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Can Your Metabolism Speed Up?

May 20, 2011 | By Angela Ogunjimi

The often misunderstood term "metabolism" is the whipping boy of the diet and fitness world. You may even blame your metabolism for your current weight, and like millions of others, scour the Internet to learn how to rev metabolic rate to shed those unwanted pounds. Some people seem blessed with a speedy metabolism, eating all they want and staying svelte as they please, while others struggle for years and yo-yo up and down the weight scale. Metabolism is indeed a complex process. It's true that you can do some things to boost a sluggish metabolism, but a great deal of metabolism is ordered by processes out of your control.

Metabolism Mechanics

By definition, metabolism simply refers to a range of chemical reactions involving the building up and breaking down of various chemicals for life-serving functions. Many substances metabolize. When it comes to weight, metabolism refers to how your body gets and uses energy, or calories. There are only a few components of metabolism that are directly under your control.

Metabolism Makeup

Your metabolic rate is made up of three components, the first known as basal metabolic rate, or BMR It is also referred to as resting metabolic rate. This is the calories your body uses to keep your body powered on. For example, BMR keeps homeostatic processes that regulate organ systems and body temperature performing efficiently. You need calories to breathe, pump your heart and blood, even to sit. Two exercise science researchers at the University of New Mexico said that BMR accounts for up to 75 percent of your metabolic rate. You don't have direct control over this component.

Eating and Moving

Another part of metabolism is called the thermal effect of food, sometimes called thermal effect of feeding. Your body has to burn a few calories to digest your food, break down and absorb nutrients, transport them and storage some. This effect accounts for about 10 percent of your overall metabolic rate. You can control this calorie burning by what you eat, how much and how often. You have great control over the final aspect of metabolism, known as unrestricted physical activity, or the thermal effect of physical activity. As implied, it refers to calories burn based on how much activity you are involved in, and so you can influence it by exercising more.

Eat More Often

Harvard University's Joslin Diabetes Center reports that the one of best way to lose weight is to capitalize on the thermal effect of feeding. The center says you can speed up your metabolism by spreading your calories more evenly over the course of the day. You've probably heard: eat several small meals rather than a few big ones each day. It also means don't skip meals. Joslin says skipping meals can cause you to gain weight because your metabolism slows down to conserve calories, rather than burn them.

Train Your Muscles

The University of New Mexico researchers said that you could influence between 15 and 30 percent of your metabolic rate depending on how much physical activity you perform. This includes all movement, but exercise, especially weight- and resistance-based workouts, help a great deal too. Muscle is metabolically active, they say, using approximately 4.5 to 7 calories for every pound of muscle you have every day. That's just for having them. In other words, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns just to maintain them.

Get More Sleep

Sleep influences your metabolism through several mechanisms. "Harvard Women's Health Watch" reported in January 2006 that repeated sleep deprivation causes you to gain weight because it affects the way your body processes and stores carbohydrates and the hormones that regulate appetite. In addition to deprivation, an editorial in the October 2010 "Annals of Internal Medicine" suggested that duration and stages of sleep may also impact your metabolism and weight.

References

Article reviewed by Tina Boyle Last updated on: May 20, 2011

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