Health And Diet Tips: How Does Metabolism Affect Weight Loss?

Introduction to Metabolism

Your metabolism is the rate at which your body needs to burn calories in able to keep going. Metabolism can vary from person to person and can also vary depending on the time of day and the activity being performed. Your body's metabolism is constantly going, whether you are awake or sleeping, burning a continuous amount of calories to provide energy for the many systems of your body.

Metabolism is largely based on your body composition. Your body composition has to do with the percentage of muscle in your body versus the percentage of fat in your body. Muscles require a greater amount of calories than fat to stay working. This means that the greater percentage of muscle you have in your body, the higher your metabolism will be.

Metabolism affects how fast you are able to burn calories. For every 3,500 you burn beyond what your body needs to operate, you can lose one pound of fat. The faster your metabolism is, the faster you are able to burn those 3,500 calories. This is why those with faster metabolisms tend to be slimmer, and also tend to be able to lose weight quicker than those with slower metabolisms.

The best way to increase your metabolism is to stop dramatic dieting and start working out. Though dieting is an important part of a weight loss program, cutting your calories too much can cause your body to believe it's starving. If your body feels it's starving, it will slow your metabolism down to conserve calories. The next step is increasing your muscle mass. As stated before, muscle requires a greater amount of calories to function. As you build up your muscle, your body will in turn increase its metabolism to insure that your new muscles work at their optimal level. The rest of your body benefits, because your body will target fat first to gain the calories needed to give energy to your muscles. The extra burned calories translates to lost fat, which then translates to greater, more successful weight loss.