What affects your metabolism

Nich0le

Muscle tissue: Muscle has a big impact, the more muscle the higher your metabolic rate. Muscle is the bodies biggest calorie burner... ladies time for strength training!

Meal frequency: Eating is another function that requires energy. While you are consuming food full of calories you also need to burn other calories for your body to carry out the task of eating and digestion. The longer you wait between meals the less eating and digesting that are going on the more your metabolism slows down (recommendation is to eat at least every 4 hours)

Activity level: How active you are greatly impacts the speed of your metabolism. Whether you go to the gym or take a walk around the neighborhood physical activities require a great deal of energy and energy increases your metabolic rate which in turn burns calories (get moving!)

Hydration: 70-75% of your body weight is water. That means that most of your bodily functions take place in water. IF you are not hydrated properly with water and other fluids then all your systems slow down, including your metabolism :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

genetics: Our metabolic rate is largely out of our control because it tends to be something we are born with, just as we are born with eye color and height. The DNA we inherit from our parents typically determines our metabolic fate. Some are destined to have a fast metabolism (my husband :grumble: ) while others have one that runs at a slower rate. If we do many of the above we can change it to some extent but for the most part we will always have a similiar rate to that we were born with.

AGing: Simply getting older causes your metabolism to slow down? There is a bit of truth in this but it is not an excuse for weight gain. The real issue is that as we age we tend to become less active which results in muscle loss which leads to a slower metabolism.

Hormones: several hormones can affect metabolism to varying degrees, thyroid, growth, estrogen and testosterone. Your body's ability to produce an adequate amount of properly functioning hormones can have a positive or negative effect on your metabolism. Before you blame hormones you should have your doctor perform a blood test to determine if this is actually the problem because if it is you need to fix it.

So I guess the jist is get up, get moving, drink lots of water and eat better!

:happy:

Nich0le

Muscle tissue: Muscle has a big impact, the more muscle the higher your metabolic rate. Muscle is the bodies biggest calorie burner... ladies time for strength training!

Meal frequency: Eating is another function that requires energy. While you are consuming food full of calories you also need to burn other calories for your body to carry out the task of eating and digestion. The longer you wait between meals the less eating and digesting that are going on the more your metabolism slows down (recommendation is to eat at least every 4 hours)

Activity level: How active you are greatly impacts the speed of your metabolism. Whether you go to the gym or take a walk around the neighborhood physical activities require a great deal of energy and energy increases your metabolic rate which in turn burns calories (get moving!)

Hydration: 70-75% of your body weight is water. That means that most of your bodily functions take place in water. IF you are not hydrated properly with water and other fluids then all your systems slow down, including your metabolism :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

genetics: Our metabolic rate is largely out of our control because it tends to be something we are born with, just as we are born with eye color and height. The DNA we inherit from our parents typically determines our metabolic fate. Some are destined to have a fast metabolism (my husband :grumble: ) while others have one that runs at a slower rate. If we do many of the above we can change it to some extent but for the most part we will always have a similiar rate to that we were born with.

AGing: Simply getting older causes your metabolism to slow down? There is a bit of truth in this but it is not an excuse for weight gain. The real issue is that as we age we tend to become less active which results in muscle loss which leads to a slower metabolism.

Hormones: several hormones can affect metabolism to varying degrees, thyroid, growth, estrogen and testosterone. Your body's ability to produce an adequate amount of properly functioning hormones can have a positive or negative effect on your metabolism. Before you blame hormones you should have your doctor perform a blood test to determine if this is actually the problem because if it is you need to fix it.

So I guess the jist is get up, get moving, drink lots of water and eat better!

:happy:

Nich0le

Oh, and for exercise, if you want to keep your metabolism working hard all day it is recommended that you break your cardio up into two sessions about 6 hours apart, one 30 minutes session in the am and one 30 min. session in the pm is ideal.

zenmama

I have been breaking mine up 30-20-30...I recently read that in prevent mag. I feel good and I burn more calories. Thanks for your post excellent!!! :happy:

dd

markfloyd

Take the strength training advice. Strength training will kick your metabolism into high gear for several hours and more muscle means more fat lose. Cardio, unless it's very intense, only burns fat while you're engaged in the activity. I'm not saying don't do Cardio. I recommend it every day for no less than 20 minutes!!

songbyrdsweet

Meal frequency actually doesn't improve the metabolism, unfortunately. If you eat two HUGE meals, the thermic effect of those meals (energy required to digest them) will also be HUGE. If they're small, the thermic effect will be small. Since gastric emptying time is usually around 3-4 hours for a normal meal, if you wait 5 hours to eat, your stomach has pretty much just emptied, but nutrients are still in your intestine. I know several BBers who eat just a couple huge meals around their workouts, and they're quite lean; they still meet their caloric requirements for the day, they just like to do it almost all at once. So if you only eat 3 times a day, don't worry, it doesn't make a difference. But if you want to eat 8 times a day, that's fine too.

banks1850

Songbyrdsweet is right. It doesn't matter if you eat larger meals less often or
smaller meals more often. I have just recently found this out. BUT, it does matter
that you have a regular meal routine. If you eat regular meals and don't skip
meals, the body recognizes this and doesn't feel the need to store calories, nor
does it feel the need to slow down the metabolism to compensate.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/3-hour-diet-or-3-meals-a-day

songbyrdsweet

Songbyrdsweet is right. It doesn't matter if you eat larger meals less often or
smaller meals more often. I have just recently found this out. BUT, it does matter
that you have a regular meal routine. If you eat regular meals and don't skip
meals, the body recognizes this and doesn't feel the need to store calories, nor
does it feel the need to slow down the metabolism to compensate.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/3-hour-diet-or-3-meals-a-day

Yup! Eating regularly/planned also helps to ensure that you'll keep your calories in order. It's much easier to eat according to a plan rather than snacking and eyeballing portions throughout the day. But if you can do that, it's fine too. I have gotten to the point now where I can eat 2-3 meals before plugging them into MFP, and my calories are always right on.

