolism is NOT just one thing! Metabolism is actually a word we use to describe all of the processes that happen in several different organs that make energy, store extra energy, and pull that energy out from storage when you’re running low. It isn’t just one big mysterious force. It’s more like an economy inside of your body, where the currency is nutrients from the food you eat. Just like there are a ton of factors that can influence the financial economy we live in, there are also a ton of factors that can influence the economy of your metabolism!
The fact that there are numerous things that can create changes in your metabolism, and not just one, means that you can’t throw off your entire metabolism by eating one food (Those ads that made bananas seem like your arch-enemy? Wrong.)
This means you can approach your health with a lot more grace and flexibility, because just like in the real-world economy, your metabolism responds to the inputs it gets on average, over time. You can’t break it in a day. 🙂
Myth #2: You can speed up and slow down your metabolism by eating certain foods.
Okay, so this one’s interesting… Remember how I said your metabolism is like an economy?
There’s a bit of a hierarchy of needs required for your metabolism to function properly, and just like in the real-world economy, the first and most important question is: Is there enough? Are you breaking even?
When I say “breaking even,” I’m talking about whether or not your body is getting enough energy overall. Forget about exactly which foods are involved for a moment. If you’re not getting enough raw materials (nutrients) for your body to create the energy it needs to make your heart pump, your lungs breathe, your muscles contract, your stomach digest, etc., then ultimately your metabolism will slow down in order to preserve the energy it has. If the body isn’t getting enough, it’s going to prepare itself for more deprivation by conserving the stored energy it already has.
So ultimately, the quickest way to slow down your metabolism… is not eating.
And in the long run, the best way to speed up your metabolism… is to eat!
If this sounds crazy to you, that’s likely because you’ve heard the myth that the more you eat, the slower your metabolism becomes. Or that eating less will speed up your metabolism. Or our last myth:
Myth #3: You are pre-programmed with a certain speed of metabolism and you are either “blessed” with a fast one, or “cursed” with a slow one, and your fate is sealed.
Thankfully, this is not the case. Yes, we all have some genetic pre-programming in us that we can’t change, but we also have many, many genes that can be turned on and off like a light switch by our environment and the choices we make. A surprisingly large amount of the genes related to our metabolism can actually be “asleep” or dormant, or they can be activated. For example, the gene that tells your body to produce lactase, an enzyme that helps you digest lactose (dairy) can be turned off by not eating dairy for a certain length of time, and it can be turned on by reintroducing dairy. (Note: This is just an example, and it doesn’t apply to everyone. If you have a dairy intolerance or you feel better when you don’t include dairy in your diet, that is okay! Do whatever works best for your body.)
What I’m getting at is, your body responds to the inputs it receives. Which means your fate is not sealed! You aren’t doomed to being stagnant in your health journey. Whether your health goal is to improve your relationship with food, lose weight, or get stronger in the gym, you are not limited to being on the same hamster wheel for the rest of your life, swimming upstream, just to have an “okay” metabolism.
When you care intentionally for your body and steward your health using whatever resources you have at your disposal, your body RESPONDS to those inputs over time! Your body a month from starting that new habit of walking on your lunch break, or eating protein at breakfast, will have adapted to what you do with it. Will you lose 30 pounds in 30 days? Probably not. But will you kickstart a change in how your metabolism operates? Yes!! How amazing is it that you have the ability to do the smallest of habits, and trigger big changes in your metabolism in the long run?
This is where the core of my nutrition philosophy comes into play:
Understanding how the Lord created your body to work leads to freedom.
What does this mean? Well, think about those marketing ploys from the beginning of this post. Not only are those statements completely unfounded based on how the human body is designed, but they also trigger fear and so many other emotions about your body. If you were to read those statements and not already have some fundamental knowledge about how your body works, they could have a lot of power over how you think about your body, and therefore, how you feel and act toward your body. They could lead you to take actions that are ineffective, make you feel discouraged, and don’t give you the outcome you desire.
On the other hand, understanding more about how your body works (aka your metabolism) leads to THINKING differently about your body. Which leads to FEELING different about your body. Which leads to ACTING differently toward your body. Which leads to different OUTCOMES you can see and feel in your body!
The “freedom” comes from being able to see lots of different nutrition information across the wild world of the internet, and knowing enough about yourself to recognize the lies. If you know that eating one particular food is not going to make or break your metabolism, then guess what? Any time you see a post that says otherwise, you are already armed with the truth, and you can fend off those feelings of inadequacy by comparing those claims with what is fundamentally true of you.
In Conclusion
There are a ton of myths about metabolism floating around the internet. It can be really hard to navigate, but that’s why knowing the basic principles of how metabolism actually works can help you fend off those misleading statements.
If you’re ready to make changes that truly support your metabolism and overall health, you’ll want to check out this post where I share exactly how to fire up your metabolism the evidence-based way!
Tell me, of the three myths about metabolism I shared today, which have you believed before? If you have a friend, mom, or aunt who’s also believing insane myths about metabolism and health – forward them this post, ASAP!
