The Low Metabolism Reality Check

Philip Pape 0:01

If you've been doing everything right strength training , consistently eating , well walking , 8-10,000 steps daily , managing your stress and sleep yet your metabolism seems stubbornly slower than everyone else's . You're not alone and you're not imagining it . Some people genuinely have lower metabolic rates , despite doing everything by the book . The truth is that traditional calorie deficit approaches that work for most people might be leaving you feeling miserable , hungry and watching your strength plummet when you're already eating what feels like next to nothing . Today , we're going to understand why some people have inherently lower energy expenditure and how to design around this metabolic constraint . You'll learn how to create a fat loss system that works specifically for your unique physiology without requiring extreme restriction or endless cardio . Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , philip Pape , and today we're talking about a situation that frustrates many of my clients and listeners , and that is having a genuinely lower-than-average metabolism , despite following all the right habits . So this isn't about metabolism myths or misconceptions , or also how to support your metabolism when you haven't done all the things . We actually covered that in episode 302 , the one right before this , about why your metabolism declines with age and what to do about it , and that is a very good foundational episode if you're kind of new to this and wondering where to start , but today is okay . You've done the things and I still have a much lower than average metabolism , and so what this is about is acknowledging that there are significant genetic and physiological variations between human beings . Right , that just genetics alone will cause differences , and some people simply burn fewer calories at rest and during activity than others , even when controlling for body size , muscle mass , what they call fat-free mass and activity levels . What is pretty exciting , though , is that once you acknowledge the reality right , facts are facts , and once we analyze it like an engineer we analyze it systematically , understand what's going on we can design fat loss approaches that work with your body's unique constraints , instead of fighting against them , like I've helped many clients do who've had this exact issue Before we get into it . Of course , if you want to take that first step toward understanding your metabolism and how to accurately track and adjust your nutrition for your unique needs , again , this episode is really a more advanced topic , but if you're trying to take that first step or you want a refresher , download my free Nutrition 101 Guide for Body Composition . The link is in the show notes . Totally free , it gives you the foundation you need to implement even the basic two advanced strategies that we'll discuss today . It's a game changer . So go to witsandweightscom , slash free or just click the link in the show notes to download my Flexible Dieting Nutrition 101 for Body Composition Guide .

Philip Pape 3:10

All right , so let's start by

Five Primary Causes of Lower Metabolism

Philip Pape 3:13

talking about why some people have lower metabolic rates despite what I'll call optimal habits . And this is crucial because , assuming you've got all the habits in place and that's a big assumption , right ? Sometimes people have done all the things and yet they haven't . They still have a lot of chronic stress and they don't realize it . Or the way they respond to stress is really causing their cortisol to go haywire , and that is what's preventing them from losing fat . Assuming you've optimized everything , understanding the why behind the remaining constraints will no-transcript episode .

Philip Pape 4:11

I've identified the five primary reasons why your metabolism might be genuinely lower than average , despite following the advice . First and foremost is just genetics , and it's not something we can control , right ? Research shows that as much as a 10 to 20% difference can be found in resting metabolic rate between individuals of similar size , age and body composition , and that's not a small variance , right ? That's not nothing . That's the difference between someone needing 1,800 calories for maintenance versus , say , 2,200 calories for maintenance versus , say , 2200 calories for maintenance . And these are encoded in our DNA . It affects a lot of things . It affects our mitochondrial efficiency , which I talked about on the last episode . It affects our hormone sensitivity , meaning like you might metabolically adapt more aggressively as soon as you start going on a diet because of how sensitive your hormones are . And if your parents , if your siblings , also struggle with similar issues , there definitely could be a genetic component at play . Not always right . A lot of us just have family who they don't know what to do and they've kind of let themselves go . They're sedentary , they don't train all of that and don't always read genetics into that . But you do know that there are differences between individuals just doing the same things and at the same body size .

