“Our greatest victories, and those which are most enduring, are our victories over ourselves.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Q - I have a slow metabolism and two friends that I go to college with tell me that they have trouble losing weight because they have slow metabolisms as well.  How does this happen and how can I fix this problem?

A - Many people that are overweight like to talk about their “slow metabolism” and for some it truly is a contributing factor to their excess weight.  However, I find that a lot of the people who talk about their metabolism don’t really understand the basic fundamentals of how the human metabolism works.  So I think first it would be a good idea to get some background on the metabolism and then address the question of how one can actually fix it.

What is the definition of Metabolism?
The New Collins Dictionary defines metabolism as “the chemical process that occurs in living organisms, resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste”.  This is just one definition; there are other, more simple ways to define it.  I prefer to simply say that it is the rate that your body burns calories to sustain life.
The first thing one needs to understand is that the body requires energy continuously and is burning calories every minute, twenty four hours a day.  The rate at which calories are burned and what boosts or slows that rate is an important question for anyone trying to eliminate body fat.
What are the factors that stimulate or downgrade metabolism?  One big one that downgrades your metabolism is going on too many starvation diets over the years where you lose weight, then gain weight, then lose weight and then gain it again.  This roller coaster cycle over time can really play havoc on your metabolism and once it is damaged, it can be a much bigger challenge to lose any further fat in the future. 
Another big factor that really influences metabolism is muscle tissue.  The more you have, the more calories your body will burn regardless of weather you’re male or female, old or young.  This is one of the main keys to burning more calories 24 hours a day.  The more of this live “metabolically active” muscle tissue you have on your frame, the more it will work on your behalf… continuously.  This is due to the fact that metabolically active muscle tissue burns more calories, pound for pound, compared to any other body tissue (such as fat).  Back, triceps, biceps, quads, hamstrings, calves, chest and shoulders are all prime real estate to layer on more muscle, and for each pound of muscle you add to your frame your body will use up around 50 additional calories per day.  This is very significant and is the main reason why men, who typically have more muscle mass than woman, tend to loose fat faster and regain it slower (men have a metabolism that is 10-15% higher than women’s). It’s also the reason why top trainers will put both male and female clients on an effective weight training program to build more muscle when their goal is to lose weight.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that just cutting calories is the way to lose fat.  However, in a recent study, researchers showed that basic weight training boosted basal metabolic rate by roughly 15%!  Weight training provides an important metabolism stimulating effect.  In particular, Maximum Efficiency Training, just 30 minutes a day, three days a week, will efficiently work every body part and is more than enough to stimulate serious muscle growth when done as the program outlines.  Remember, for optimum change, you have to exercise the body at a level that delivers a measured stimulus or stress that goes beyond what it is regularly accustomed to.  Just doing the gardening and occasionally taking the dog for a walk or cutting calories is not going to deliver optimum change. Weight training is key and intensity is always more important than sheer volume.
Another factor that influences metabolism is meal frequency.  As the Venice Beach Diet Book points out, skipping meals slows your metabolism down to conserve energy.  The trick is to have more smaller meals throughout the day rather than two or three big ones.  I instruct clients to eat approximately every three hours to boost fat loss.  Specifically, they eat three small meals and two or three protein rich snacks a day (pre-contest bodybuilding clients may consume up to seven small meals a day).