A Brief Guide on How Metabolism Influences Weight Loss

Metabolism is a chemical activity that occurs within all living entities to typically convert what is eaten and drunk into energy. It is a complex process that, in combination with oxygen, converts the calories obtained from the ingested food and drink into energy. We need this energy to keep functioning. Your metabolism helps your cells regenerate, and helps in digestion and breathing. It can also help you lose weight.

Metabolism and Food

Food can be categorized into carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. They are molecules that have energy in them. Your body converts these molecules into energy known as Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). Whenever your body needs energy, ATP provides it.

Metabolism and Speed

The higher your metabolic rate is when burning calories, the more weight you will lose. This is ultimately dependent upon three things

• Your basal metabolic rate (BMR)

This is the amount of energy you burn when you’re resting. Yes, we lose calories doing nothing but normal bodily functions like breathing. Knowing your BMR can help you calculate how many daily calories you can consume. 

• Calories from ingested food or drink

A calorie is a unit of energy we obtain from food or drink. If there are 99 calories in a food item, then that consists of 99 calorie units. 

• Calories burnt through movement and exercise

Regular exercise is not only good for our mental health it can also help maintain a healthy weight. This is done through activities, such as exercise and walking.

What Affects How Your Metabolism Works?

There are many things that can affect how your metabolism works. These can be placed into two categories: things you can’t change, non-modifiable, and things you can change, modifiable.

• Modifiable Aspects

• • Genetics: Research has found that there is a strong link between genetics and metabolic rate. Therefore you could have a similar metabolism to your parent or sibling, for example.

• • Sex: Men tend to have a higher metabolic rate than women because of the greater fat and lower muscle rates that women tend to have.

• • Age: The older you become, the slower your metabolic rate becomes. Furthermore, the older you become, the more fat your body will carry in relation to muscle tissue.

• • Height: The taller you are, the higher your metabolic rate tends to be.

• Non-Modifiable Aspects

• • Body Composition: This is a means of breaking down your body to discover the percentage of fat, bone, muscle, and water in it. A healthy balance between fat and muscle indicates good health.

• • Hormones: We all have these and the amount can vary our ability to lose or gain weight. For instance, an underactive, or hypothyroid, can make it more difficult to lose weight.

• • Physical Activity: Physical activity will increase your metabolic rate. However, this is dependent upon the activity, its intensity, and how long you do it. As the experts at NotOneRival.com comment, regular physical activity will help you lose weight as well as provide a number of health benefits. Furthermore, if you regularly exercise, you’ll have a higher resting metabolic rate.

• • Diet and Hydration: Although a healthy diet will help with weight loss, it has been found that a high protein diet is effective in encouraging a high metabolic rate. In respect of hydration, water is vital. This is because it is involved in every bodily reaction. In addition, drinking 500ml of water can increase your metabolic rate by as much as 30%.

• • Sleep: A good night’s sleep can help reduce stress, along with reducing the chances of suffering from certain health conditions, like obesity and diabetes. Sleep deprivation can also make you less likely to want to exercise.

Metabolism and Dieting

On a basic level, weight loss involves burning more calories than you consume. However, how you lose weight is also an important consideration. Crash diets are unsustainable in the long term and can affect your health. This is because you lose calories too quickly and not in a healthy way. You also tend to lose fat from the wrong places; lean fats and water, as opposed to your body fat. In contrast, a calorie-controlled diet tends to encourage a safe and balanced way to gradually lose weight and prevent it from returning.

Research has shown that your resting metabolic rate is an important component in your weight loss journey. The lower it is, the harder the weight loss will be. Furthermore, when you lose weight, regardless of crash dieting or having a balanced diet, your metabolic rate will naturally slow down, making weight loss hard – unless you exercise. Research also supports this, with findings showing individuals who combined exercise with dieting had a lower decrease in the metabolic rate than those who just dieted.

Metabolism undoubtedly is an integral factor in your weight loss journey. Knowing what to eat and drink can help keep it balanced. However, as this article has shown, there are more things that can help your metabolism properly function. Your weight loss journey will definitely benefit from them. In this regard, it’s important to be aware of what you can do to further support your metabolism.