Metabolism 101 Part I
The Metabolism is a frequent term in all talk of fitness and nutrition. However, most don’t understand what the term is referring to. Let’s see if we can sort it out.
Metabolism
Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns energy. This energy is also known as calories. So, Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. This rate is determined by your body composition. Body composition is how much muscle versus fat an individual has on their body. Those who have a higher metabolism have a body composition that is composed of more muscle mass with lower fat. Those with a lower metabolism have a body composition that is comprised of higher fat and lower muscle mass. The higher the metabolism, the more calories burned.
Why is Metabolism important?
One may ask why all this talk of metabolism is important. At the end of the day, weight loss and weight gain center around metabolism. We stated earlier that a calorie is a unit of energy. According to the laws of physics, energy is not created or destroyed; energy simply changes forms (Law of Energy Conservation). An example would be the change of water to an ice cube. Now, more specifically calories are changed into various tissues in our body, like fat or muscle. The laws of physics also state that any change in a system’s (or body) internal energy is equal to the amount of energy taken in from it’s enviroment (calories consumed) versus the workload done on that enviroment (calories burned). So, any changes in a person’s weight is equal to the amount of calories they are consuming versus how many they are burning. If one was to take in more calories than they burn over an extended period of time, this would produce weight gain. If one was to take in less calories than they burn over an extended period of time, this would equate to weight loss. In Part II, I will explain how this applies to fitness and the process of fat loss and muscle gain.