Metabolism is a topic that’s widely discussed, but much of the information you’ll hear about it is woefully misinformed. Despite what you might think, your metabolism isn’t some all-powerful entity that can send your weight skyrocketing on a whim, and it’s definitely not a supremely rational machine that functions with the precision of a supercomputer. In reality, things are somewhere in the middle of these two extremes—not entirely mysterious but not entirely predictable either.
The Science of Metabolism
At its most basic, metabolism is understood as a collection of biochemical reactions that occur within an organism and allow it to live. Every cell within your body needs energy to function properly, and metabolism is the process by which they get that energy. The pace at which this occurs is known as your metabolic rate, and we commonly measure this in calories. While there is some degree of variation in the metabolic rate among the population, 96% of people fall within a pretty narrow range: 1680 to 2320 calories per day.
The Importance of Metabolism
In an everyday context, most people are concerned about their metabolism for weight loss reasons. Virtually all biologists and nutritionists agree that for significant weight loss to occur, you must be eating fewer calories than your body’s metabolism is using to keep you alive. When you create a caloric deficit like this, your body is forced to look for other energy sources to metabolize, and that normally means targeting your fat or muscle cells. Ideally, you’ll be drawing primarily from your fat stores, but metabolizing some energy from your muscles is unavoidable.
The Improvement of Metabolism
While your metabolic rate is largely out of your control, there are a few things you can do to improve its efficiency. One of the best ways to do this is through strength training. Muscle cells require more energy to function than your others, and so increasing your muscle mass will result in a corresponding increase in your metabolic rate. Also, as you may already know, strength training actually destroys muscle fibers, which allows your body to rebuild them larger and stronger. This process of reconstruction requires extra energy and can give your metabolism a boost for up to 24 hours after a workout.
While there are some types of food, such as peppers or other spicy things, than can technically boost your metabolism, their effects are generally short-lived and not significant enough to factor into metabolic rate calculations.
