subject: Why Metabolism is Important to You [print this page] What is Metabolism? Simply, it is the rate at which your body converts and burns calories; keeping in mind that the metabolic rate for each person is different and depends on several factors such as age, gender and genetics.
Metabolism is defined as a range of biochemical processes that occur within our body (or any living organism). Metabolism consists both of anabolism and catabolism (the build up and breakdown of substances, respectively). The term is commonly used to refer specifically to the breakdown of food and its transformation into energy.
Once you reach the age of 40, your body produces less and less of the human growth hormone (HGH). This hormone is utilised during childhood for the growing processes that your body undertakes, and is required during adulthood to assist and maintain body tissues and organs.
It has been suggested that your metabolism may slow at a rate of 5% every ten years after the age of 40; therefore you may have to adjust your eating habits by reducing your caloric intake and increasing the frequency or intensity of physical activity sessions. Make sure that you include both aerobic exercises and resistance training in your physical activity sessions in order to build and maintain lean muscle mass.
As lean muscle is more metabolically demanding than fat, it makes sense that lean muscle mass would assist in accelerating your metabolic rate. It has been documented that men tend to have more lean muscle mass compared to women; as females have a higher body fat percentage (one reason for this is that females need a higher percentage of fat in order to support the body during pregnancy).
Genetics also have a role in determining your body's metabolic rate, as some people are born with a naturally higher or lower metabolism. For example, it is quite possible that one of two people who are of the same age, gender, height, weight and who have the same caloric intake and same amount of physical activity; to actually gain weight while the other person remained the same.
Regardless of age, gender or genetics there are still ways to boost your metabolism, therefore increasing your chances of weight loss.
