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Understanding Metabolism

By David Herber

In order to understand why the body defends itself against an attempt to lose weight rapidly requires a basic understanding of metabolism. The concept of metabolism basically covers the whole range of biochemical reactions which occur in our bodies.

Metabolism is often spoken about in terms of "Speed", "I have a fast metabolism and can't keep weight on" or the more common, "I have a slow metabolism and gain weight when I look at food." It is clear that the speed of the chemical processes in our bodies is different from person to person.

The fact that the metabolism is indeed subject to differences means that planning a weight reduction program that works for everyone is often difficult.

It is often said that If you consume more energy than you need, your weight will increase; ingest less energy than you need and your weight will decrease. However, our metabolism doesn't work in that exact way. For an understanding of the factors involved in weight gain or loss, we use the image of a woodburning stove: to illustrate the variability of the metabolic rate, we look at the rate at which wood is added to the stove together with the rate heat comes out.

If the addition of wood drops (energy uptake), the radiated heat automatically drops after a short delay. By how much the radiated heat drops when the fuel source stops depends on the individual. The reverse of this is, that when the energy up-take increases (More wood on fire, more often), energy consumption also increases (bigger fire, more radiated heat).

Applying our newly acquired knowledge about the variability of our metabolism to the task of managing our body weight, we should avoid behavior which decreases the "fire" of the metabolism. Three practical ways of revving up the metabolism naturally are:

  1. Building Muscle (hypertrophy)
  2. Physical Activity
  3. Consuming Smaller More Frequent Meals

Building Muscle - Since muscle tissue has a large blood supply, its metabolic rate is higher than that of fat. In other words, muscles consume more calories to sustain activity than fat does. So training to promote muscle growth will assure weight loss success in the long run, for the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism will rev, even when you are not active.

Women have a difficult time accepting this and are fearful that they will get big and bulky muscles. However, due to the minimal level of the male hormone testosterone in their bodies, it is not possible for women to get huge muscles like men unless they take steroids. Muscle also is more dense than fat so pound for pound it takes up less space which creates a smaller more compact fat burning machine.

Physical Activity – Metabolic stimulation achieved during physical activity and weight training doesn't stop when the last rep is performed: it goes on for a while after the end of the training session. The more exhaustive the training, the longer the metabolic rate stays elevated.

This is especially true for resistance training as taxing your muscles has been shown to elevate the metabolism for up to 18 hours after the training session. This means that although you may not burn a ton of calories while actually performing your weight lifting workout, your metabolism will stay elevated for hours afterward. Unlike an aerobic workout where your metabolism returns to normal as your heart rate and breathing stabilize.

Eating More and/or More Frequently – People who put on weight easily are often those who often eat too little calories and do not meet their actual energy requirements which decreases their metabolism. They often try to reduce their calorie intake by eating less often.

They try to compensate for overinduldgences that occur at parties and over the weekend with a restrictive diet when the new week arrives. But eating less actually is counter productive to keeping your metabolism elevated and losing weight. The fact that this is not the case is explained by the metabolism shifting into low-gear to make efficient use of the calories that have been consumed.

This happens not just after a few days of eating poorly but after a few hours. If for example, you miss a meal because you are busy at work, all metabolic processes are slowed down so your body can make efficient use of the few calories you have eaten.

Eating two meals a day will give you a lower metabolic rate, than if you had eaten five meals a day at three to four hour intervals. With the availability of microwaves and Tupperware food storage containers, preparing meals in advance and freezing them for later consumption should not take too much effort. Keeping your metabolism burning at a high rate requires you to have a pretty good idea of how many calories your body requires for your age, height, weight and activity level.

This can be determined easily by using one of the various calorie requirement calculators on the internet, using the Harris-Benedict equation, or by getting your resting metabolic rate tested by a personal trainer or registered dietician. After your daily caloric requirements are discovered, it is best to divide this number by 4 or 5 to get the per meal calorie content that will help keep your metabolism elevated.

Eating 4 or 5 meals every 3 to 4 hours of the exact same calorie content will keep your metabolism in high gear and help with the fat burning and weight loss process. But beware, you still need to become calorie conscious and keep track of all calories consumed to make sure you are not exceeding your daily caloric requirements. For an excess of calories, whether they come from carbohydrates, protein or fat will lead to extra pounds on the scale. And for most of us, that is not a desired effect.

Understanding the biochemical processes of your own individual metabolism is difficult, but learning how to manipulate your metabolism so that it works with you and helps you reach your weight-loss and fat-loss goals is simple. By building muscle, getting regular physical activity, and eating more frequently you can keep your metabolism elevated at a higher rate and keep excess fat at bay.

About the Author:

David Herber is a personal trainer located in New Castle, PA. His website is www.Exercise2U.com