You can pack on pounds from only one piece of pizza while your friends can eat a whole pie each and not gain a thing. It’s so not fair!
Calories affect individuals differently because everyone’s body processes calories at a different rate. It’s called your metabolism. Your metabolism works off of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the minimum number of calories your body needs to keep you alive, regardless of your physical activity. BMR supports such basic processes as breathing, breaking down food, and keeping your heart and brain working. If you were in coma, you would need only enough calories to support your BMR, but in our everyday lives, we need a bunch of additional calories to keep us running and ripping through our hectic schedules. For example, reading one book takes more calories than sleeping, so to remain the same weight, you need to eat enough to give you the energy to get through it. Your metabolism slows down or speeds up, depending on a variety of factors.
- Age. Older folks have a slower metabolism than younger people.
- Gender. Men have faster metabolism rates than women do.
- Physical activity. People who are physically active have faster metabolisms than those who sit around for most of their day.
- Diet. People who don’t eat enough or who eat unhealthily have slower metabolisms than people who have good eating habits.
So. It’s safe to say that a teen boy will have a faster metabolism than a thirty-year-old woman, right? Not always, and especially not if that guy sits at his computer all day eating candy bars! While you can’t do anything about your age and gender, your diet and physical activity both have a tremendous effect on your BMR.
If you eat healthily and have a lot of muscle, your body burns more calories, meaning you can eat more and not gain as much weight. Also, people who exercise often and have more muscle on their body have a higher BMR because muscle burns more calories than fat burns.
On the other hand, of you are not eating healthily, or if you go long periods between meals, your body learns to conserve fuel, meaning it needs fewer calories to survive, causing you to gain weight more easily.
How to deal?
Contrary to popular belief, not many people really have a “slow metabolism.” Some people naturally maintain a higher weight than others, but most of us just aren’t caring for our bodies as well as we should.
Be honest: What are your habits? Before blaming your bulges on your body’s genetics, take note of your daily schedule. Skipping meals, eating too late in the evening, and not eating enough calories all slow down your metabolism, making the maintenance of a healthy weight more difficult.
To jumpstart your metabolic engine, make sure to eat a good breakfast and eat small, healthy snacks during the day, cutting down the junk food. Your metabolism naturally slows down in the evening, so try to have your dinner at least three hours before bedtime.
Another way to get your body to speed up is exercise. A fitness routine will build calorie-burning muscle, and send your metabolism up, up, UP!
Make sure you are not comparing your normal, healthy body to the ones you see on television or magazines. Chances are, it’s not their metabolism that keeps the weight off but an artist who specializes in photographic airbrushing. If you still feel as if food reacts differently with you than others, the problem might by your thyroid.
