How your Metabolism Works

The metabolism is an individual person’s ability to convert calories into energy.  Each person has a distinct metabolic rate.  However, each person can up their own metabolic rate through diet and exercise.  Below is an explanation of this process and an examination of what you can do to boost your own metabolic function and thereby burn more calories.

Your metabolism or your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a measurement of the number of calories that you burn while doing the basic tasks of life.  This number therefore is affected by the thermal effect of foods and supplements, for instance, the number of calories your body uses simply by being alive, digesting the foods you’ve eaten and so forth, and finally by the level of physical activity that you engage in.

These factors are therefore what constitute your BMR.  In order to increase your metabolic function there are however things that you can do.  By increasing your metabolism, you can in effect lose weight more quickly.

Aerobic and cardiovascular exercise are great ways to help our metabolic function.  Not only do you burn calories while you are engaged in such activities, but the after effects keep on giving.  After a thirty minute workout your metabolism stays faster for up to the next forty-eight hours.  Thus, any foods that you eat after a workout will be burned off quicker than if you hadn’t worked out at all.

Exercise like running, biking, rowing and even brisk walks can therefore help you boost your metabolic function.  These aerobic type activities will give you the double boost of burning calories while you do them and keeping your fat burning centre alight for the next day and a half!

Strength training exercise likewise works to boost your metabolism.  Because muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn just by being stationary.  As such, adding strength training to your workouts will not only help you look and feel more toned, but also aid in burning unwanted fat. 

A good strength training program that increases your lean muscle mass can really pay off.  According to experts, a pound of muscles takes six calories a day to maintain while a pound of fat takes only 2.  While this doesn’t seem like a lot, when you add up all the pounds and consider that this is simply from being at rest, you’ll see that this can have a significant effect.