Dear Kayla,

A few times I have read that you thought in the past that you had a “slow metabolism”. And that your slow metabolism was one of the reasons you were not losing weight. Now, do you feel you had a slow metabolism? What about now?

Signed,

Julie

Dear Julie,

For a long time, I was convinced that I had a slow metabolism. After all, from the time I was a child, I had always put on weight easily. I struggled to lose it. And then I really struggled to keep it off. So, naturally, I thought my metabolism must be to blame.

But the process of intermittent fasting revealed to me that my actual problem wasn’t a bad metabolism. The problem was that I was eating too much food, and often for the wrong reasons. This is not a pleasant thing to face, which is why I think I kept it hidden from myself. But as I started to get consistent with intermittent fasting, I started to see that I had previously been in the habit of snacking because I was bored, stressed, angry, or tired. Adding to that, I also became more self-aware. This awareness helped me to notice how often I left the table feeling overly full.

As I endeavored to quit stress eating and to stop eating when I felt full, I found I was able to lose weight, and then actually keep it off. I’m pretty sure nothing actually changed, metabolism-wise. The thing that made the difference was how much food I was consuming. So in hindsight, no, I don’t think there was anything wrong with my metabolism at all.

Sincerely,

Kayla Cox