Metabolism what it means – by Dr Harold Gunatillake

Metabolism what it means.

Metabolism is the biochemical processes that occur in our bodies for survival. The process is the same for men and women at any age. Through these processes all organisms live, produce energy, breath, build muscles, stores fat, circulates blood, eliminate waste material, and so on. The organs in our body are akin to machines. Metabolism is the process that makes the machines work to give energy for living. In other words metabolism is how your body converts or uses energy for activities mentioned above.

Thyroid gland with its secretion of the thyroid hormone seems to take a leading role in the regulation of your metabolism. When the gland secretes less thyroxine hormone, as with age, you tend to get fat, lethargic, heart rate drops with blood pressure, feel cold and fatigues fast. This state is referred as ‘hypothyroidism’  On the other hand an over-active thyroid by secreting more thyroxine hormone can cause your eyes to pop out, gets slimmer with wasting of muscles and the heart  seem to be rapid with high blood pressure, sweating and so on. This condition is referred to as “hyperthyroidism”.

There is a basic metabolic rate at rest called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the amount of calories you burn at rest from the food you eat. Macronutrients like the carbohydrates, fats and proteins can be considered as the firewood for the metabolic fire and the energy given out are measured in calories. Your metabolic rate is the rate at which you burn calories. Your body constantly burns calories, even when you’re sleeping.

Your body needs water to process calories. Dehydration slows your metabolism. Those who drink many glasses of water (8-10) burn more calories than when you drink less.

Those who drink cool water tend to burn more calories than drinking warm water as some do. The cool water warms up in the stomach and burn more calories.

Genes linked to metabolism

Genes play an important role. Some people eat lot of food and they remain thin (high metabolic types) and on the other hand some eat little and put on weight (low metabolic types). Your metabolism slows down with age and you tend to put on weight.

Diet linked to metabolism

Metabolism rises with a high protein diet. What this means is that when you eat a high protein diet (meat, eggs fish), the metabolic rate seem to rise in comparison to a fat or carb diet.

There are certain fruits like peppers and chillies seem to increase your metabolism, burns more body fat and tend to slim, by eating regularly. Spicy foods have natural chemicals that can kick your metabolism into higher gear. Eating durian fruit increases your metabolic rate.

Eating whole grains like oats or barley high in fibre, takes longer time to digest helps to increase metabolism.

Crash diets and diets low in calories can enter the body into starvation mode and your metabolism can slow down.

Eating more often sometimes helps you to lose weight. Certain foods tend to burn more calories. When you eat large meals three times a day as most Sri Lankans do, metabolism tends to slow down between meals. Having a small meal or snack every 3-4 hours, as the Chinese do, tend to burn more calories and increase your metabolism.

Energy drinks can give your metabolism a boost. Caffeine in energy drinks seems to increase the amount of energy your body uses. Metabolism rises for a short time when you drink coffee. Coffee also has an amino acid taurine also speed up your metabolism. Green tea has caffeine and catechins, seem to raise the metabolism for a few hours.

Your metabolic rate is influenced by muscles in the body and with less fat generates a faster metabolic rate. Those men who do body building tend to increase their metabolic rate due to increased muscle mass. Those having more fat and thin muscles have a slower metabolic rate. Men seem to have a higher metabolic rate than women, being more muscular and less fat, and women have a higher proportion of fat. Every pound of muscles uses 6 calories a day just to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only 2 calories daily at rest. Exercise seems to raise your average daily metabolic rate.

Lack of Sleep

When you have a good night of sleep your metabolism stay steady. If your sleep gets interrupted, even the next due to tiredness due to lack of sleep may slow down your metabolism.

Medicines can slow down your metabolism

Some medications such as antidepressants and certain antipsychotics can slow down your metabolism including your heart rate.

Metabolic Syndrome

This has nothing to do with the physiological metabolism. It is a combination of risk factors from insulin resistance, as in diabetes and is referred to as a syndrome.

To qualify to fit into this syndrome one should have high blood pressure, increased blood sugar, increased blood triglycerides, reduced good cholesterol-HDL-C and abdominal obesity. These symptoms are all risk factors for heart disease and stroke. You need to see your doctor to help you to reduce these risk factors. Lifestyle changes and weight loss are considered the most important initial steps in treating metabolic syndrome.

Hope this article helped you to understand what metabolism means.

Good advice by Dr harold

Ref: WebMD