Metabolism and Weight Loss

You may have heard before of people claiming how important metabolism can be when it comes to weight loss.  Maybe someone you know claims to be eternally thin due to a fast metabolism, or someone who can never seem to lose enough weight has said that their troubles are the result of being cursed with a slow metabolism.  But what is the truth about metabolism and weight loss, and how can it affect your own attempts to lose more weight?

What is metabolism?

Metabolism, put simply, is the way that your body takes the food and drink that you give it, and turns it into the energy you use to do everything from staying warm to brushing your hair in the morning.  Even activities that may feel like nothing to you, such as breathing or even sleeping, use the energy you make with your metabolism.

Metabolism is a very complex process, involving the interactions of many different chemicals in your digestive system and bloodstream.  How fast you turn your food into energy is also very for different people, and it can vary depending on their size, how much muscle they have, their sex, and their age.  For instance, someone who has a lot of muscle mass will be able to burn many more calories, even when they’re not doing anything, than someone with less muscle mass.  So it makes sense that different people will have different speeds of metabolism.

How can metabolism affect weight loss?

It may seem logical to link your troubles with losing weight to your metabolism, but this often is not the case. The truth is that your body adjusts your metabolism according to your needs.  For instance, if you haven’t eaten anything in a long time, your body will try to conserve energy and will burn calories more slowly.

Since you can’t control the rate at which your body burns calories, the only thing you can control is how many calories you give you body, and how many calories you force it to burn during physical activity and exercise.

It works just like trying to get a balloon to deflate: You can’t control how fast the air leaks out of a balloon, the hole at the end is only so big.  What you can do to get a balloon to deflate faster is to either stop filling it up with air, or to squeeze it so that more air escapes.  Losing weight is exactly the same:  Your choices are either eating less or exercising more to burn calories.  Your metabolism cannot be changed, but now that you know the truth, you are much more prepared to work with your body to lose weight.

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