Facts about the metabolism, which will help you control your body
Sport And Fitness / / December 19, 2019
1. Metabolism occurs in every cell of your body
Many people talk about metabolism as muscle or body that they can somehow control. In fact, the metabolism - a series of chemical processes that convert calories from food into energy to sustain life, and it happens in every cell of your body.
Your metabolic rate at rest, or basal metabolism, is determined by how many calories the body burns while you do nothing.
The human body to maintain a private life requires energy alone - breathing, circulation and digestion. Different kinds of fabric have different needs, and for the operation they require a different amount of calories. On vital organs - brain, liver, kidneys and heart - accounting for about half of the energy produced. And in the adipose tissue, the digestive system and muscles - everything else.
2. Most of the calories you burn at rest
Your body burns calories:
- at rest (basal metabolism) - resulting energy is used for the functioning of the body;
- during digestion (known thermal effect);
- during physical activity.
according to research, Most of the calories you burn per day at rest in metabolic processes. Physical activity, compared with the basal metabolism, a small portion of energy consumption - from 10 to 30% (if you do not do sports professionally or your job requires heavy physical labor). On digestion spent about 10% of the energy.
Alex Kravitz, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of HealthThe average of basal metabolism account for from 60 to 80% of the total power consumption. Of course, that's not all, but in conjunction with the processing of food energy consumption is obtained almost 100%. Therefore there is nothing surprising in the fact that exercise leads to a statistically significant, but small changes in weight.
3. The metabolic rate can be very different for different people, and researchers do not understand why
It's true: the metabolic rate of two people of the same height and the same complexion can vary greatly. While one can have anything you want in large quantities, and its weight does not change, the other has to carefully count calories, not to gain extra kilos. But why is this happening, certainly can not say no scientist: metabolic control mechanism is not fully understood.
However, the researchers found indicators that affect the metabolic rate: the amount of muscle and adipose tissue the body, age and genetics (though it is not entirely clear why a higher or lower rate in some families metabolism).
Gender also matters: women of any age and physique burn fewer calories than men with the same parameters.
Easily and accurately measure the metabolic rate will not work. There are special tests are available, but they are unlikely to guarantee a perfect result. For accurate measurement requires expensive equipment, such as metabolic cages.
To roughly calculate the metabolic rate, you can use one of the online calculators (eg, these). So you know how many calories a day you need to consume to weight remained unchanged.
4. With age, metabolism slows
It occurs gradually and each, even if the ratio of muscle and fat remains the same. When you are 60, you will burn fewer calories at rest than in 20 years. The researchers note that a gradual slowing of metabolism begins at the age of 18 years. But why the need for energy decreases with age, even if all other parameters remain the same? Scientists can not answer this question.
5. You may not significantly speed up the metabolism for weight loss
All constantly talk about how you can speed up the metabolism to lose weight: to engage in sports and build muscle mass, there are certain foods, taking supplements. But in fact it is very difficult to do.
Some foods can actually speed up metabolismSuch as coffee, chili, hot spices. But the change is so small and short that would have no effect on your waistline.
muscle building - a viable option. The more muscle and less fat, the higher rate of metabolism. This is because muscles need more energy at rest than fat tissue.
If you can gain muscle mass and reduce body fat with exercise, it accelerates the metabolism and you will burn calories faster.
But this is only half the story. You will have to overcome the natural desire to eat more, which appears along with speeding up the metabolism. Many people succumb to hunger, which appears after the hard training, and as a result of increasing not only the muscles, but also fat. In addition, many are difficult training necessary to maintain to gain muscle mass.
It is foolish to believe that you can completely control your metabolism. And if you are able to influence him, on a modest scale. And this will require strength of will and perseverance.
6. Dieting slows down metabolism
Speed up the metabolism is not easy, but slow it down much easier - program for quick weight loss. Diets have the strongest influence on the metabolism, but, unfortunately, not such as we would like.
For many years, scientists have studied the phenomenon called metabolic adaptation or adaptive thermogenesis. When people lose weight, their basal rate of metabolism slows down, and quite significantly. It is understood that metabolism should slow down a bit, as the weight loss involves the loss of muscle mass, the body becomes smaller, it does not require as much energy as before. But the researchers found that the rate of metabolism slows down to a much greater extent, and this effect is associated not only with a change in body composition.
In a recent study on this subject, the results of which were published in the journal Obesity, Scientists from the National Institutes of Health surveyed participants of the reality show The Biggest Loser. By the final show, all participants got rid of a lot of kilos, so ideal for the study of what happens to the body when significant weight loss in a short period of time.
