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What is metabolism? Understanding How Metabolism Works

March 23rd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

You may have heard that you have a fast, or slow metabolism, or that you need to boost your metabolism, but what is “metabolism”?

It’s simply the way your body turns nutrients into energy.

Whenever you eat a piece of pie, or drink your favorite soda, your body works extra hard in processing the nutrients you just ate. Once your body digests the food, it becomes the fuel or energy your body needs. This process is called metabolism.

Medically, metabolism is composed of several chemical reactions that take place in your body’s cells. When these reactions occur, it converts nutrients into the energy your body needs to move, think, grow and function normally.

Certain proteins in your body control these chemical reactions and each of these reactions of metabolism is coordinated with specific body functions. Your body regulates all the metabolic reactions that occur daily. Metabolism is an important, yet complicated and constant process that it important for all living things. It starts as soon as you’re born and ends instantly when you die.

Two Important Process Involved In Metabolism

Not only humans have metabolism; it occurs even in plants and animals. For instance, plants take energy directly from sunlight and use this energy to build sugars. When animals or people eat these same plants, they absorb the sugar and break it down to become energy. The energy is then distributed throughout the body’s cells. The cells can either use this energy instantly or store it within body tissues for future use.

Metabolism involves a balance of two processes that occur at the same time – the storing of energy for tissue development and the breaking down of sugars to generate energy for your body.

The two metabolic processes are known as anabolism and catabolism. It is important to balance these procedures to ensure the energy is distributed properly. Constructive metabolism, also known as anabolism, is a process that stores the energy to build tissues. It helps in developing new body cells, maintaining tissues and storing of energy for later use.

On the other hand, destructive metabolism or catabolism is the process that converts nutrients into energy for your body’s daily fuel needs. During this process, the energy is released into your body for heat, movement, muscle contraction and other normal body activities.

Metabolism is one of the most complicated chemical processes that occur in the bodies of living things. Because of its complexity, many people describe the metabolic process as something that influences and determines how your body loses or gains weight. Several factors, such as diet, physical activities and genes determine your metabolic rate. For this reason, metabolism varies from one person to the next. Meaning, while one person loses weight easily, others find it difficult to keep them off.

Diets and your metabolism - eat more, and lose weight

If you’re on a diet, remember your metabolism. Your metabolism needs FOOD to burn. If it doesn’t get enough food, it will slow. This means that not only will you be tired all the time, but your body will need less food - this means that you can put on weight, even on a diet. So if you’re dieting, it’s absolutely vital that you keep eating, to keep your metabolism humming along.

Great Tips In Raising Metabolism: How to raise your metabolism fast

March 20th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Putting on weight? If you suspect that the reason is a drop in your metabolism, you may well be right. But what is metabolism, and how do you raise it?

Metabolism is an important process that involves the conversion of food into fuel or energy, which your body uses for body functions or repairs. This process also involves the storage of fat that will be converted into energy for future use.

When a person has a slow metabolism, he or she burns calories less effectively, resulting in the storage of unwanted calories that become body fat. On the contrary, having a fast metabolism provides a more effective burning of calories and less storage of excess fats.

Raising metabolism is important, especially for people who need to lose weight, those who are diagnosed with metabolic disorders and people who are experiencing a decrease in metabolic rate due to aging.

Factors To Consider In Raising Metabolism

In raising metabolism effectively, you need to understand your body’s metabolic needs and usage of calories. Metabolic needs of your body is the amount of energy required for your body to function daily, while the calorie usage is the amount of calories burned during these bodily functions, such as moving or thinking.

A person’s metabolic rate is the degree and efficiency of how your body performs with daily body tasks. In raising metabolism, you first need to determine your “basal or resting metabolic rate”, which varies from one person to the next. The basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories you need to burn to convert into energy that your body needs to keep tissues and organs working properly. As a rule of thumb, the heavier you are, the more calories you need to fuel important body processes.

However, raising your metabolism is not as easy as it may seem. Since several factors determine a person’s metabolic rate, different approaches are used to boost up metabolism.

For instance, genes play an important role in one’s metabolism because some people are born with fast metabolisms, while others have slower metabolism. Another factor you need to consider in raising metabolism is age. Be aware that as people age, the amount of calorie requirement decreases.

One of the most important factors to examine is your level of physical activity and muscle development. Exercise is the most effective way of raising metabolism because it promotes your body to metabolize faster even after your exercise. In addition, people with more muscles have better chances of raising metabolism because the more muscles you develop, the more effective burning of calories become.

Of course, you should never forget to look after nutrition because raising metabolism involves a proper supply of different nutrients, regular exercise and lifestyle changes. Lose weight, treat metabolic disorder and defy the signs of aging by keeping your metabolism at normal levels.

So, it appears that the secret to raising your metabolism is a good, healthy lifestyle, with nutritious food, and a reasonable amount of exercise. You can do it. Remember that if you want to lose weight, raising your metabolism means that you can eat the same amount of food, and still lose weight. Sounds good to me.

For more on losing weight, visit 30 Day Slimmer - find out how you can lose weight fast.

Copyright © 2007 Top Metabolism

Credits: 30 Day Slimmer | Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund