Metabolism - What is it and how do I make it better

This was inspired by a couple of things recently, one member saying she is drinking this Metabolic tea which is supposed to in crease your metabolism and also another member saying they had started some metabolic diet that was supposed to reset their metabolism and make the world all shiny and new again.

Now, this should answer a few questions with regards the use of those two things but we will get to the diet side of things in the next few weeks when I take apart these personalised nutrition diets that are being pushed out there at the moment.

First and foremost though.

Metabolism what is it actually?

The definition is, it’s the chemical reaction in the body’s cells that changes food into energy.

We have a tendency to talk about metabolism as a single thing that our body has but it is built up of 3 different parts.

• Base Metabolic Rate – this is the energy used by our body just to live, doing proper fuck all, you will still burn this amount of energy.
• Thermic Effect of Food – This is the energy burnt through digesting and storage of food. This will account for approx. 10% of your daily overall burn.
• Active Energy Expenditure -  This is the amount of energy burnt through either physical activity or non exercise activity which is the movement you do that isn’t a planned exercise session, like moving around the house, hoovering etc.

How can I increase my metabolism?

Well, you can and you can’t, drinking a tea isn’t going to fucking do it, signing up for some magic diet isn’t going to do it.

Let’s break it down a bit more.

Your Basic metabolic rate is what it is, you can’t really change that and if you are currently losing weight at some point that will lower with the weight you are losing. However you can help it and I will get on to that in a bit.

You will also find your metabolism slowers as you get older, although it is very very small. This isn’t because of age though, it could be for one of the following reasons, lower activity and muscle loss, but once again you can also help this.

Now, eating more protein will help but very little change in your overall metabolic output.

Increasing your Physical activity, getting into the gym and doing the fucking work, yep this will help but once again the difference in the overall day is going to be very little, however I am not saying don’t do it, you need to do it and I will explain why in a bit.

There is one of those parts that you can help on a daily basis to boost your metabolism and that is your NEAT, the non exercise part of your daily movement, this is the thing you have so much more control of throughout the day. Walking more, stop being sedentary when you are at home, get up from your desk etc, just move more.

This is the bit where the gym can help, if you go to the gym, lift weights and build muscle and get stronger, now I’m not talking some big old body builder type thing here, I’m just saying go to the gym and lift weights, you do that alongside cardio and you will become fitter and stronger.

You will be in a better place, do that and moving more daily becomes a lot fucking easier.

Do your cardio, get fitter, get a healthier stronger heart and lungs, get stronger more lean muscle and doing stuff outside of the gym becomes a lot easier and you don’t even notice you are doing more.

Taking fat burners, drinking anything that says it will increase your metabolism is absolute bullshit and the only reason it will do is because of the bloody caffeine in them, therefore boosting you slightly and I mean slightly and the effects of this like anything become less the more tolerant to it you get.

So to sum it all up, there really isn’t much you can do to boost your metabolism apart from moving more daily and not sitting around all day on your backside watching your life slowly ebb away until you become dust.

I have though mentioned how you make that part a lot easier.

If you can’t remember what it was, go back and read it again and again.

Need somewhere to make that daily movement easier then give us a shout and in the meantime stop buying into this bullshit of things that can help reset or rebuild your metabolism, let’s remembers it’s not fucking broken, it’s just where it is right now.