Accelerate Your Metabolism. HOMEMADE LOVING'S
like the different instruments in an orchestra.
The food we eat is broken down into its individual components in the gastrointestinal tract. These are then absorbed into the bloodstream via the intestinal mucosa and transported to where they are needed. Our cells resemble small incinerators in which the calories consumed in the food are burned, creating heat energy.
This energy allows us to move our muscles in the first place - every movement, from pressing the remote control to running a marathon, requires energy. In addition to the energy metabolism, the so-called building metabolism also takes place, which serves to build up and maintain body mass and for which primarily protein, but also fat and other substances are needed.
Nutrients for the metabolism
All cells in our body are in a constant process of renewal. Dead cells, which leave the body through various excretory processes, must be constantly renewed. For this, the body naturally needs raw materials from which new cells can then develop.
Especially for muscle building we need a lot of protein, while excess energy from fats and carbohydrates is stored as body fat. In addition, a whole range of other substances play a role in metabolism, including micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but also water, which is important for the transport of nutrients in the bloodstream and also helps to eliminate metabolic waste products from the body.
Enzymes are also very important for metabolism. Some of these enzymes are ingested with food, but some can also be produced by the body itself. The enzymes are so-called catalysts that can accelerate certain processes in the body or make them possible in the first place.
Last but not least, the body needs oxygen for its energy metabolism, which is absorbed via the lungs during respiration and then transported into the individual cells via the bloodstream. Here again the picture of the combustion furnace helps us to understand: in order for a fire to burn, oxygen is needed, without air supply every fire suffocates immediately.
During the combustion process in our cells, waste products are produced that have to be transported out of the body - the so-called slags. This also happens via the bloodstream. It transports the slags to where the body can excrete them again.
Carbon dioxide from oxygen combustion, for example, is transported to the lungs, where it can be exhaled, while urea is excreted via the kidneys.
Other waste products are filtered in the liver and then excreted in the stool. These processes are vital to survival. If these metabolic processes run smoothly, we feel well, we feel healthy and look healthy. But if the metabolism is disturbed, this can have serious consequences. Not only do we increase or decrease excessively, but serious diseases such as diabetes or gout can also result from a metabolic disorder. To prevent this from happening in the first place, it is best to support the metabolism through a healthy lifestyle and to stimulate it through a good diet and plenty of exercise.
Effects of an inefficient metabolism
An inefficient metabolism can lead to the fact that the energy from the food cannot be used optimally by the body. This means that these people do not gain weight despite high calorie intake.
In a modern lifestyle, where we have an excess of calories, this is of course an advantage, we envy the people who can feed like a barn harvester without gaining an ounce. From an evolutionary point of view, however, it is actually a disadvantage.
For our ancestors, who as hunters and gatherers found only very irregular food, it was vital for their survival that the body could build up reserves for bad times.
If we consume more energy than our body can burn in that moment, it is stored as fat. While this never became a problem for the Stone Age man, since fat reserves were very quickly reduced again during an active lifestyle and an irregular intake of food, this is exactly what is fatal for us as modern humans.
Since we always have high-calorie foods with a high fat and sugar content at our disposal and we hardly move around in our everyday lives, our body builds up excessive fat reserves.
Not only does this make us feel uncomfortable and flabby and make us pinch our waistband, it also has negative effects on the metabolic processes described above. The metabolism slows down and burns less and less energy, which only increases our problems. If this condition persists for years or even decades, it can also lead to serious diseases such as diabetes or gout.
All the more reasons, therefore, to boost your metabolism through proper nutrition and physical exercise, so you can not only achieve your desired weight without starvation cures, but also ensure that your metabolism functions well into old age - and you stay healthy and fit.
The right diet for a fit metabolism
The right diet plays an important role for a healthy metabolism. As we have seen, a complex interplay of processes takes place in the body during the processing of food.
Of course, this is influenced by the amount and composition of the food we eat. There is a lot to consider: on the one hand we have to be careful not to eat too many, but also not too few calories.
The "magic formula" of the dream body
However, it is also important to know how many of these calories come from carbohydrates, proteins or fats and which other nutrients such as vitamins and minerals are still present. First of all, it is important that we know how many calories our body needs. A distinction is made between the calorie requirement according to basal metabolic rate and power metabolic rate.
The basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories the body needs to survive at rest - the energy consumed, for example, for cell metabolism. It is influenced by factors such as age, size, sex, muscle and fat content of the body mass. The service turnover depends on the way of life and how much we move in everyday life. It makes sense that a competitive athlete needs more and different food than someone who sits at his desk all day long at work.
But how do we know how many calories we really need?
The Harris-Benedict formula was developed to calculate the basal metabolic rate.
For women, it reads as follows:
655 + (9.5 x weight in kilograms) + (1.9 x height in centimeters) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men use the following formula:
66 + (13.8 x weight in kg) + (5.0 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)
A 35 year old woman who is 165 cm tall and weighs 60 kg would have a basal metabolic rate of about 1225 calories. In addition, there are the calories that she burns through physical exercise. So if she sits at her desk all day and relaxes on the couch after working with television, she shouldn't take much more extra calories if she doesn't want to gain weight.
But if she lives very actively, rides her bike to work instead of her car and goes to sports three times a week, she can eat a few calories more and still keep her desired weight. Although the Harris Benedict formula is suitable for a rough estimate of the basic turnover, it does not contain the whole truth.
How else can it be explained that some people with the same height, age and calorie intake gain or lose weight faster than others? Right, metabolism plays a role. As we have already seen, a slow metabolism means that the body consumes little energy even at rest. This means that the basal metabolic rate will decrease. If we eat additional calories, these are immediately stored as fat pads. A well-functioning metabolism, on the other hand, burns more energy even in basal metabolic rate, so they almost lose energy on their own, without having to constantly torture themselves through starvation cures or hours on the treadmill.
The JoJo effect - and why it exists
But how can I boost my metabolism so that my body consumes more energy? The bad news first: a single diet over a short period of time is not enough in most cases. Radical starvation cures signal to the body that bad times are imminent, radical calorie reduction reduces energy consumption and slows down