I have heard the word metabolism referenced a lot in the fitness and nutrition world. Most of the type is the excuse that your metabolism slows down as we age. Now, this post will probably be more of an opinion piece than a blog article because using a little common sense I don’t believe that.
First let’s define what metabolism really is. Metabolism refers to all chemical reactions that occur within a living organism to maintain life. It is the process by which the body will convert food or drinks into energy. Metabolism is a complex process that creates and releases energy which fuels the functions of the body. Metabolism works in two ways. The first being Catabolism.
Catabolism is the breakdown of molecules to release energy. This is how your body breaks down the food you eat like glucose, fatty acids and amino acids which can then convert to energy. The second is Anabolism. Anabolism is the build up of molecules from the simpler ones such as the synthesis of proteins, DNA and other molecules that are needed for repair, growth and maintenance of the body.
Now when we think of the body as a machine, like a car, it performs best if well taken care of and normally in its infancy of ownership. The body is in a way a very complex machine. This machine can regulate and adjust (homeostasis) better than a car but if you constantly use incorrect oil or not the best fuel in a car, the performance is diminished. In our body, after years of digesting foods high in carbohydrates, ultra-processed foods, alcohol or drugs, we have diminished the performance of our own body. The longer or older we get, the more damage we have done to our bodies. Homeostasis is the ability of the body to maintain a neutral state. Our body has a self-regulating process by which our biological system maintains stability while “adjusting” to conditions optimal for survival.
The word “adjusting” is important because we can alter our optimal conditions within the body. An example of this is when you have let your weight go and you put on fifty pounds. You decide you are going to exercise and diet to lose the weight. Everything appears to be working well and you lose the weight. Within a couple of months, the weight comes right back, and you are back up fifty pounds heavier. This occurs because you have altered your body to where it is convinced that your “now” optimal weight is with the fifty extra pounds. This is why we have a tendency to rebound when we diet.
This performance as a result of our bad maintenance can be seen in our skin, on how we have aged, our eyesight, our hearing and even on how our bodies have handled injuries. As we age, back, neck, ankle, and knee pain seem to develop. The saying, “Metabolism slows down as we age.” may not be entirely true. What if it is not the metabolism of our body but the conditions resulting from poor treatment. Just like the car example, without routine maintenance, cleanings and oil changes, the condition of the car deteriorates. The gas mileage seems to drop, the car doesn’t run as smoothly as it once did and a list of others.
This poor treatment may have resulted intentionally or unintentionally. The food industry has lied to us for several years with their concerns only on selling products and keeping the food on the shelves for a longer period of time. This is not entirely your fault. The good news is just taking the time to learn more about nutrition is a step in the right direction.
Now I feel that this important to understand because it really comes in to play when we decide to diet. During the process of catabolism, our bodies break down the food we eat. The easiest source of food for the body to metabolize is carbohydrates. Understand that carbohydrates include sugars and starches.
This means that there is little difference between a Krispy Kreme doughnut and an apple, except that the Krispy Kreme contains the carbohydrates in the dough and the additional sugars. Refer to my earlier blog post (here). The carbohydrates, sugars and starches are converted into glucose which can be more easily absorbed into our cells. That is true if we were all born yesterday and our bodies were in top condition. The problem is that for most people, which included myself, I had about a good thirty plus years eating burgers, fries, chips and pizza. This does more to your body than you know. We have spent a large amount of our lives altering our bodies’ homeostasis to accept and crave the easy energy of carbohydrates. So much so that it is an addition. We have made our cells develop a resistance to the insulin that our body produces to get the glucose into the cells.
Insulin resistance leads to Type 2 diabetes, but I got news for you that if my beliefs are correct, by the time your doctor tells you that you are pre-diabetic, you are already there. By the time the markers for diabetes begin to show, it already proves that your body is no longer able to regulate and is losing the fight. As I mentioned about homeostasis, your body tries to maintain the optimal state. When your body can’t maintain and the signs are showing, we are well on our way.
The second and third sources that our bodies will metabolize are the proteins and the fats. Proteins are broken down into amino acids used for building and repairing tissues, enzymes and hormones. The fats are broken down into the fatty acids and glycerol (triglycerides which consist of three fatty acid chains) which can also be used for energy.
When it comes back to our nutrition (I don’t really like to use the word “diet”), if we wanted to lose weight, you could exercise like crazy and cut down your food intake because as they say “calories in and calories out”. This is an act of trying to get your body to use the fat in your body as an energy source. The obstacle that you need to understand is that your body will always focus on the carbohydrates and the stored glucose (glycogen) in the body first because it is the easiest to convert to energy. After your body has used up the glycogen stores, it will turn to the lipids or fats to convert to energy. Realizing this, we need to understand that before the body uses its stored fat, it will always use our food sources first.
I want to believe that this is common sense but let’s take two people. The first person may reduce the amount of food, even though they are still eating carbohydrates, proteins and fats and perform vigorous exercise for hours a week and another person who sticks to proteins and fats and walks or does just moderate amounts of exercise. The first person has to metabolize all the carbohydrates that were used first to make energy coupled with the fact that vigorous exercise only boosts the cortisol levels making your body store fats. This is compared to the second person who cut out carbohydrates, basically giving their body to rely only on the glucose that it produces before burning fat for energy. There is a smart way to work out to lose weight but a lot of the activities and food that we eat only make it so much harder. Using a food reference, this is food for thought.
Smarter fitness LLC is my company that I started to share all the information that I not only researched but went through myself. I had several years of rebounding diets. I used to run 5 miles a day or jog daily on treadmill at the gym when I was younger. I will turn 57 next month and I want to prove to myself that I can finally have a six-pack. This is not an easy task because reducing belly fat is a lot harder to remove once you put it on.
Right now, Smarter Fitness LLC is just strictly a blog site but I have the plan to get more into the sale of online fitness programs and lifestyle coaching perhaps some Yoga and Pilates instruction. I don’t make revenue from ads, at least so far or by selling supplements which I do not believe in. If you like the content and want to make a donation, it would be greatly appreciated. You can find the link by clicking here.
Very interesting read.