15 things you need to know about metabolism to keep fit

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

You can boost your metabolism with water, spices, and a five minute workout.

1. Most of the calories you spend just to maintain life

There is such a thing as the basic metabolic rate, or resting metabolic rate (RMR). This is the amount of calories that the body expends for all the chemical processes necessary for life.

In other words, basal metabolism is the energy that we expend when we are not doing anything at all - we are not moving or even digesting food.

And for most sedentary people, basal metabolism accounts for 65–70% of all daily energy expenditure. Only the remaining 30–35% is due to physical activity and food digestion.

2. Your metabolic rate is highly dependent on genetics

Studies of siblings and twins have shown that 40–45% of metabolism is determined by genetics. The same goes for the thermic effect of carbohydrates: how much energy you use to digest food is 40-50% dependent on your DNA profile.

Even how many calories you burn during exercise depends in part on your genes. True, only when working with low power.

This explains why not all people are equally good at losing weight and gaining muscle mass on certain diets. Everything is individual, and you will have to work hard to find your ideal regime.

3. Metabolism slows down with age, but it can be prevented

The metabolic rate in adults gradually decreases. From 18-19 years of age, every year you spend less energy on Examining Variations of Resting Metabolic Rate of Adults: A Public Health Perspective. A sharp decrease in metabolism occurs after 30, then there is a slight rise in 50-59 years, followed by a gradual decline until the very end.

This is one of the reasons that over the years it becomes more difficult to maintain a normal weight and get rid of extra pounds.

But the good news is that this downturn can be avoided.

One study tested the metabolic rate in women of different age groups: 21–35 years and 50–72 years. In inactive young and old people, the difference between metabolic rate differed by about 10%. But in athletes running long distances, and swimmers, such a difference was not found.

Although the study was conducted only on women, scientists believe that regular endurance sports can help prevent age-related changes in people of both genders. A great excuse to finally put on your running shoes or sign up for the pool.

4. The more muscles, the faster the metabolism

Skeletal muscle makes up 45–55% of body weight and contributes the most to energy expenditure, especially during physical activity.

Therefore, despite their high body weight, people who are obese have a lower resting metabolism than those who are of normal weight.

The more muscles you manage to build, the more energy the body will spend on maintaining them. This means that resting metabolism will also increase.

5. Calculators can be wrong

Different formulas are used to calculate your base metabolic rate, but none of them give an accurate idea of how much energy you actually burn or how many calories you need to consume to maintain or lose weight.

The Mifflin - San Geor and Harris - Benedict equations are considered the most reliable, but they also give errors.

The average deviation according to common formulas is from 314 to 445 kcal per day. In fact, this is a complete meal.

In addition, the more muscle mass a person has, the more formulas are erroneous, underestimating the need for energy.

When they checked the accuracy of the calculations on young athletes, it turned out that the most reliable equations underestimated the daily calorie requirement by 284 kcal for women (23% fat) and 110 kcal for men (15% fat).

6. Lack of sleep increases metabolism, but it does not help you lose weight

During a night's rest, energy waste is reduced, so the less you sleep, the more calories you burn per day.

One study found that people who sleep for 5 hours spent 5% more calories per night than those who sleep 9 hours. In another experiment, they found that 24 hours without sleep increased energy expenditure by an average of 7% per day.

However, along with the activation of calorie consumption, the appetite also grows, as well as the craving for fatty and sugary foods. So if you are not in control of your diet, then after a bad night, you will quickly block the additional waste of energy with snacks.

7. Stress does not reduce metabolism, but can lead to weight gain

Recent research has shown that psychological stress and anxiety levels do not affect resting metabolism in any way.

However, chronic stress can still lead to weight gain. Constant anxiety changes the concentration of the hormones of hunger and satiety, forcing you to eat more than you need, and lean on high-calorie foods.

In addition, stress reduces the body's ability to oxidize fat and waste energy after consuming fatty foods.

If you were nervous, in the next six hours you will burn about 104 kcal less than if everything was fine. Scientists have calculated that daily stress can result in an increase of 5 kg per year.

8. Strict diets slow down metabolism

When you drastically reduce calorie intake and lose weight, the body enters an energy-saving mode: the basal metabolism slows down and may remain so even after you restore the normal calorie intake. And a number of studies confirm this,,.

The slowdown in metabolism is partly due to the loss of muscle mass, which is lost with fat if nothing is done to preserve it. When you return to your normal diet, weight gains quickly. Fortunately, this can be avoided by choosing the right diet.

