What is Metabolism?

unique_metabolismYour metabolism is like your fingerprint. Every person is unique.

Metabolism refers to the processes in your cells that convert the food you eat into energy. Your metabolism is like your engine. Just like a car, your body burns fuel to produce the energy that makes it work and in your case that fuel comes from the foods you eat. Even when you are sleeping your body’s engine is still running and burning fuel.

 

Storing fuel

Your engine needs a continual supply of fuel/calories (fat & carbohydrates) to keep running, and this is why it is excellent at storing fuel. Body fat is your major fuel storage, whereas you only store a small amount of carbohydrate (glycogen) mainly in your muscles and liver. Protein is only used as fuel in the case of starvation.

 

What effects my metabolism?

Your metabolism is affected by a lot of factors (e.g age, gender, weight, nervous system, hormone function, disease, drugs and more). The factors you can change to improve your metabolism is lean muscle mass, body fat, diet and exercise. A metabolism test allow you to know what adjustments need to be made both to your intake of fuel and your exercise routine in order to make your metabolism faster and more efficient. Different metabolisms require different fuel intake and different exercise regimes.

 

Research shows time efficient & effective results with metabolism training

A growing number of scientific research is showing how metabolism training can greatly effect weight management, fitness and physical performance. Studies have found that specific metabolism training is a time efficient and effective way to improve fat metabolism. One study comparing endurance training and low-volume sprint interval training, found that they had similar improvements in fat metabolism however the low-volume sprint interval training allowed for a 90% lower weekly training volume (Burgomaster et al, 2008).