Philip Pape 5:30

The second factor is adaptive thermogenesis , or metabolic adaptation , we call it , and this is history-based . What I mean by that is , if you've been through periods of significant dieting and calorie restriction in the past , especially chronically restrictive diets or yo-yo dieting your body may have developed a I'll call it persistent , not permanent , that's . That's I gotta be careful of my words , but kind of a persistent , long-term , deeply embedded and developed metabolic adaptation . Right , and we know this from the extremes , like the Biggest Loser show . That was a game show where contestants lost a ton of weight really fast and their metabolisms adapted and when they went back to eating the normal amount of food for their maintenance , their maintenance calories were way lower than they were before and they persisted for years after the diet ended . And so your body essentially becomes more efficient at conserving energy , which is great for survival when there's a famine , right , but it's frustrating when you're trying to get a certain body composition in the modern environment . So it's good to understand that your history is going to play into this . You can't change history , it is what it is , but just understand that .

Philip Pape 6:43

The third factor out of five is physiological efficiency , and this means this this is also kind of a genetic thing , right ? Some people , um , just extract more energy from food and then they conserve more energy when they're active . Your body might have more efficient digestive enzymes , more efficient mitochondria and less energy wasted as heat . Okay , so that means you're like . It sounds great , except the problem is it means you're not going to burn very many calories . It is great for survival . It's an advantage . It's a disadvantage when you're trying to lose fat , when you're trying to get rid of energy . So I guess the positive reframe on that is you're an efficient beast , but unfortunately it makes it a little harder to lose fat . I get it .

Philip Pape 7:27

The fourth factor is hormonal factors . Right , we never want to blame hormones , but we do want to understand there are variations in people's thyroid function , their insulin sensitivity , their sex hormone levels . Some of these are because of your history and because of your lifestyle . Others are simply genetic differences . And remember that the normal clinical range is not always the best indicator of the optimal range , right , and the optimal range for you might also be different than someone else's optimal range , and that can cause differences in energy expenditure . So if someone , for example , who's at the lower end of normal thyroid function might burn significantly fewer calories than someone at the upper end , whether that means you need treatment or not , that's a medical decision that you want to find a competent expert to talk to about , but it may be genetics as well . And then , finally , your body size is going to matter . If you're smaller framed , you're going to burn fewer calories , like you might have smaller bones , smaller organs just be small in general as a person . So this is like petite women . Okay , I've had clients or women they tend to be a little bit more challenging clients just because everything is at a smaller level of change .

Philip Pape 8:38

Um , the sensitivity is is kind of , I guess , smaller in a way , uh , in that they're already in a light body weight and sometimes a lean body fat , and so , uh , any standard approach or standard calorie recommendation might be completely off the wall for them and have nothing to do with what they really need . And you got to be careful and not say , oh , you're at 1100 calories in your diet , that's really , I've heard , that's really low . Well , if you're 110 pound female five , five , two that might be more than enough calories for you at maintenance . I don't know Right , and in society where we eat food and we have certain amounts of meals and food , you know , meals are a certain size and all this it can be frustrating for them because they feel like they're eating way less than other people , but really they're eating what their body says they need and it's the size they were born with . So we have to deal with that .

Philip Pape 9:27

Now I want to address a common objection I hear when discussing this topic because often people will say you know , people say , but that violates the laws of thermodynamics

Systems Approach to Metabolic Constraints

Philip Pape 9:36

, right ? Or calories in calories out still applies , and I'm I'm the biggest advocate for acknowledging that energy balance is reality . Right , and both those statements are true that energy balance governs weight loss . But the key uh insight here is that your body's calories outside of the equation is what can be dramatically different from person to person , and it can change a lot even when all observable behaviors are identical . Right , and people get hung up on calories in calories out as if it's fixed Obviously calories in is what you eat , but calories out is vastly variable , based on a lot of factors . Right , so it's not like energy is appearing or disappearing magically . Right , conservation of energy thermodynamics it's recognizing that the , the system , the body system efficiency varies significantly between people . Okay , so hopefully I've gotten that message through without rambling too much on it .

