Metabolism Part 1 - What Is Metabolism?

A lot of people are talking about how slow their metabolism is and what they have to take pills or other compounds to increase or boost their metabolism. But yet they do not understand how their metabolism works. Therefore I’ll first talk about the basics of metabolism and later on the foods that affect metabolism;

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the chemical and physical processes continuously going on inside your body to create energy and heat as a by-product. The metabolism processes the calories from foods and nutrients at a different rate.

What affects metabolism?

Your metabolic rate is affected by your gender (men burn more calories), age, thyroid function and adrenal function. But these are actually not the major factors; there are factors that you can control, such as the amount of muscle tissue (lean body mass), affecting basal metabolic rate (BMR), whether you exercise, how you minimize stress and what you consume. So, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn regardless of how old you are and how active you are.

Here is a list of factors that can affect metabolism:

1. Muscle tissue

2. Meal frequency

3. Activity level

4. Genetics

5. Hormones

6. Food choices

7. Hydration

8. Stress

Most important details you should know about: 

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

BMR is the release of energy you use to perform the basic functions that keep you alive, i.e. the energy sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs. BMR decreases with age and with the loss of muscle tissue (lean body mass), while increasing muscle mass increases BMR.

BMR is affected by:

- 1. Muscle Tissue (lean body mass)

As I said earlier, increasing your muscle mass, will increase your BMR. This is because muscle requires a lot of calories to maintain.

- 2. Hydration

Water is needed for the cells to work and use the energy from food, this means that dehydration will cause a low BMR as it prevents the cells from using the calories.

- 3. Hormones and Stress

Your thyroid hormone level affects the metabolism, where more thyroid hormones will cause an increase in BMR. Stress triggers release of cortisol, a glucocorticoid, from you adrenal gland which will decrease your BMR.

2. Activity

More active people will burn more calories through physical activity than less active people. The physical activity will not make any difference if you don't match your eating to your expenditure.  So, if there is a possibility to change your lifestyle to a more active lifestyle, e.g. take the bike to the work, then do it, because you’ll burn some extra calories. 



Video for explanation:


If you have any questions or thoughts, please comment!

Go to Next: Metabolism Part 2 

Posted in: Mens Health,Nutrition,Weight Loss,Womens Health