You probably know that your metabolic rate has an effect upon your body weight -- the faster your metabolism, the more calories you burn, regardless of your activity level. As such, it's common to want to take supplements to help boost your metabolism as an adjustment to sensible eating and exercise for weight loss. While calcium supplements are very good for your body, unfortunately, they can't speed up your metabolism.
Human Metabolism
Your metabolism is the sum of all chemical reactions taking place in your body. The processes by which you break down nutrients in food to provide you with energy, store excess nutrients in the form of body fat, and produce functional molecules from smaller precursors are all parts of metabolism. In general, the faster your metabolic rate, the more energy you burn -- regardless of your activity level. As such, those with faster metabolisms tend to be leaner than those with slower metabolisms.
Calcium
Calcium is an important mineral that your body needs in order to maintain skeletal and cellular health. You use calcium in many different ways in the body, explains Dr. Gary Thibodeau in his book, "Anatomy and Physiology." Calcium supports the bones and helps prevent osteoporosis. It's also critical to cardiac function and muscular contraction. Finally, your cells use calcium from the blood and in the cellular fluid as part of the mechanism of communication with one another.
Calcium and Metabolism
Some of the enzymes of metabolism depend upon calcium in order to function, meaning that you need calcium in the bloodstream and cellular fluid in order to burn nutrients for energy and build larger molecules from smaller ones. However, the amount of calcium needed for metabolic purposes is small compared to the amount needed by the skeletal system. Further, your body will pull calcium from the bones before it allows metabolism to slow due to calcium deficiency. In other words, while you certainly need calcium supplements to maintain your skeletal system, they can't really affect your overall metabolism, since your body regulates that on its own.
Suggestions
Despite the fact that you can't speed up your metabolism by taking calcium, it's still a good idea to make sure you're getting the 1,000 mg a day recommended for men younger than 71 and women younger than 51, according to MayoClinic.com. You can get your calcium from dietary sources like dairy products and leafy greens, or you can use supplements. In general, the cheapest supplements are also very effective -- these contain calcium carbonate, and they're readily available at drug stores.
References
- "Anatomy and Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D.; 2007
- MayoClinic.com: Calcium
Member Comments