Back to the Health and Fitness Home Page I have been receiving a lot of e-mail on the topic of metabolism - What is it? Why is
it important? How can I increase it? Metabolism is a fairly complicated subject. I will
try to address the questions I receive most often.
Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether
you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc... your body is constantly burning
calories to keep you going.
Metabolism is affected by your body composition. By body composition, I mean the amount
of muscle you have versus the amount of fat. Muscle uses more calories to maintain itself
than fat. People who are more muscular (and have a lower percentage of body fat) are said
to have a higher metabolism than others that are less muscular. For example, let's say you
have two people who are the exact same height and weight. One exercises on a regular basis
with weights, in addition to aerobic exercise, and has a low percentage of body fat. The
other never exercises and has a higher percentage of body fat. The first person who
exercises will have a higher metabolism than the second person. What this basically means
is that person #1's body will use more calories to sustain itself than person #2.
Begin to exercise and stop dieting. If you've never exercised before, make sure you see a
doctor before beginning a new exercise program (your problems with metabolism may be the
result of a medical condition rather than your diet or lack of exercise).
You can increase your muscle mass by doing some type of resistance work (i.e. lifting
weights, using exertubes, rubberbands, dynabands, hand weights etc...). You can also
decrease your level of body fat by doing some type of aerobic exercise at least 3 days a
week for longer than 20 minutes. By aerobic exercise, I mean an activity (such as walking,
jogging, step aerobics, hi/low aerobics, biking, swimming etc...) that will increase your
heartrate into the target
zone and keep it there for the duration of the exercise session. You also need to eat!
- Do not diet, just watch the types of foods you eat. Try to eat a diet that is lower in
fat (check the labels on the foods that you buy).
After the age of 30, your body gradually begins to lose it's muscle. If your activity
level stays the same and the amount of calories you eat stay the same, you will gain
weight because your metabolism has slowed down (you don't have as much muscle as you did
in your 20's). If you exercise with weights and do some type of aerobic activity on a
regular basis, you probably won't notice much of a change in your metabolism as you age.
Symptoms of slow metabolism include fatigue, feeling cold, dry skin, constipation, a slow
pulse and low blood pressure. These symptoms could be the result of a medical condition
rather than low metabolism - MAKE SURE YOU SEE YOUR DOCTOR to rule out any type of medical
problem.
If you eat a very low-calorie diet, your metabolism will slow down in order for your body
to survive (your body thinks it is starving).
If your diet has resulted in a loss of muscle and an increase in your percentage of body
fat, then your metabolism has probably slowed down.
Yes it does. Everyone has a different bone structure and body type (mesomorph, ectomorph,
endomorph or combination). It is not realistic to think that everyone can look like the
Baywatch beauties or like Arnold Schwartzenagger. However, given your body type and
genetic make-up, you can exercise (with weights and aerobically) to look the best that you
can.
This is a tough question and one that I am frequently asked. Most experts agree that
weight training and aerobic exercise do increase metabolism while you are exercising and
after you are done. They disagree on how long after exercise your metabolism remains
increased.
When you are exercising aerobically, your focus should be on burning calories and
working your cardiovascular system. Because it takes more calories to exercise, your
metabolism is sped up during the activity.
When you are lifting weights or doing other resistance work, focus on the activity
itself which not only burns calories but increases muscle strength, tone and endurance.
The combination of aerobic activity and weight training will result in a body that has
more muscle and less fat - so the end result will be a higher metabolism.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion you may have on metabolism. This is an area
that is constantly under study. As new information becomes available, I will add it to
this page.
Back to the Health and Fitness Home Page