In this day and age, we are required to be mindful about exercise and nutrition.
Exercising is required because majority of the work or jobs are seated and not physically active. Because of that, fitness industry has been exploded and may perhaps keep on moving upwards for awhile.
I'm using the term nutrition instead of diet, is because dieting or eliminating food sources does not seem to work long term. Many may have tried different variations of diet, such as Atkins, Mediterranean, South Beach, Ketogenic, Paleo, and so on. They are all have it's merit for those who have metabolic issues such as high blood sugar, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, however, because it is restricting food sources, it is somewhat challenging and may lead to nutritional imbalance and deficiency in a long term. Nutrition that I am referring to is your baseline eating where you may need to practice but able to sustain for rest of of your life.
Our body works in such an amazing way and although it is very complicated to fully understand what is going on in our body, it is quite simple to practice for better health and fitness so that we all can enjoy life. Life can mean traveling the world, playing sports, playing with kids, improving performance at work, and so on. To do so, we need to learn about metabolism and how it works and improve them so that you can attain your health and fitness goals.
Before learning about metabolism, you may want to ask yourself, why do you even want to improve your metabolism? Because in order to improve your metabolism, it does take some work. Not very complicated but does require a continuous effort.
Benefit Of Improving Metabolism
While it is important to understand what metabolism is and how it works are both important, you may also want to know the benefit of improving your metabolism.
First benefit is you will be capable of converting food into energy more efficiently. Which means, you will have more energy available at much faster rate. By achieving something called metabolic flexibility, you can convert carbohydrate and/or fat into energy more efficiently, which means you can use those fat around your belly. Remember it is not just there for the looks. Majority of populations are carbohydrate dominant and having a tough time utilizing body fat as energy source so fat accumulates.
Second benefit is you will be able to recover from majority of types of stress faster. The stress could be from workout, injury, sickness, and so on. What's more is your body will have less chance of going through those. To improve metabolism, you will need to learn to consume various food sources but mainly natural food sources to provide body with not just macro-nutrient (protein, fat and carbs) but also micro-nutrients (vitamin, minerals, etc).
Last benefit but not least is your organs will be functioning better. Because you will be eating more nutritious food, along with frequent exercising, the organs such as lungs, heart, brain, blood vessels and digestive system, to name the few, can operate at optimal (not normal) level.
What is Metabolism?
Metabolism in textbook definition is set of life sustaining chemical reaction in organisms. In other words, it is a body mechanism to keep our body functioning. Think of it as entire pluming system in your house. If something is damaged or not working, you will have some issues.
Three of the main functions are 1.) converting food into energy for our cells to be energized, 2.) converting protein, fat and carbohydrate into fuel or building block, and 3.) metabolic waste elimination.
With these three functions working in balance is very critical to our health and physical activity. This is also a reason why exercise and nutrition are vital. If you have been eating processed food, your body may not be able to convert food into energy because of the chemical that are in those foods and not able to convert those food sources to fuel or building block.
Consequence from that is the body may not be able to eliminated metabolic waste such as damaged cells, CO2, nitrogen compounds, water and so on that can no longer be able to used by our body. Not able to eliminate them can be toxic to our body and can cause inflammation or lead to other commonly known health issues such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, dementia and so on.
If you feel lack of energy and feeling constant achiness or experiencing abnormal health and physical sign like high blood sugar and blood pressure, weight gains and shortness of breath, you may want to check and see what have you been eating for the past several months.
Metabolism is Not Just About Calories
When talking about metabolism we often come down to discussion of calories. Famous calorie in and calorie out has been staple of learning metabolism for long time and still being taught in medical school, training certification courses and even in nutrition courses. I too have taught my former clients on metabolism in calorie focused.
Reason why calories have brought so much attention in teaching metabolism is because it is easy to monitor. However, easy to monitor does not mean it is correct. Yet, food industry bought it and ran with it. They spent millions of dollars to work with some of the famous health entities including government and universities. This is more than 50 years ago but still is an on going process. More I learn about human body, more I realize that metabolism has not just about calories.
First thing is we do not have calorie receptors. Meaning our body does not keep track or count calories. At least not yet. We may have them in the future when we evolve. This means the body does not know and does not care about how much calorie you have consumed or spent. It is more concern about balance in your hormonal status and blood chemistry.
