Metabolism is a process, not an object. Specially, the metabolic process consists of chemical reactions that occur in the cells of all living organisms to sustain life. It’s the change or transformation of food into either heat and fuel or substance (muscle, fat, blood, bone). At any given moment, your metabolism is either burning, storing, or building.
You have a metabolism because you are alive, and life requires energy. We all need energy to survive—to breathe, move, think, and react—and the only way to acquire this energy is from the consumption and metabolism, or transformation, of food. Profound! We need fuel, and we need substance. A healthy metabolism and a functional metabolism allow us to have just the perfect amount of energy available, an appropriate amount of reserve energy stored and ready for use, and a strong and stable structure (the body).
YOUR INNER BONFIRE
Before we jump into the nuts and bolts of the Fast Metabolism Diet, let’s consider why your metabolism may have slowed down in the first place, and why weight loss hasn’t come easy for you.
Remember, your metabolism is your body’s system for dealing with the energy you take in through food. The metabolism shuttles that energy into different directions according to what you eat and what you do. The beauty of your metabolism is that it can be manipulated, because how you eat and move and live affects how much of your food is stored as fat, how much is used as energy, and how much is devoted to building the structure that is your body.
This manipulation is what I learned about when I studied animal science. The animal science industry uses this knowledge of energy, storage, and structure to create livestock that is ideally proportioned for use as food, to the tune of billions of dollars of profit.
The metabolism can also get you into trouble because you can inadvertently manipulate it to create a body you don’t want. Dieting, nutrient-void foods, and living with too much stress slow down your metabolism when it should be sped up. When you gain weight, feel blah, even get sick with a chronic disease, those are all coping mechanisms your body creates in response to your actions or environment, like the frogs that grow three legs in polluted swamps.
Your butt or your belly could be protruding because of the very environmental, emotional, and biochemical ecosystem in which it is dwelling.
RELATED POSTS
Metabolism! How Did We Get Here
Metabolic Myth #1: If I Could Just Eat Less, I’d Finally Lose
Weight
Metabolic Myth #2: If I Like It Too Much, It Can’t Be Good For
Me … Or My Waistline
Metabolic Myth #3: Losing Weight Is Simply Calories In, Calories
Out
Metabolic Myth #4: Desserts Make You Fat
Metabolic Truth #1: To Lose Weight You Must Make Peace with Food
Metabolic Truth #2: Food Is Something That Was Once Alive and
Came From the Land, Sky, or Sea
Metabolism: The Secrets of T3 and Rt3
The Body Five Major Players—and Why
They Are Essential To Metabolic Repair
Around the Web
