Why is it that one person can eat whatever they want whenever they want, yet another seems to put on a couple of kilos just LOOKING at a doughnut? The answer can be summed up in one word: Metabolism.
Although metabolism collectively refers to all of the chemical processes that occur in your body, the biggest concern for most is the part of metabolism that determines how your body produces and uses energy. Because of course, this is a big factor in determining your "girth" and your level of energy (or lack thereof) during the day.
Metabolism 101: It's Like a Symphony
ALL your body's processes and functions, including digestion, circulation, breathing, and thinking are the result of a "symphony" of chemical reactions, collectively known as metabolism.
This symphony has two main parts:
- Anabolism - the process where little parts are put together to make something bigger, such as new tissue growth. Anabolism uses up energy.
- Catabolism - where bigger things are broken down into smaller pieces, like your foods being digested and nutrients being absorbed. Catabolism creates and releases energy.
How Your Body Creates Energy
Before your body can use energy, it must be created and released, and a key player in this formula is ATP (adenosine triphosphate). What happens is this: Following digestion of your food, your cells take in the nutrients that have been absorbed through the intestinal tract. Inside the cells, the nutrients are sorted and assembled into molecules of ATP.
Energy is stored in the bonds between the atoms of ATP in your cells. When energy is needed, enzymes come on the scene, break apart the ATP bonds and release the stored energy.
Most people think of energy needs in terms of what they need for exercise, running errands or doing their job. That's true, but your body also uses up energy when you're doing NOTHING at all.
You see, your body is also burning energy when you are sitting still or sleeping. Because even when you're not moving, your body is still keeping your heart beating, your lungs breathing and your cells in good repair, for example, and all of these processes require energy.
What's Your BMR?
The primary measure of basic bodily energy needs (what you need just to carry out bodily functions while you are not moving) is your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. It's expressed in terms of calories per hour and it's determined as follows:
- Men: The hourly BMR is their weight in kilograms, eg. if you are 89 kg, you burn about 89 calories an hour just staying alive.
- Women: We're a bit different, ladies. Our BMR is calculated by multiplying our weight in kilograms by 0.9, eg. if you are 59 kg you times 59 X 0.9 = 53. So you burn about 53 calories an hour being alive.
As you can probably surmise, any excess energy that you consume over your daily needs that is not burned up in other activities becomes and stays a part of YOU. And you get larger as a result.
How to Burn the Calories
Note that ANY type of movement (walking across the room, typing on a keyboard or scratching an itch) increases your daily energy expenditure. The more effort required, the more energy you burn.
Even a few seconds of very intense activity can greatly shoot up your energy output. The reason for this is that your muscles make up nearly half of your body's mass, so when they get moving, they consume a good proportion of energy.
That's why exercise is so vital and creates so many health benefits. And get this; the benefits continue long after your workout is over. How many more calories you burn is a reflection of the type of activity you do, the more intense your chosen form of exercise, the longer the burn will continue.
For example:
- A light workout may help you burn another 10 calories after you're done
- A moderate workout can use up another 35 calories
- A strenuous one can keep you burning up to 180 more calories
Energy Expenditure by Activity
Here are some examples of energy expenditures for different activities in terms of calories per hour burned:
| Activity | Men | Women |
|---|
| Walking | 350 | 300 |
| Bicycling | 450 | 350 |
| Jogging (4-5mph) | 600 | 450 |
| Swimming | 700 | 550 |
| Running (6-7mph) | 900 | 700 |
So clearly, the more intense activities like swimming and jogging are more likely to keep your furnace burning longer afterward.
What Affects Your Metabolism
Many things can affect your metabolism including:
- Your proportion of muscle vs. fat (muscle burns more energy)
- Age (as we age, our metabolism slows)
- Genetics (slower metabolism can run in some families)
- Illness
- Medications
The Three Biggest Factors Affecting Your Metabolism
#1: Get Nutrients In & Digest Properly
Your body is designed to metabolise foods in their natural form, this includes the IsaLean Shakes that are nutritionally complete meal replacements.
It's also important to eat whole foods, organic when you can get it, not processed food. And the last important piece of this puzzle is good digestion. If you don't have good digestion, you don't stand a snowball's chance in you-know-where of absorbing the nutrients your body needs.
And the key to having good digestion is to eat meals that your body can easily digest.
#2: Have the Enzymes for the Job
Like I mentioned above, your metabolism is dependent on enzymes. Every single one of your body's processes needs them. But if you've had a typical diet of processed or fast food for a while, chances are excellent that you've expended WAY more enzymes on digestion than Nature intended.
And your body's ability to produce enzymes for ALL of your processes may be hampered as a result. That's why supplementation with Isagenix nutritional cleansing system can be so helpful for SO many reasons.
Many people supplementing with digestive enzymes not only see tremendous relief in their digestion, but also have reported feeling more energy as a result.
#3: Check Your B12
Vitamin B12 is an important catalyst in your metabolism that generates your body's energy (ATP) from fats and sugars. Unfortunately, it's also a very common deficiency, especially with:
- Vegetarians
- People who use antacids
- People who have had gastric surgery
- The elderly
Your doctor can do a simple test to see if you're low in B12. If you are and changes to your diet aren't enough, don't just think that pills or shots are your only options. B12 pills have been shown to have limited absorbency rates, as low as 1/2 of 1%.
So you're getting barely anything for your money. And shots are painful and very expensive. Instead there is another very effective option for B12 supplementation that costs far less than shots, is convenient and has far better absorbency than pills.
It's Hydroxaden 2.5. Hydroxaden 2.5 is a convenient vitamin B12 nano spray that gives you the 2.5 mg of B12 (in the form of hydroxocobalamin) suggested by many nutrition experts. Just five quick sprays under your tongue each day is all it takes.
Studies show that B12 taken sublingually can be quickly and efficiently absorbed right into your bloodstream from the mucus membranes in your mouth. And from there it can "get busy" boosting your metabolism and energy level.
Remember, when you take care of your body on the inside, it will be far more likely to take care of you well into your golden years. When you take the proper measures to enhance your metabolism, a whole new world full of energy, great health and maintaining a normal body weight can open up for you. Start now and see what a difference it can make for you.
