Diet and Weight Loss Tips

Metabolism is brought up in nearly every discussion about weight loss but do you know what metabolism really is and how it affects weight loss? The number one reason that people think they have trouble losing weight is that they have a slow metabolism. And they might be right. Years of dieting and not dieting can have an impact on your metabolism, which, in turn, can affect your ability to lose weight.

What is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories for energy. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But it’s more complicated than it sounds. The metabolic process, simply put, is a simple math equation. Your body needs a certain amount of calories per day to use for energy. Unused calories turn into fat. So in order to lose weight you need to burn those leftover calories. The only way to burn those calories is to raise your metabolic rate.

There are many different factors that influence how fast your body burns calories or what you metabolic rate is. Everyone starts with a basic metabolic rate, or BMR. That is how fast your body burns up calories if you are not trying to lose weight but are just maintaining your current weight. When you are trying to lose weight you are trying to raise your BMR so that your body is burning more calories for energy.

How is Your Basic Metabolic Rate Determined?

There are several different factors that influence the rate of your BMR. Most experts agree that your BMR is largely inherited from your parents. So if your parents have a low BMR you probably will too. But you can change your BMR.

Lifestyle plays a large role in determining your BMR. What you eat, how much you eat, and how active you are, are all things that can raise or lower your BMR. Your age can also impact your BMR.

If you are over 30, have you noticed that you have a harder time losing weight than you did when you were younger?

This is because once you hit 30 your muscle mass starts to decrease. The more muscle mass you have the more calories your body burns for energy. So when that muscle mass decreases you will start to put on weight.

One of the reasons that exercise is so important when it comes to weight loss is that exercise will increase your muscle mass, which will increase your BMR and make your body burn more calories.

Metabolic Disorders

If you have significant problems losing weight or seem to gain weight no matter how healthy you eat or how much you exercise you may have an undiagnosed metabolic disorder that is keeping you from reaching a healthy weight.

Usually, the body will regulate itself and the metabolism will speed up or slow down whenever it needs to in order to keep the body at a normal weight.

But if you have a metabolic disorder then your metabolism isn’t functioning normally so eating healthy and exercising won’t be enough to regulate your weight.

There are different types of metabolic disorders but usually they involve either an excess or a lack of certain enzymes and hormones produced by the body to keep your body functioning normally.

Metabolic disorders can be hard to diagnose because often, the symptoms of a metabolic disorder mimic symptoms of other illnesses.

Here’s a brief look at the most common type of metabolic disorders. If you think that you might have a metabolic disorder you should make an appointment to see your doctor right away to get tested.

Diabetes

Diabetes is the most common type of metabolic disorder. There are more than 20 million people, adults and children, living with diabetes in the US alone.

Thousands more will contract diabetes this year. Millions of people have diabetes and don’t even know it. The American Diabetes Association estimates that as many as 6 million people have diabetes and don’t even know it.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes is a condition that you’re born with and Type 2 diabetes is a condition that you develop over time.

Most of the time, people who contract Type 2 diabetes are adults. Type 2 diabetes is also called “adult onset diabetes” for that reason. Both types of diabetes stem from a lack of insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that helps the cells in your body process starches and sugar in your blood stream.

Those starches and sugars, which are commonly called glucose, is what feeds your cells. So if there is no insulin helping the cells break down the glucose in your blood your cells don’t get the nutrients they need to function properly.

In addition to the cells not getting what they need, a lack of insulin causes the sugar in your blood to build up, which can lead to other problems like heart disease, kidney damage, or blindness.

Have you ever heard someone say they are suffering from “low blood sugar” or “high blood sugar”?

Low blood sugar means they are not getting enough glucose and high blood sugar means they are getting too much. Both of those can be indicators of diabetes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Weight Loss Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.