Philip Pape 10:32

But this is where a systems-based approach becomes even more invaluable . The thing that we teach here and that I offer clients and what we work through it is not just cookie cutter diets and just random programs and YouTube influencers and all that that . None of that stuff works for most people , especially people who have to really dial in due to a lower metabolism . And if you think of a system , right , systems have constraints . They have efficiencies . When we can't change the core efficiency of the system , which is your metabolism , when we can't change that , like the core level of it right , I'm not talking about your overall TDE , the things we can change but when you can't change the core , we want to design around that , we want to acknowledge that and we optimize the other variables and then create what I'll call like redundant systems that don't rely exclusively on the constrained component . And you're like what the hell are you talking about ? Okay , let me get into it . So let me get into how we apply this .

Philip Pape 11:29

All right , we're going to create a fat loss system for someone with a lower metabolism , and for some reason this is the week of eights , because on the last episode , I talked about eight strategies for preventing metabolism decline with age . Today , we're going to talk about eight strategies for a fat loss system for a low metabolism . All right , the first four are going to focus on optimizing nutrition without requiring extreme calorie

Nutrition Strategies Without Extreme Restriction

Philip Pape 11:54

restriction . This is a really important topic because what most people do is they just feel like they just have to cut calories to a ridiculous level when they have a low metabolism . You don't have to .

Philip Pape 12:06

Strategy number one is high satiety , high volume , low energy density foods . I know for some of you that sounds obvious , but a lot of you are not doing this . Even if you don't have a low metabolism , this is a game changer . This means building your diet around foods that create the maximum fullness signal with the minimum calorie input Lean proteins think chicken breast , white fish , egg whites , shrimp , tuna , those kinds of things , lean pork , et cetera . Even very lean beef are up on this list . High fiber vegetables and fruits . High resistant starch foods like white potatoes . One of the most high satiety fruits is orange . When you eat the whole orange not the rind , obviously , but don't have orange juice , eat the orange . The goal is strategically increase your food volume without increasing calorie intake . Think of large salads , vegetables , soups , stews , stir fries you know dishes that take up a lot of stomach space relative to their calorie content .

Philip Pape 13:05

I did an episode on that recently . Go hunt for it . It's in the last few weeks or reach out to me . It was all about that . It was all about it was actually called um when eat eating less . Sorry , let me think about this Eating more to lose weight actually works . That's what it was , and it was the idea that you're actually eating more volume , you're not eating more calories .

Philip Pape 13:24

So I have I have several clients I can think of who are kind of struggling with that low maintenance intake , even after we've bumped it up a bit . They're building weight , they're , you know , walking , they're doing all the things , and what we had to do is just acknowledge they needed a lot more high satiety and high fiber foods , a lot more protein as well relative to the normal recommendation . And then they and by they I mean men and women . I can think of one woman in particular who was actually on the podcast recently , melanie , you could go check out her episode we're able to and by they I mean men and women . I can think of one woman in particular who was actually on the podcast recently Melanie , you could go check out her episode we're able to create this modest deficit and not feel deprived . We can't necessarily create an aggressive deficit because of the calorie levels , or else you get into that point of where the hunger signals really get triggered a lot , but we could at least have a modest deficit and slowly lose fat over time and still feel satisfied , all right .

Philip Pape 14:13

So you can start your meal with , for example , a large volume of vegetables and then follow it by lean protein and then have the starchy carbs and fats at the end of the meal , for example . The sequence of how you eat can be really helpful . So that's strategy number one . Strategy number two is nutrient density , maximizing nutrient density . So this might sound the same as volume and there is mathematically a similarity . But you've got to think about it this way when your calorie budget's limited , you want every calorie to work harder for you .