Second, our body is way more complicated than car engine. We can still function even without eating for several days because we have energy storage. Also, not all food is going in and convert into energy in the same way. If the calories are all that we need then I could be drinking beer all day and be fit and strong. If I needed 3000 calories per day, I can have 15 cans of beer (assuming 1 can is 200 calories) and able to be energized right? Now I know you are laughing because it just does not work that way. But this is same with microwave dinner, fast food and so on. It does not work because what our body is demanding is both macro (protein, fat, and carbs) and micro (vitamins, minerals, etc.) nutrients. Beer, microwave dinner, fast food and other overly processed food lacks in one or both and that is why you should minimize the consumption of them.
High and Low in Metabolism
You will often hear high and low in metabolism or metabolic rate. Metabolic rate is how our body is utilizing energy efficiently at rest or in activity. The metabolic rate will fluctuate based on several things but always looking for balance like how the thermostats work at home.
First is hormonal dominance. Key hormones for metabolic rate is the insulin and glucagon. Insulin and glucagon are created in pancreas and can be elevated by several process but mainly affected by our blood sugar level. Insulin has a role to store energy. Therefore, when the insulin level is high the metabolic rate will be low because the body is not wanting to use energy but storing them. Glucagon on the other hand has a role to use or waste energy. So when the glucagon level is high or insulin level is low, our metabolic rate is high.
According to the study, between insulin treated patients and fasted patients metabolic rate difference were almost 300 calories difference.
Second is physical activity level. More physically active you are your metabolic rate will be higher. This is probably easy part for you to visualize. More physically active you are the body will demand more energy, therefore usage of food or stored energy will be high. However, if the nutrients consumption is less than demand for long time, the body will respond and gradually lowers the metabolism because the demand is not being fulfilled and may be causing more stress and damage to the body. Remember, the body like to be in balanced.
Third is amount of weight you carry. A lot of times we think that heavier we get our metabolic rate drops. But that is the total opposite. In order for the body to move heavier body weight, it requires more energy. So generally, larger individual are higher in metabolic rate compared with same height individual. But here is the catch. If you are insulin resistance, because the body is insulin dominance, the metabolic rate will be low. However, if the weight gain is due to muscle mass increase, the metabolic rate will be higher.
The last is sleep. When you are sleep deprived, the hormone called cortisol will start kicking in high gear. Cortisol is a hormone that is created in adrenal glands, which is located right above the kidneys. Its role is very important where keeps you alert and ready to move. Meaning it raise your heartrate, allow the muscles to contract harder so that you can manage stressful events. While the cortisol is elevated, it is very challenging to fall a sleep and stay sleep. When cortisol level is high for long time, the insulin will start elevating because the blood sugar level will be rising. The sugar is utilized from stored glycogen. Because of this cycle, lack of sleep can lead to slower metabolism.
And no not the age. Getting old or young has nothing to do with metabolic rate.
How Do We Gain and Lose Weight?
Weight gain or loss is happening because of hormonal dominance. Yes it is the battle between insulin and glucagon. When insulin is the dominant hormone, then the body will work towards storing energy in a form of glycogen and fat. When glucagon is the dominant hormone then body will use stored glycogen first then stored fat as energy source or as an waste product. More than calories, it is the balance between insulin and glucagon that dictates how the nutrients are utilized from the food that we are consuming.
Weight gain or loss can also happen because of the physical demand to the body. When you exercise or lift weights, the body requires more fuel and building block to repair all the damages so that the body can adapt to the physical demand and we can get fitter and stronger. Muscles size and strength increase along with joints, ligaments, and bones strengthens as we consume food and properly meeting the demand.
If the food consumption or nutrients (both macro and micro) supply is lower than demanded, the body will not be able to meet the demands. For macro-nutrients, we do have glycogen and fat to support this demands and this is how we utilize or lose body fat. But we don't always have storage for the micro-nutrients. This is why consuming vegetables, meat, seafoods, salt are critical in fat loss. It's not about cutting calories.
Conclusion
Metabolism is the system that keeping us going. If you have desired goal that requires you to be physically fit and healthy, you will not want to down grade your exercise and nutrition which will down grade your metabolism. Consequence is clear and ways to improve your metabolism to optimal (not normal) is also clear. Question will comes to what I have asked before. What do you desire for your health and fitness goal?
Kota Shimada
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