9. The high amount of protein speeds up the metabolism, even on a diet

The body needs to spend much more energy to assimilate dietary protein than to process carbohydrates and fats.

About 20-30% of the calories you get from protein will go into its absorption.

Through this effect, protein increases resting energy expenditure, helping to maintain a healthy weight. Moreover, a high protein intake helps to maintain and even build muscle mass on the diet and thus avoid slowing down the metabolism.

10. Exercise Increases Resting Metabolism, Even on a Diet

Physical activity not only increases energy expenditure during the day, but also affects resting metabolic rate, increasing it even in a calorie deficit.

And power loads do the best with this. They not only increase the metabolism at rest and during sleep by 7-9%, but also help maintain and build muscle mass.

11. Exercising too intense can slow down your metabolism

Both aerobic and strength training support your basal metabolic rate equally well, but if the activity becomes exhausting, the opposite happens.

Observation of experienced sportsmen-cyclists has shown that during periods of heavy loads - up to 150% of the usual intensity of training - energy expenditure at rest is significantly reduced.

The same was observed in an experiment on elite rowers - high loads for four weeks reduced their energy consumption by an average of 111 kcal per day.

12. Spices can increase metabolism

Some spices activate thermogenesis during the digestion of food, causing the body to burn more calories. These include ginger, grains of paradise and chili.

Add these spices to food and drinks and you can spend an additional 40-50 kcal per day. What's more, ginger and chili peppers have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties that can have a positive effect on overall health.

13. Five minutes of exercise can speed up your metabolism for a day

This applies to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) - alternating short periods of hard work with intervals of rest or recovery activity. For example, 20 seconds sprinting and 10 seconds jogging.

Due to the high intensity of HIIT, they spend more calories than the same time of quiet work, they perfectly pump endurance and accelerate the metabolism at rest.

In one study involving 10 people, it was found that short HIIT can increase the basal metabolism for an entire day.

After a short warm-up, the participants did a four-minute interval workout. The set of exercises included squats, jumping in place, lunges and stretching according to the Tabata protocol: 20 seconds of work without stopping, 10 seconds of rest, and so on eight times. Finished the workout with stretching.

During the six minutes of the session, the participants burned about 63 kcal - not that much. But when scientists calculated the increased waste of energy in the next 24 hours, it turned out that in fact the workout burned 360 kcal.

This is just one small study, but the data sounds very encouraging. Now you know for sure that exercising for five minutes is much better than not exercising at all.

14. Coffee and tea increase metabolism

Two of the most common drinks help you burn more calories by containing caffeine, a substance that stimulates the central nervous system.

One cup of brewed coffee (about 250 ml, 100 mg of caffeine) increases energy expenditure by 9.2 kcal per hour for the next three hours after ingestion.

Green tea also contains caffeine, as well as catechins - substances with antioxidant properties. Together they increase thermogenesis and help avoid slowing down the metabolism even on low-calorie diets.

15. Cold water can increase resting metabolism

Some research suggests that plain water can increase resting energy expenditure.

For example, in a study by Michael Boschmann of 14 healthy men and women without excess weight, they found that 500 ml of cool water (22 ° C) increased the metabolism of participants by 30%.

People quickly burned calories within 10 minutes after drinking, and after 30-40 minutes the effect reached its peak. Scientists have calculated that by drinking 2 liters of water a day, a person can burn an additional 95 kcal.

Three years later, Clive M. Brown conducted a similar experiment with eight healthy young men of both sexes and received less optimistic results.

In his study, about 500 ml of cold water (3 ° C) increased the metabolism of the subjects by only 4.5% within an hour after drinking. Brown concluded that this was too little to aid weight loss.

In addition, the scientist noted that in Boschmann's work, direct calorimetry was used in a special chamber, and not an apparatus for indirect respiratory calorimetry, which is worn on the participant's head in the form of a dome or mask.

Perhaps Boschmann really measured incorrectly, and twice (in 2007, he again conducted an experiment in a respiratory chamber and received an increase of 24% after 500 ml of cold water). But in 2011, another work came out, which tested the expenditure of calories in obese children.

Here, as in Brown's experiment, an indirect calorimeter was used, but the results were similar to those obtained by Boschmann. Within 40 minutes after drinking 10 ml of cold water (4 ° C) per kilogram of body weight, the resting metabolic rate in children increased by 25%.

It is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions, since the results differ and the topic requires further research. But if you are looking for weight loss, a couple of liters of cool water a day, distributed over several doses, can do the trick.