Philip Pape 14:43

So when I say nutrients , I'm actually talking about micronutrients , right , and so if you can select foods rich in micronutrients and high quality protein , it's going to support your training performance , your muscle retention , your cravings , your satiety , just having more nutrients in your diet , because your body kind of knows when it's deficient . It's not as precise and targeted as people think like , oh , I crave vitamin E or whatever . Evidence doesn't quite support that , whatever Evidence doesn't quite support that . But you do get more satisfied and support many of these hunger signals with more nutrient-dense foods , and that might be introducing things like organ meats , fatty fish , leafy greens , berries , cruciferous vegetables , eggs . All of these are what some people call superfoods I don't like that term because there's no good or bad foods , but they are super in terms of their nutrient density . So actually , somebody I had on the show , dr Sarah Ballantyne , wrote a book called Nutrivor great book , and she actually ranks a lot of foods based on their nutrient score . So that could be another way to look at it .

Philip Pape 15:44

All right , strategy number three is I alluded to this already but slightly higher or a lot higher protein intake than the standard recommendation . So my standard recommendation and what the evidence shows is 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of body weight . I would shoot that up to maybe 1.2 , as much as 1.5 . Now the problem with going too high is you leave very few calories for carbs and fats . So it really is a fine dance between the macros . And again , all of this is for somebody who knows what they're doing , who's tracking , who can be pretty consistent with this . Otherwise you're going to drive yourself crazy and you really have to go back to the basics first and not even try to lose fat potentially until you've dialed those in . So we know protein is the highest dermic effect of food . Your body burns more calories digesting it . We know that higher protein intake enhances muscle retention . We know it promotes greater satiety . All the things you got to get with protein . I feel like I've talked about this so much recently . If you're listening to even two episodes , you'll get plenty of it . So increasing protein above the normal could be helpful .

Philip Pape 16:46

Strategy number four is calorie cycling and refeeds . So normally I would not recommend calorie cycling , carb cycling , even refeeds to newer people following a fat loss plan . Refeeds I might like making Saturday and Sunday a little bit higher days than the other days , but I mean strategic refeeds , like bringing up your carbs so your calories are all the way to your maintenance right , not just a little bit higher , but like a lot higher , literally taking a break , um . But you could also have calorie cycling within the week and kind of line it up with your training , line it up with your hunger signals . I've definitely had clients who have to do that just to , because the calories are so low that their body really feels the difference . And if you can support your training and recovery the most , the rest of it kind of works out , if you will .

Philip Pape 17:34

It doesn't work for everyone . Some people need the same calorie intake every day , but others can alternate between low and high calorie days , usually by changing carbs , and it will minimize I don't want to say it minimizes metabolic adaptation . It's going to slow the rate of fat loss down right , unless your low days are even lower , which I don't recommend . But it's going to feel even more sustainable and you'll be consistent and be able to continue getting the result without just feeling like you're kind of crashing all the time . Because the alternative , if you're going to have the same calories every day might be like you're not quite in a big enough deficit but you're also not quite at maintenance and so you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot by not getting movement . You know your body adapts to the food and you feel like you're dieting but you're not getting the result . It makes sense . So sometimes having the lower and the higher , where the lower is more aggressive and the higher is closer to a refeed or somewhere in between , it's really going to depend . You've got to experiment with it . It's going to really help you push forward sustainably . It might look like four to five days at a deficit and then two to three days of maintenance . It might be three days in an aggressive deficit and four days of maintenance or no days of maintenance . Maybe they're all dieting days , but some are just more aggressive than others . And again , usually where the carbs are placed around training sessions .

Activity, Recovery and Psychological Factors

Philip Pape 18:57

Kind of related to this , actually , as part of the strategy , is structured diet breaks . So hold on , let me look at my list , my notes here . Yeah , so I'm including this . I'm including this here . So diet breaks are like an entire week , or even an entire month , every six weeks , 12 weeks , whatever you need to just recover from the stress of dieting mentally and physically before you continue , just to keep it sustainable . It's not going to change your metabolism in any way , but you might have . You know , you're going to have some improvements in your hormones , your energy , your training performance during that phase . So if you can hit it a little bit harder , you actually do get a net benefit for the overall fat loss phase . So that's the nutrition side , the first four strategies . The next four are going to be about activity and recovery and some of the psychological factors , so I'm kind of lumping them all together into the final four .

