What is Metabolism????

Everyone always talks about raising their metabolism. What exactly is your metabolism?By definition Metabolism is all the chemical reactions that take place in your body which include all reactions of your brain, liver, digestive tract, muscles, heart, lungs, and every other tissue and organ.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) The number of calories the body uses just to exist, sleeping and breathing. (Estimated to be around 800 calories)

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) Assuming that you don’t sleep and breathe all day long, we could add an additional 100-200 calories for additional movements such as reading a book, fidget around, or thinking.

So this brings use to about 1000 calories a day without exercise.

Now lets add in:

Daily Activities, (100-200 calories) going to the store, cleaning the house, walking around the office

· Digestion (100 calories) As your liver, pancreas, stomach and intestines produce digestive enzymes, calories are being burned. Think about how you may feel hot or even sweat after eating a large meal. So if you think dieting will work, the less you eat, the less your digestive system will work, and the lower your metabolism will get.

· Exercise (approximately 300-500/ hour if done at the proper intensity)

· Post Exercise: Glycogen needs to be restored in the muscle, triglycerides needs to be replenished in fat cells. The harder and more prolonged the exercise, the greater demand for replenishment. If you work hard enough, your body could continue to burn calories for up too 36 hours post workout. (50-100, depending on exercise duration and intensity)

So this brings us to about 1500-1800 calories per day.

So as you could see your metabolism is made up of all these little processes. If you feel that your metabolism is slowing, analyze the list above and see what might be missing. Chances are if your relatively healthy, your BMR is the same as it always was. If you feel your lacking in a category(EXERCISE!), that could be the reason why your not losing the fat that you want to lose.

Implementing an exercise program can increase all of these metabolic processes!

Bailey, Covert. (1994) "Smart Exercise"