Source: http://www.teachnet.ie

What is metabolism?

According to Wikipedia, metabolism "is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms to maintain life.… Metabolism is usually divided into two categories. Catabolism breaks down organic matter; anabolism, uses energy to construct components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids”.

The process of metabolism determines the rate at which your body burns calories while at rest (Resting Metabolic Rate or Basal Metabolic Rate), in motion or during exercise (PAEE). Whether you are sleeping, sitting, reading, eating, working, exercising, the body and its bodily functions are constantly moving; these movements require fuel; some moments require more fuel than others. Nonetheless, these body and bodily functions use  of energy is called caloric burn.

What is my metabolism affected by?

It is generally accepted that metabolism is affected by both controllable and uncontrollable factors. The uncontrollable factors include:

1. Sex (men tend to burn calories at a higher rate than women);
2. Age: (metabolism naturally slows 5% per decade after age 40);
3. Hereditary.

The controllable factors include:

1. Amount of lean body mass;
2. Whether you exercise;
3. What you eat;
4. How often you eat;
5. Stress levels;

How to Increase my metabolism?

In weight management (weight loss or weight maintenace,) our concern with metabolsim is how to increase metabolic rate so that you burn not just calories while exercise but also the calories while resting (resting metabolic rate). There are many theories about just how to do this. Very few, it seems have been proven to effectively work for the long term. What has been shown to work for both the short and long run is the following 7 Steps.

1. Don’t skip meals; slows your metabolism causing your body to slow down and burn less fat (fat is the primary fuel source for metabolic activities and other bodily functions, when the body is not exercising).
2. Eat smaller meals; the body makes better use of the nutrients in smaller quantities than in large quanties, after all, anything in excess is either stored, primarily as fat, or excreted like water soluble vitamins.
3. Include a snack between each meal; this reduces the chances you will overeat at your next meal.
4. Eat often: if you eat more often, but in smaller quantities, you will be priming your metabolism to work at an optimum level; also, when there is too many hours between meals, your metabolism actualy slows down to compensate.
5. Increase your physical activity level; the total amount of calories you burn includes your resting metabolic rate and the calories expended in exercise. The more active you are, the more calorics you burn.
6. Include cardio in your exercise program; the fast pace and constant motion of cardio tends to burn more calories than weight training or any other anaerobic exercise.
7. Include Weight training; even though it does not burn as much calories as cardio while working out, you are building muscles which burn more calories throughtout the entire day.

Final Thoughts?

If you follow these 7 steps, I can guarantee that you will see amazing results in the total amount of calorics burn; which will result in losing that unwanted weight. So what are your thoughts? Do you now have a better understanding of nutrition and the two major components: diet and metabolism? What has been your experience with dieting? Do you find that you have a slow metabolism? What, if anything, have you done to increase its efficiency? Your thoughts, suggestions and questions are welcomed.