Metabolism is the combination of all the anabolic and catabolic reactions that keep you alive. It’s so extensive that metabolism is said to be the second most misunderstood the process in the world, second to the brain. The truth is that as much as people THINK they know about it, what we don’t know about metabolism can be multiplied by a thousand.

Let’s narrow our view of metabolism and talk about it from a fitness perspective. From a personal trainers point of view, metabolism is crucial to establishing life long changes to your life. It’s responsible for our basal metabolic rate (calories required to function at rest), how much we “burn” while we eat or sleep, and therefore our diet. It allows us to lose weight effective. What most people don’t understand is that metabolism has the potential to change. Although genetics plays a huge role, it’s been observed that someone who has had a slow metabolism can increase it and vice versa. Let me ask you this: would it be better to have a fast or slow metabolism? In a society where food is around the corner, it’s advantageous to increase metabolism to match the sedentary life we have now. We no longer need to hunt for food or wait days for food to arrive, where a slow metabolism would be advantageous.

Metabolism is slowed by dieting and/or constant expenditure of a lot of calories. In Study A done on The Biggest Loser contestants, contestants were able to successfully reduce their body fat percentage AND maintain some muscle, however resting metabolic rate was significantly slow even with exercise intervention over 30 weeks.

Study A: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387402/

Study B: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.21538

Even in a follow up study (STUDY B) 6 years later, contestants were unable to maintain the weight loss and almost returned to their baseline weight before The Biggest Loser. Two big contributions to their failure was the rapid change in weight and the lack of resistance training. Life long success depends on slow behavioral changes that will increase metabolism, and on proper resistance training to facilitate muscle maintenance/growth NOT cardio.

Three things you can do to increase metabolism are:

• Do proper resistance training. This means lifting weights in a way that will promote muscle growth. Muscle is an expensive tissue and requires more calories to maintain, which leads to increased metabolism.
• Avoid yo-yo dieting. This will severely reduce your metabolism. Instead, try including a food that is nutritious for you and slowly phase out bad dieting behaviors. Keep foods varied and look into what season fruits and vegetables grow in.
• Increase protein consumption. This kind of goes with the previous point, but it’s so important that it deserves its own bullet point. Aim for 0.8-1.0g/lb of body weight. If you weigh 150lb, that’s 120-150g of protein. That’s 2 or 3 chicken breasts a day. Protein increases feeling of fullness and if coupled with proper resistance training, directs nutrients to muscle building mode.

It’s a slow process, so having a knowledgeable and experienced personal trainer to guide you is important.