If you’ve been struggling with bloating, sluggish digestion, or stubborn weight gain, your daily habits might be playing a bigger role than you think. According to health experts, seemingly small lifestyle choices—like skimping on sleep or eating at inconsistent times—can quietly disrupt your gut health and slow down your metabolism over time. And since gut health is deeply connected to everything from energy levels to immune function, these habits could be doing more harm than you realize.
Here are six common behaviors that could be sabotaging your gut and metabolism—and what to do instead.
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1. Skipping meals
Whether you’re busy and can’t find the time to cook yourself a nutritious meal or you’re trying to save on calories by skipping breakfast, there are several reasons you may choose to forego food from time to time.
However, experts warn that this is a bad idea for multiple reasons–one of them being the fact that it can take a toll on your gut health. Meg Gerber, functional medicine dietitian, says skipping means “can lead to poorly managed blood sugar,” and notes that breakfast, in particular, is especially important to eat every day.
“If we do not eat our breakfast, our body registers this as unsafe and therefore does not prioritize gut repair, optimal digestion, and health hormone output,” she says. “By not eating, it turns down the dial of metabolism to protect itself and can cause sluggish digestion.” Over time, this can not only lead to a range of gut issues, but could ultimately lead to weight gain.
2. You're Not Eating Enough Calories
When it comes to dieting and weight loss, Trista Best, MPH, RD, LD, registered dietitian at Balance One Supplements, says that most of us look at calories first, and how we can take in as few as possible. Unfortunately, she adds, this may work in the short term, but long term, it does damage to your metabolism.
"Each person has a unique metabolism, the rate at which they burn calories, and for most individuals this is around 2000 calories per day," she explains. This, she notes, means for your body to perform its regular functions at optimal levels, it requires a certain amount of calories.
"Put simply, when you go over this number it leads to weight gain and when you consume less than this number it leads to weight loss," Best says, "This weight loss is short lived, however, because the body will adjust to only receiving a smaller amount of calories." Therefore, she says it will slow down the amount of calories it needs in order to conserve energy and avoid starvation. "This essentially means you are slowing down your metabolism," Best continues. "When restricting ends, you will see rapid weight gain as you begin eating what was a normal amount of calories before because the body is now storing the excess as fat more efficiently."
3. Eating processed foods
While ensuring you’re eating enough meals every day is essential, it’s also important to consider what you’re putting in your body. Whenever possible, you should always opt for whole foods that can provide your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive.
Processed foods, on the other hand, are terrible for your overall health–and that includes your gut health. "Processed foods are often loaded with preservatives, unhealthy fats, and sugar," Meghan Punda, nurse practitioner and functional nutritionist, says.
"They lack nutrients and essential fiber and can disrupt the balance and health of the gut microbiome." The highly processed ingredients in these foods will feed the bad bacteria in your gut, resulting in dysbiosis, which can trigger issues like irritable bowel syndrome and even serious diseases like diabetes and cancer.
4. You're Not Getting Enough Sleep
As the body requires rest to prepare for its next energy-filled day, having an erratic sleep schedule will not help quicken or maintain a healthy metabolism.
In order to get more shut-eye, Best recommends not only sticking to a consistent nightly schedule, but also eating foods that can encourage you to fall asleep faster if this is something you struggle with.
"As the understanding of diet and health continues to progress, we are seeing more ways the nutrients we eat, or don't eat, impact almost every area of health," she says. "Sleep is not exempt from diet's effects. Both the quality and the quantity of sleep can either be hindered or promoted through what we eat."
She notes that eating foods that contain natural melatonin right before you are ready to attempt sleep can "help you fall asleep faster, sleep more soundly" and promote a healthy metabolism and soothe your digestion.
"Almonds, walnuts, and bananas are prime examples of these easy to snack on foods rich in melatonin," she suggests. Best concludes that foods that prevent quality sleep are often rich in refined carbohydrates. "Simple carbs reduce serotonin in the brain, the chemical responsible for inducing sleep," she explains, "These foods are typically processed convenience foods like pastries, crackers, chips, and pasta, and should be avoided close to bedtime."
5. Eating Too Fast
This mistake may come as a surprise, but many people are guilty of this mishap without realizing it. When we're hurriedly preparing for work, meetings, or errands in the morning, we often quickly consume our meals without mindful chewing.
Andrew White, NASM-certified personal trainer and co-founder of garagegympro.com, says chewing is "essential" for proper digestion and adds, "Eating too quickly can lead to swallowing air, which contributes to bloating. Additionally, it might prevent you from fully breaking down the food, causing gut discomfort and reduced nutrient absorption." When we're rushing, we often opt for convenient choices like granola bars, sweetened yogurts, and pastries, all of which are high in sugar. This tendency can contribute to weight gain and a lack of nutritious breakfast options.
To promote better digestion and prevent bloating and belly fat accumulation, it's important to slow down and savor each bite, allowing time for proper chewing and digestion.
6. Adding sugary ingredients to your coffee
If you enjoy a daily cup of joe, you probably have a preference for how you take it–with sugar or without, loaded with cream or black, etc. Unfortunately for those of us who love more than a bit of sweetness in our coffee, though, all of those sugary and creamy ingredients can really throw a wrench in your digestive health. "Adding milk or creamer to coffee is a practice done by most coffee drinkers to enhance the flavor and creamy nature of the often bitter and acidic drink," Richards notes.
However, she warns that “adding creamer is also a way calories, sugar, and fat sneak into our diet and it adds up quickly,” not to mention the fact that those processed ingredients can damage your gut. Refined sugar, in particular, is one ingredient you should definitely stay away from if you want to avoid digestive issues, as Richards says it’s “highly inflammatory as well as a food source for bad gut bacteria.” And it isn’t just your digestion that could face repercussions from this mistake. “Inflammation and an overgrowth of harmful gut bacteria will result in negative health effects in many areas of the body,” she warns.