Philip Pape 19:46

So this gives us a strategy number five and that is meal frequency and timing . So when you are on these tighter calories with a lower metabolism , the meal pattern is going to really have to line with your natural hunger signals and your energy needs . This is a form of intuition , but combined with tracking and measuring that intuition , if that makes sense , right ? So in other words , you need to understand when and why you get hunger . You need to understand when and why you have high or low energy . It's not just I feel this way and so I'm going to kind of uh , wing it , right You're , you want to journal it , track it , write it down , check it off , whatever makes sense for you . Use a number scale . It's a form of tracking for you . When you have the lower metabolism , to compliment your tracking of food in your training , right , my clients all track a lot of this stuff anyway . So , again , if you just want somebody to help you do that and give you a plan and say here's what you need to do that's why somebody would work with me or join our Physique University .

Philip Pape 20:42

But look , when you have a lower metabolic rate , you've got to get more creative you might find that you need some form of a feeding fasting window . I've never , ever said intermittent fasting can't work for somebody . I hope you know that . I do say that it's not necessary for most people and it creates no different result from a calorie perspective than any other feeding window , but from a hunger signal , satisfaction and consistency perspective , you might need a tighter feeding window because the calories are lower . So then you might have , like , your first meal at 11 am and your last meal at 5 pm , with a meal in between . Each of those meals can then be bigger . Your body adapts to having the fasting window and it's more sustainable . So fewer , larger meals feel more satisfied , trigger the fullness hormones and so on , and you're able to maintain your calorie level and feel good about it .

Philip Pape 21:32

Having said that , the fasting window needs to be intelligently aligned with your training , so you're not training fasted . That's my biggest caveat on that . Now you might be on the opposite extreme and you might benefit from more frequent smaller meals to maintain stable energy throughout the day right , and this is more of the blood sugar control and you might need that little bit of a hit of the meal to kind of just stay satisfied all day . What did I want to go with this ? So I'm telling you a lot of stuff , but the main thing here is experiment . You can't just track your food , but you have to track hunger , energy , mood , training , performance , right and connect them to your meal patterns to identify what works best . You know some clients that have lower metabolisms use fasting and others hate it . Right , so , like it depends on what works for you , all right .

Philip Pape 22:27

Strategy number six this is about diet quality and your food environment . So when you have a lower metabolic rate , you have a smaller margin for error when it comes to the highly palatable , ultra processed , the calorie dense foods that can easily lead to over consuming those foods , and so creating an environment that supports adhering to the fat loss phase becomes even more paramount . Right , meal prepping , limiting the availability of foods that would tempt you in your house or , at least in eyesight , having a plan for social situations where you're going to have a lot of calorie dense options . Notice , I'm not telling you to not enjoy those foods . I'm telling you that you need to be creative with setting yourself up for your environmental success and reducing decision fatigue so you can enjoy those foods on occasion , knowing the ultimate quantity is not gonna be as high as someone else with a higher metabolism . It's just the state of things . All right .

Philip Pape 23:24

Strategy number seven has to do with your recovery and training volume . So when your calories are low and I know this from personal experience right now because I'm in a fat loss phase and totally understand my calories are still higher than the people we're talking about in this episode . You can get wiped . You've got to balance your training stimulus with a recovery capacity , and it doesn't mean training less or less frequently , but it does mean making sure that every training session has a clear purpose , gives you a very precise outcome and that your recovery between sessions is prioritized right . What you don't want is excessive fatigue building up from overtraining , which then reduces your other activity levels and then decreases your expenditure even further . You might have to reduce yes , you might have to reduce some volume , but it might be more about focusing on the intensity of that training , the load of the training , the progression . Maybe you need to do three instead of four days . Maybe you need to do six instead of three , you know and spread out the recovery .

