Metabolism: Understand it and Increase It

By the DoItYourself.com Staff

If you’ve ever stayed up nights wondering what exactly “metabolism” is, or wanted to learn how to speed it up, then you’re in the right place. The following article will reveal everything you always wanted to know about metabolism. Your metabolism as a whole is made up of your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), and daily physical activity. As you probably already guessed, you do have some control over it.

Resting Metabolic Rate

Resting Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy the body uses to run the show, so to speak. All functions both bodily (breathing, heart beat, respiration, etc.) and chemical reactions are run by RMR, which uses up 65%-75% of your needed calories during the day. In simple terms, if you did nothing all day, your RMR is the amount of calories you would burn. To determine your RMR rate multiply your weight by 12 if you are male, or by 11 if you are female.

Thermic Effect of Food

Digesting food is no easy task and the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is a term used for the calories the body uses to digest food and process nutrients. To calculate your TEF multiply the amount of calories you took in over the course of the day by 10 percent. For example, 2,000 calories x .10 = 200.

Physical Activity

Physical activity such as walking (yourself or the dog,) running (by yourself or after the dog,) housework (cleaning up after the dog,) and exercise accounts for 20%-40% of calories per day depending on whether your physical activity is basic or intense. The good news is we burn calories through physical activity whether we intend to or not! Sitting burns 81 calories per hour, vacuuming sucks away 150, brisk walking sheds 297 and swimming wipes out 603 calories per hour. Did you know you burn 45 calories for every hour of sleep and 72 calories per hour of TV time?

Note: As you get older, shorter, or lose weight the amount of calories you are able to burn at rest, while active, and while digesting, all decrease.

Is Everyone’s Metabolism the Same?

Not everyone has the same metabolism. Chances are you know someone (and secretly despise them) who eats a lot and often, yet never seems to gain weight. You might also have a friend who swears they gain weight just by driving past McDonalds. Some people count every calorie, weigh out portion sizes, and stick to exercise programs, but can’t seem to shed the extra pounds, while others lose weight in their sleep. Genetic factors do affect one’s metabolism, meaning everyone has a different rate in which food is turned into energy and nutrients.

Are There Ways to Speed up One’s Metabolism?

You betcha! You may have a naturally slow metabolism, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take charge and change it. The good news is, genetics is just a small portion of your metabolic make-up and there are ways to speed things up. The following are a few tips.

Don’t Weight to Gain Muscle

The more muscle and less fat you have, the higher your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) will be. Having muscles burns calories 24 hours per day. Fat just can’t do that.

Eat it Hot, Hot, Hot!

Spicy, hot foods kick start your RMR rate by speeding up the heart rate which burns more calories.

Get Rid of Freeloading Fat

When food is broken down into fat the process burns calories just by digesting the goods. But if the food is a dietary fat, it is already in a storable fat state, so you don’t burn the extra calories to break it down, which means you’ll gain weight faster. These fats are literally ready for their new home on your butt, hips, or thighs the moment you digest them! In order to speed up your Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) metabolism, eat foods that need to be knocked around and processed in digestion, meaning less dietary fats.

Walk, Eat, Walk

Other ways to increase your TEF include walking prior to and just after eating.

Mini Meals

Eat many small meals instead of a couple large ones.

Water Works

You hear it all the time, so it’ll cause no harm to hear it again, drink lots of water. Traditional guidelines suggest drinking 16 ounces per day, but The Institute of Medicine, among other professionals feel that thirst, as well as the color of your urine, should be your guides. The darker your urine, the more water you need.

Work Out to Rev Up

Increasing your physical activity will increase your physical metabolic rate. Exercising regularly and often, and in a challenging manner, is the best way to impact your metabolism in a positive way.

Knowing Your Metabolism and Losing Weight

Really the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. To learn the ratio of calories taken in to calories burnt, use the worksheets we’ve developed below. At the start of the article we told you how to calculate your RMR and TEF. Add those two numbers together and to that add the number of calories burnt during physical activity. This will give you the total calories you burnt during the day. Subtract that number from the total amount of calories you took in and you will see

What are Metabolic Devices?

If you really can’t stand math, a metabolic device can tell dieters exactly what their RMR is, or rather how many calories they should intake per day to lose weight. Visit Metabolic Finger to find out where you can go to test your rate for about $50. Once a dieter breathes into the machine, it calculates the amount of oxygen you need for bodily function in order to calculate your rate. What’s the big deal? By knowing your metabolic rate you can make adjustments to your diet, guaranteeing you’ll see results! If you’re currently on a 2,000 calorie diet and your metabolic rate is 1,500, simply cut 500 calories from your diet to lose a pound per week, effortlessly!

© Doityourself.com 2006