Scientists have studied a number of indicators - body weight, fat, metabolism, hormones - at the end of 30 weeks of the contest in 2009 and six years later, in 2015. Although all participants had lost weight for the final show with the help of exercise and diets, after six years of their volumes is largely recovered. Of the 14 participants of the show at the weight of 13 people came back, with four contestants began to weigh even more than to participate in the show.
During the study period, participants metabolism slowed down dramatically. Their bodies burned on average 500 calories less each day than one might expect, given their weight. This effect was observed even after six years, in spite of the fact that the majority of participants gradually gained the lost weight.
Sandra Aamodt (Sandra Aamodt), neuroscientist and author of "Why diets usually do not work", explains this special protective reaction of the organism, maintain weight in a specific range of familiar.
Once you gain weight and to keep it for a long period of time, the body gets used to its new size. When the weight falls, small changes in the level of hormones in the brain slow down the metabolism. At the same time, it increases hunger and decreases the feeling of satiety to meals - it seems that the body is trying to get back to the now-familiar weight.
In the study participants of the show The Biggest Loser, scientists have found that each of them to reduce the concentration of the hormone leptin. Leptin - one of the major hormones that regulate hunger in the body. By the end of the contest The Biggest Loser participants almost completely emptied their stocks of leptin and constantly experiencing hunger. In the six years of their stocks of leptin restored, but only to 60% of the initial level, which was to participate in the show.
Most people do not realize how strong may be metabolic changes after weight loss. By increasing the weight and the body weight loss not behave identically. He fights a lot harder to keep weight loss, rather than stop the increase.
But losing weight is not always leads to slower metabolism. For example, during surgical operations to change the level of leptin weight does not change as the metabolic rate.
Furthermore, study participants in the show The Biggest Loser quite non-standard, so not the fact that a similar effect will face most of the other people. After all, only 14 people participated in the study who lost weight very fast with the help of diet and exercise. This effect of slowing down the metabolism is not observed with the gradual weight loss.
7. Scientists can not fully explain why metabolism slows down
On this score there are several theories. One of the most significant progress is explained by evolution. For millennia, humans have evolved in an environment where they had to deal with frequent periods of malnutrition. We can therefore assume that the DNA retained many genes that contribute to the transformation of calories into fat. This ability helps a person to survive in periods of shortage of food and reproduce.
Continuing the thought, we can say that the inability to get rid of the weight of today is caused a defensive reaction of the body, despite the fact that the lack of food in our society has become rare.
But not all scientists agree with this theory thrifty gene.
John Speakman (John Speakman), epigeneticsIf thrifty genes provided a strong selective advantage, allowing survival in hunger (famine periods throughout history happened often), the thrifty genes would spread and entrenched in the whole population. This means that today we all need to be thrifty genes, and then modern society would consist solely of fat people. But even in societies that are most prone to obesity, such as in the United States, has always retained a certain number of people, on average, about 20% of the population, who are invariably thin. And if a famine - it is a prerequisite for the spread of genes economical, it is logical to ask how it happened that so many people managed to escape their inheritance.
Scientists are also trying to better understand the metabolic syndrome - the so-called complex of metabolic disorders, including elevated blood pressure and blood sugar levels, a large amount of waist and abnormal cholesterol levels and triglycerides. When people have observed these health problems are more at risk of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But then again it is not clear how the metabolic syndrome, and why some people are susceptible to it than others.
8. Slow metabolism does not mean that you can not lose weight
Weight loss is possible with slow metabolism. On average, 15% of people with slow metabolism at the Mayo Clinic dump up to 10% of its own weight and hold a new one.
Anyone who wants to lose weight, be able to achieve this goal by changing lifestyle. Also, it is important to make adjustments that will keep the disease - obesity - under control.
The National Weight Control Registry in the United States studied the habits and behavior of adults who dropped by at least 15 kilograms and were able to keep the weight off for a year. The register currently includes more than 10,000 participants who regularly attend annual surveys about how they manage to maintain a healthy weight.
These people are united by some common habits:
- they are weighed at least once a week;
- Exercise regularly, and many go on foot;
- limit calorie intake, avoid food with a high fat diet;
- watching serving Size;
- eat breakfast every day.
But everyone eats completely different food, different planning your diet. Therefore we can not say for sure what diet is the most effective. The main thing - keep track of calories.
In addition, all the people who have managed to lose weight, seriously changed their way of life, attentive to diet and doing physical exercises. Of course, many would prefer to think that weight problems arise from them due to slow metabolism, or any other biological disorder, not because they are lazy and love to eat. Science confirms: if you really want to lose weight and are willing to make an effort, you will succeed.