Does A High Metabolism Have Anything To Do With Hgh?

Human growth hormone, or HGH, plays an integral and complex role in your metabolism, and may be responsible for your body quickly metabolizing the food you eat into energy. Your anterior pituitary gland produces HGH, and maintaining appropriate levels of the hormone throughout your life is crucial to proper growth and development.

Fat Burning

The primary way that HGH increases your metabolism is by increasing your body's fat-burning efficiency. The adipocytes, or fat cells, in your body contain growth hormone receptor sites. When HGH bonds with these sites, it stimulates the breakdown of triglycerides and helps prevent these cells from gathering circulating lipids. This doubled effect can make HGH levels very important to fat loss.

Glucose Preservation

Glucose is an energy source your body creates from the breakdown of carbohydrates. You store it as glycogen in your muscles. High levels of HGH have been shown to decrease glycogen synthesis and glucose utilization in your body. (Reference1) As a result of this glucose preservation, HGH causes your body to use stored fat for energy. Increasing your metabolism in this way may improve your overall body composition.

Protein Uptake

HGH supplementation for athletes can increase how efficiently muscles absorb amino acids, thereby improving metabolism through lean body mass production. As muscles receive more amino acids, they are better able to produce the proteins that make up muscle tissue. However, some research into HGH supplementation for athletes has shown that these increases in muscle size do not translate into an increase in muscular endurance or power.

HGH Disorders

Both children and adults can experience excessively high or low levels of HGH. While a high amount of HGH will increase your metabolism, it can also lead to excessively large bone growth in the face, hands and feet---a condition medically known as acromegaly. In children, an overactive pituitary gland can lead to gigantism. Speak to your physician if you believe your high metabolism is the result of too much HGH.