Does your metabolism suck, or do you?
Metabolism, the poor scapegoat for almost everybody who isn’t achieving their physical goals. Does your metabolism suck? Or do your excuses?
You know the drill. If you aren’t burning the fat you want, you have a “slow metabolism”. If you aren’t growing your guns at the speed of light, you have a “fast metabolism”.
Do you have a slow metabolism? Here’s what the science says
7/10 of people fall within 6-8% of the average.
This means with an average 2000 calorie consumption, 68% of the population is burning between 1840-2160 calories per day.
96% of people fall within 10-16% of the average
In practical terms, this means that almost every adult on the planet burns between 1680-2320 calories daily.
600 calorie difference from the slowest to the fastest metabolism.
If you were in the slowest, 5th percentile metabolism group and your friend was in the fastest 95th percentile metabolism group, they’d burn 600 more calories than you daily. That’s burning 2 chocolate bars more than you do, but…
0.5%
The chances of you being in the slowest metabolism percentile and meeting someone randomly in the fastest category is a tiny 0.5%.
There could technically be a large difference in metabolism between you and your buddy but statistically, it’s unlikely your metabolism is to blame.
Barring any medical problems, the majority of us live within 200-300 calories of each other.
Wait…on the off-chance that your metabolism is chugging along at a snails pace, there’s an easy fix:
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people with slower metabolisms can bring it up to speed with the front of the pack. Moderately active living was sufficient to bring slower metabolisms up by almost another 600 calories. Walking and taking the stairs without breaking a sweat were enough.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15534426
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18469249
https://examine.com/nutrition/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-people