Healthier_Me

Thanks for this post.
Answered a few of my questions.

~Joanna:flowerforyou:

Nich0le

Actually... it is better to eat 4-6 small meals spaced no more than 4 hours apart.
When people eat two large meals per day their bodies do go into starvation mode in between meals, basically making your body hold onto calories and store those calories as fat. By eating every 3-4 hours you keep your body from storing as many calories as fat because your body has a steady supply of food to use for energy.

If you think of your metabolism as a wood burning fire you have to add a little wood at regular intervals to keep the fire going, the same is true for your body. A steady intake of nutritious fuel at regular intervals helps keep your metabolism steady and elevated, stabilizes your blood sugar and keeps your body operating at maximum efficiency.

Eatting something in between your larger meals, something as small as a piece of fruit and an ounce of nuts, is enough to prevent a drop in blood sugar and plunge in your metabolic rate.

Another bonus is by keeping track of when and what you eat you prevent the possibility of overeating.

banks1850

mn,

I used to think that too, but when I did some research, there were many sources out there, including webmd and the NE Journal of Medicine that both said there is no research to prove one way or the other that more, smaller meals do any more good. All of them said that it is the daily routine (I.E. eating around the same time, around the same amount) and the types of food and caloric consumption as a whole that matter.

I already posted the link to the webmd article. But I'll try to dig up the NEJoM article, it was a few weeks ago so I might have a tough time finding it.

Nich0le

hey banks,
didn't sign up for nejom but did resource webmd as you stated and here's what I found simply by typing in metabolism in the search box:

Rev up your metabolism:

#2 Don't fast or Skip Meals.
The idea that fasting or skipping meals regularly is a great way to cleanse the system of impuritites, speed metabolism and encourage weight loss is just another myth, says Sue Ayersman, a certified clinical nutritionist at Kronos Optimal Health Centre is Scottsdale, AZ. "Your body needs a certain amount of calories and nutrients each day for normal function", says Ayersman. "Denying the body of these essential elements throws the system into survival mode, slowing the metabolism and encouraging the storage of energy in the form of fat" You have to eat to lose weight". Four to six small meals a day is a good way to keep your metabolism humming.
-Webmd reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson MD

The bottom line when it comes to metabolism, says Susan Burke, "if it sounds to good to be true, it is".

Make the Most of your Metabolism

Eat more burn better
Of course the diet advice we'd all love to hear is "eat more and lose weight!" but what really works is "eat more often and you will lose more weight". Small but frequent meals help keep your metabolism in high gear and that means you will burn more calories overall.

"When you put too many hours in between meals, your metabolism actually slows down to compensate,"says Kimball (Molly Kimball RD)

If you eat a huge meal at the same time your body is functioning as if you are starving you body wants to hold onto every calorie. While this won't make much of a difference on an occasional basis, Kimball says make it a way of life and it can get harder to lose weight and maintain weight.

Kimball's advice is born out of findings of a study presented at the 2005 Annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine. Researchers from Georgia state University reported that when atletes ate snacks totaling about 250 calories 3 times a day they had greater energy output then when they didn't snack.

The study also found that snacking helps athletes eat less at each of their regular 3 meals. The final result was a higher metabolic rate, a lower caloric intake and a reduction in body fat.

Your best bet for keeping your metabolism revved: Build Muscle, snack on low calorie high protien foods and keep moving.

Contributors included Robert Yanagisawa, Director of Medically supervised weight management program, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, NY
Barrie Wolf, RD nutrionist specializing in weight loss at New York University Medical Center

I could not find anything on webmd that disputed any of the articles regarding metabolism and eatting more often to help keep your metabolism boosted.

banks1850

here was the article I was refering too.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/3-hour-diet-or-3-meals-a-day

Nich0le

Ok, I found your article 3 hour diet vs. 3 regular meals and there is a point there too. I can tell you from my personal weight loss that I eat every 3-4 hours and plan a day ahead so I don't go crazy at meal times. If 3 meals a day works for you that's great but either way if we don't plan we all run the risk of overeating at any meal. But your article doesn't state that eating more often isn't good for you. The most important point of your article was to eat breakfast to help rev your metabolism first thing in the morning to avoid overeating later in the day. Thanks for the counter point, always good to look at both sides! :drinker:

banks1850

Agreed! I hope you didn't think I was saying you were wrong to eat 6 times a day, I wasn't, I was just stressing that the routine and the proper amount is important, alternatively so is the mental aspect, so if people think eating 6 smaller meals works for them, it probably will! The brain is a powerful force for weight loss!