Metabolism is Life
Do you know what metabolism is? We undoubtedly mention the term a lot nowadays, but what actually is it? Why is a increased metabolism beneficial? With many of the new gyms and diets around, by now you have overheard the word metabolism being tossed around. Super high metabolism, low metabolism, ectomorph and endomorph body types. Maybe you read about BMR or basal metabolic rate, maybe not. It might be overwhelming at times not to mention conflicting. A person should ingest five or six times a day or is it eat when you’re hungry? Metabolism and bmr can quickly be defined, comprehension might be a different matter. I cannot remember what I used to imagine metabolism was, but it was not right. I think I thought it was like a pre-determined energy/reaction time/life speed that everyone had. And everybody’s was different based on your genes, diet, fitness, etc. Comparing metabolism to a house is one way to picture it.
What is metabolism? Think of metabolism as vitality. It is energy, a set of chemical reactions, processes, everything. I don’t know if this technically works in this case but remember that old law that energy can neither be created nor destroyed only altered in form? Technically metabolism is the whole of all of those different energies. They can be physical or chemical, and could include the creation, demolition, or maintenance of the organic matter in an organism. Typically metabolism can be split into two processes, one of which is catabolism and the other is anabolism. Catabolism is the breaking apart of more complex substances into more basic ones, a conversion of energy. Maybe think digestion for a basic understanding. Anabolism is the opposite, it is the creation or building of more complex substances from basic ones. For this one, imagine laying the foundation for protein building blocks, building muscle.
So why is metabolism such a hot dicussion topic? It probably should not be. I think the word is just more convenient to use than bmr. Basal metabolic rate is the actual amount of energy used by the body just in order to promote life. Everything we do requires calories, which when digested, provides fuel or energy. In a different article we mention calories and what they are. In that same article, caloric intake is compared to a monetary budget. As you should be able to imagine, here is where the calories tie in. Using that as an example, calories are much like deposits into your Bank of Metabolism. Since I have absolutely zero idea how researchers quantify bmr, let’s just assign a random, arbitrary number, to a random, arbitrary individual, Mark. This will be his bmr, 3000. That might look like it has something to do with calories but it was what popped into my head, more than likely due to of calories. Everything Phil ingests is a deposit, everything he donates, a withdrawal. There should be a much easier way to get a idea on what metabolism actually is.
Let’s make a visit to the Bank of Metabolism for a much more simple analogy. You are the CEO of the bank (really though the bank is your body) and you make the decisions. Banks are closed on Sunday’s and when you close shop on Saturday afternoon, you shut everything down. This conserves on energy expenses but still doesn’t completely eliminate them. Federal law dictates that buildings maintain a certain amount of lights on at all times for exit so your bank still uses a little bit of electricity. And in the instance there’s a fire you still have water to your fire sprinkler system. This would be like eating just enough fuel to do absolutely nothing else but just sit there and respire. But when Monday morning comes around and the building is in full swing business mode, the needs to run your business change drastically. Switch on additional lights, turn on the a/c so your customers are satisfied, you have to pay the cleaning crew. Remembering that this is just a comparison of your body’s metabolism to the operating budget of a building, this hustle and bustle of activity or expenses could be looked at like all of a sudden you are working out like crazy or ingesting way more than average.
So would we shoot for a high metabolism/bmr or a low? Ideally you’d want to achieve a higher bmr. Having a higher rate demonstrates you are using more energy, expending more calories than a person with a lower consumption rate, simply to just be. Everything you do enters into this equation, every function that your cells go through. How do we get a higher metabolic rate? One way to get a higher metabolic rate is to increase your lean muscle mass. By having a greater amount of lean muscle on your frame, your body has to work harder just to maintain it. Your skeletal muscles have to work even harder to support that added weight. A fit body with lean muscle is more dense therefore harder to swim, harder to remain afloat. Your body has to work double time with all of its maintenance and healing. You can achieve this by pumping iron, eating properly, and even seeing if a supplement such as creatine or whey protein helps.
Metabolism is a series of energy processes and chemical reactions that happen at the cellular level. Basal metabolic rate or bmr is the minimum rate required in order to maintain existence. Tying in metabolism with calories, we should be able to examine how they are interconnected. Just like calories are a component of your budget, metabolism is like the operating costs. Having a greater mass of lean muscle would necessitate an individual to have a consequential elevation in their bmr as well as your body requiring more fuel to maintain its new, improved digs.
The author currently lives in Memphis by way of Seattle. He works as a stationary engineer at a hospital and has two teenage sons. A lifetime grappler, about five years ago he got into Brazilian jiu-jitsu along with a much healthier lifestyle. If you have a question such as should I take creatine or are just looking for information Does Creatine Help? has all you could want.
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