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What is Metabolism and How Does It Affect Weight?

Tess Thompson

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Metabolism is one of the organic processes that are carried out by the body without our conscious awareness. It is metabolism that transforms a larva into an adult. It is also one of the processes that are necessary to maintain life.

Metabolism is normally divided into two categories:

• Catabolism, which breaks down large molecules to harvest energy.
• Anabolism, which is a process of synthesis of simple substances to form complex substances such as tissues.

The fairly complex process of metabolism plays an extremely crucial role in maintaining health. In simple words, metabolism dictates the amount of energy that is burnt by the body to maintain itself. It is also the process that continuously burns calories irrespective of what you are doing – be it sleeping, eating, drinking, working or reading a book.

Metabolism is normally dependent upon the constitution of the body. Aspects like muscle to fat proportions affect overall metabolism. This means that two people with the same body weight and height can have different metabolic rates if one has built muscles by exercising and the other has more fat than muscle due to lack of exercise. The body of the person who has more muscle uses more calories for sustenance.

A normal body starts to lose muscle after the age of 30. A sedentary lifestyle, lack of exercise and consumption of the same amount of calories after thirty years of age can result in a conversion from muscle to fat. This is mainly due to the fact that the metabolism slows down due to age and subsequently due to a lack of muscle in the body.

On the other hand, if you exercise regularly, the metabolism is not likely to slow down even after the age of thirty. This is mainly because an exercised body does not lose muscle weight too easily and therefore remains at a higher metabolism. This is also the primary reason that it is always advised that crash diets that tell you how to naturally lose weight fast without emphasizing the need for exercise are not sound.

As is obvious now, there is a strong connection between metabolism and weight loss. No amount of carbohydrate limitation or diets that are based on genuine or perceived weight loss properties of any one food item will lead to a permanent reduction of weight. All healthy weight loss plans must necessarily be based on maintaining a healthy metabolic rate. There is no specific diet that that can do that effectively on its own. It must be accompanied by exercise to properly metabolism.

References:

http://weightloss.about.com/od/backtobasics/a/blmetab.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-metabolism.htm
http://nutrition.about.com/od/nutritionaging/a/heart_attack_2.htm