The metabolism is the rate at which your body burns off energy from food that you eat. While most people want to lose weight by speeding up their metabolism, a large number of people have the opposite problem and find it nearly impossible to gain weight. Learning how to slow down metabolism will help you put on a bit more weight, keeping you healthier and giving you more energy.

How to Slow Down Your Metabolism

1.   Spread Out Your Meals

If you space your meals out more, you can slow down the metabolism. Eating more frequently increases your metabolism and the number of calories that your body will burn. If you are having five or six smaller meals a day, change this to three larger meals without any snacks between. Keeping this eating method for a period of time, you should notice a drop in your metabolism and some weight gain.

2.   Change the Exercising Method

Doing vigorous exercise like running will make you lose more weight, so change that exercising for moderate walking. Try adding resistance weight training as well, as this will help you slow metabolism and gain muscle. If you currently run for 30 minutes three times each week, change this to 30 minutes strength training three times a week and walk 30 minutes twice each week.

3.   Skip Some Meals

A good method of how to slow down your metabolism is skipping meals. While this is not a healthy option, it will help achieve your goal. That is because when you skip meals, your body begins to prepare for famine situations, meaning it will lower your metabolism to save your energy.

4.   Eat Metabolism-Slowing Foods

There are actually a range of foods that are known to help slow down metabolism. Unfortunately, many of them are not healthy, such as white bread, processed food, and sugar. They make a vacuum in your body, which makes your fat-burning systems slow and begin storing fat. Your sugar levels spike after eating these things and this causes your body to start working to reduce your calorie burn rate.

You can also opt for eating things like fried food that add a significant amount of calories to your diet. Saturated fats found in the majority of cooking oils can also slow your body’s metabolic rate.

5.   Eat More Nuts and Seeds

When trying to learn how to slow down your metabolism, you need foods that have a high caloric density. Nuts and seeds are among the highest in calories per ounce because they lack moisture. Unlike fried foods, however, they are healthy and contain unsaturated fats that your body needs.

Nuts have polyunsaturated fats and these are oxidized slowly compared to monounsaturated fats. As a bonus, they also have plenty of arginine, an amino acid your body uses to produce nitric oxide which is a gas linked to reducing your metabolic rate.

6.   Check for Genetic Causes

In many cases, people have a fast metabolism because of genetics. If other members of your family also have a high metabolic rate, a genetic factor may be at play. A common example would be an overactive thyroid. If this is the cause, there isn’t much that you can do to help slow down your metabolism. Instead, you will have to wait for your body to begin to age, as your metabolism will naturally slow down at that point.

7.   Consider Other Tips

• You can also gain weight and lower your metabolism by drinking less water and other beverages while you eat. This way, you will avoid the fluids encouraging your metabolism to increase.
• Sleeping more can also slow down your metabolism by forcing your body to get more rest.
• In many cases, those with a high metabolism make it worse by not letting their food completely digest or by eating while walking or moving around. Instead, take the time to let your food digest thoroughly and your metabolism should slow down.
• A highly effective method of how to slow down your metabolism is to sit down as much as possible. You can sit in the car, at your desk, on the couch, at the table, and at other places. Just keep in mind that while this will slow your metabolism, it is also very bad for your health.
• Trying having a meal or snack before going to bed. Those who eat a large meal after about 6 pm tend to have slower metabolism and experience weight gain.