Understanding Your Metabolism

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re probably interested in understanding your metabolism and how it can affect your weight loss.

Here at Phillips Family Medical in DeSoto, Texas, Pamela Phillips, PhD, FNP-C, and our team look at your metabolism as part of our overall weight management program.

Keep reading to find out more about what your metabolism is and how you can make it work for you.

What is metabolism?

Your metabolism is how your body turns the food and drink you consume into energy to keep you alive. It includes all the chemical processes happening in your cells every second of the day, as well as basic bodily functions such as:

• Breathing
• Digesting food
• Circulating blood
• Managing hormone levels
• Regulating body temperature

When most people think about metabolism, they think of how their body burns calories from the food you eat. This is called your metabolic rate, and it varies according to how many processes are running in your body at any one time as your metabolism naturally regulates itself to meet the needs of your body.

If you have a fast metabolism, your body tends to burn a lot of calories even while you’re at rest. A slow metabolism means your body needs fewer calories to keep running.  

How does it affect your weight?

Many people tend to blame weight gain or their inability to lose weight on a slow metabolism, but your metabolism is actually just part of a complex system that also includes genetics, diet, exercise, stress, and sleep.

A slower metabolism does sometimes make it harder to lose weight. If your body doesn’t need much energy and you don’t engage in much activity, the energy your body takes in through calories will be stored as fat. What you may not realize is that you can affect your body’s metabolism.

You can’t control your age, gender, or genetics, but you can take a few specific actions that will help speed up your metabolism and burn more calories.

Build muscle

First, build muscle. A pound of muscle uses 6 calories a day to sustain itself, while a pound of fat only uses 2. If you have more muscle, you’ll burn more energy. In addition, aerobic exercise not only ups your metabolism while you’re working out, it keeps it higher in the hours after your activity.

Stay hydrated

Your body needs water to process calories, so make sure you stay hydrated. Caffeine can also help increase the energy your body uses, but go easy to prevent high blood pressure (hypertension), anxiety, and sleep issues.

Healthy eating

You should also build a healthy eating routine. Avoid crash diets and focus on proteins: Your body uses more energy digesting proteins than if you eat fats or carbohydrates. Be smart about when you eat as well. Having small meals or snacks every three to four hours keeps your metabolism running faster so you’ll burn more calories than if you eat just two or three big meals a day.

These are just a few tips. If you’d like more help managing your metabolism and your weight, our team at Phillips Family Medical is here to help. Call our office at 972-861-1151 or book your own appointment with our online scheduler today.