Philip Pape 24:26

It's really going to depend on you at creative ways to increase your need even further . And I know you're like oh , really Like even if you're already getting eight to 10,000 steps every day , can you add another two or three or four in some achievable , sustainable way ? Right , that you're not already taking advantage of Now . If you're getting eight to 10,000 , that's a meaningful amount , but I know you could push to 12 or 14 with a little extra effort , unless you just absolutely don't have time and no capability to do that , in which case you've got to evaluate whether you should be in a fat loss phase or even trying to do it as aggressively as you are . But we're talking short walks after meals , using a standing desk , taking movement breaks during work , even finding ways to be less efficient with your task right , multiple trips to carry groceries instead of carrying everything at once . I mean little hacks like that sometimes work .

Philip Pape 25:22

So those are the eight strategies , and I think the thing that's going to be the crucial glue that binds it all together is your mindset toward this process . It has to be . It has to be so . I've worked with several clients who have very , very low metabolic rates and I found that their psychological approach is going to determine their success way more than any of the tactics , because sometimes you're doing all the tactics and very little moves on the needle and then it slowly starts to move right and it's like you have to have that . I don't want to call it discipline , but I want to call it a positive mindset that the process is the most important thing and the outcome is going to come from the process , and so this means you have to adjust your expectations . I'm sorry , you just have to adjust your expectations and be realistic , right ? You need to recognize that having a lower expenditure does not indicate poor health . It doesn't indicate you're a failure . It just requires you to be more strategic . And so any common

Mindset as the Crucial Binding Element

Philip Pape 26:22

fat loss advice out there to cut X number of calories and lose a pound a week or whatever , it might mean an unbearably low intake for you and that's not for you . So you might have to accept a more modest deficit , a slower rate of fat loss , and then you're still going to have better long-term outcomes when you do that .

Philip Pape 26:39

Go listen to the podcast with Melanie . She dropped eight and a half percent body fat . The actual pounds loss wasn't that much , but she built muscle at the same time . If we were just thinking about weight loss , man , that would have been so frustrating . I would have not wanted to keep working with her as a coach because I would have thought I was a total failure . But because we were tracking all the different things and focusing on the process , we got incredible results for what you wanted , right , and it takes time . It takes time . So think about all the things we talked about today Embracing the process instead of the outcome .

Philip Pape 27:10

Right , don't just fixate on the scale . Build your system . Are you being consistent ? You know at least 80% with the things that you care about , whether that's protein , training , recovery , whatever . Those are the things in your control . Right , the outcome is not in your control . It will result from the things you're in control , but that's what's in your control .

Philip Pape 27:27

All right , let's

Recap and Action Steps

Philip Pape 27:29

recap the main points . Yes , some people genuinely have lower metabolic rates , even when you're doing everything . Right , you are not a failure . It is a physiological constraint period . It is just the facts , ma'am . And if you implement the eight strategies we've discussed high satiety foods , nutrient density , protein higher than average , calorie cycling if needed , meal timing , your food environment , balancing your training and recovery and finding ways to move even more you can create the system that works with you .

Philip Pape 27:59

So , remember , the mental piece is probably as important as all these . It kind of puts them all together . Adjust your expectations , embrace a sustainable , lasting approach and focus on process-oriented goals instead of outcomes . Right , it's not a life sentence . I mean , no matter who you are . We don't want to spend that much time fat loss dieting , and by not much time it's going to depend . It might mean six months , it might mean three months , it might be nine months the first time , and then , once you get there , you can maintain your leanness and focus on energy performance , building muscle .

Philip Pape 28:30

You're going to you're going to achieve your goals . You're going to achieve your excuse me body composition goals . You just have to have a thoughtful , personalized strategy that is more creative than what might work for , say , the average metabolism . All right . So if you enjoyed today's episode and you want to start implementing the basics before you get to the more advanced strategies , download my free guide Nutrition 101 for Body Composition . It's going to help you establish the foundational habits that make these strategies even more effective . Go to whatsoeightscom or click the link in the show notes to get your copy . Until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember your unique metabolism isn't something to fight against , but a key constraint to design around in your personalized physique system . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Constraint to Design Around in your Personalized Physique System . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast .