Diet And Metabolism: What Exactly Is Metabolism, Why It Is Important?

What Is Metabolism

The word metabolism is often used in discussions about health and diet, but it is usually used in a vague and casual manner. If your diet (or in fact any health plan) is to be successful, you need to know exactly what you are talking about. So what exactly is metabolism? Metabolism is essentially the chemical reactions that occur in your body in order to sustain the processes of life, including growth, repair, construction, and production of energy. The aspect of metabolism that is most often referred to in discussions of diet and health is the metabolic rate – the speed at which these processes occur. This determines how much energy your body requires, and how quickly it uses the energy that is available.

Diet And Metabolism

Diets are often planned with this aspect of the body’s metabolism in mind. Very often, the aim is to speed up the body’s metabolism, thus getting rid of fat more quickly and preventing accumulation of the calories consumed. As you may already know, the body primarily uses carbohydrates and fats for energy. Any surplus of these nutrients usually ends up being stored as body fat. Unfortunately, the issue is not very well understood by many who claim to be experts, and is in fact often unnecessarily complicated. Some diets that claim to increase the metabolism, or rather the metabolic rate, are actually fad diets. These are extreme diets that even restrict the intake of many necessary nutrients. Such diets may seem to work in the short term. However, in the long term, they are not only unsustainable, but may do lasting damage. Severe dieting can in fact lower the body’s metabolic rate as the body tries to manage with the minimum amount of fuel. Eventually of course, this only makes it more difficult to lose weight.

If you really want to use your metabolism to lose weight, you need to work with it, not against it. You must eat regular, healthy meals in order to have a steady intake of calories. This will keep your body processes going at a healthy and steady rate. Small, frequent meals are healthier and more effective than one or two large meals a day. In addition, regular exercise also helps speed up the metabolism and thus helps to burn more calories. As you can see, the practical considerations with regard to metabolism and diet are really quite simple. Regular exercise and a healthy, sustainable diet are the two things you need most.