One of these guys is famous and theyre both sweating (Image: AP)
Every dayyoull see another post about jumpstarting your metabolism. Maybe it will tell you to eator avoid certain foods, or maybe just to try a new exercise routine.
But few of these articles are backed by solid science. You cant give your metabolism a sudden jumpstart that turns you into a fat-burning, super lean fitness monster. You can, however, live a less shitty lifestyle that causes you to burn more energy more quickly. There arent quick fixes with immediate resultsthats why they call it changing your lifestyle.
The word metabolism just refers to all of the chemical reactions going on in your body at the same time, including digestion but also turning sugars into energy, building proteins, and doing the rest of the chemistry that keeps you alive. Your body combines all these processes to sustain itself and to maintain homeostasis: a constant state of fuel in, energy and waste out, keeping the proper levels of the chemicals you need in check.
Those googling the word metabolism are likely interested in losing weight or living a healthier lifestyle, and therefore focusing on the chemical reactions involved in digestion and eating. When it comes those parts of metabolism, homeostasis means: If it takes 1500 calories to run your body on a given day and do some exercise, your body wants to keep that 1500 level, Jo Zimmerman, Instructor in Kinesiology at the University of Maryland School of Public Health explained to Gizmodo. Sure, the rate at which your body uses fuel to create energy increases while you eat or exercise, but it returns back to normal once youre back at rest.
In other words, your body doesnt want to change its weight. Its remarkably stable, Zimmerman said.
That means most foods dont cause a meaningful change in your metabolic rate, nor does that rate generally change over time. One exception: Once youre fully grown your body uses less energy, Sarah Kuzmiak-Glancy, assistant professor in Kinesiology from the University of Maryland School of Public Health told Gizmodo. But that decrease in your daily energy requirement doesnt explain the slow weight gain people might associate with getting older. That comes from inactivity.
People say oh, my metabolism slowed down as soon as I hit 30. No, it didnt slow down a whole lot, said Zimmerman. Your activity level slowed down. You werent in college, playings sports after work with your friends, said Zimmerman. We slow down our physical activity. Were not burning as many calories. Thats our creeping weight gain.
So, here you are, out of college hoping to jumpstart your metabolism, trying to avoid packing on the pounds because youve reached your final adult height and dont have time to stay active. Everyone I spoke with said there were two ways to appreciably raise your metabolic rate: Either you can eat food, which causes your body to start using energy, or you can exercise. Caffeine and maybe even capsaicin, the molecule that makes peppers taste spicy, can make your body use up energy a little faster for a short amount of time, said Shawn Arent, Director of The New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health Center for Health and Human Performance at Rutgers University. Youre not talking 24 hour regulation, he said. Theres not a huge change in metabolic response. maybe its dozens, not hundreds of calories more energy used. Capsaicins effects might also come from suppressing the appetite, causing you to eat less, according to a New York Times report.
Ephedrine-based weight loss drugs work similarly to caffeine since ephedrine is a stimulant with a molecular structure a lot like methamphetamine. Ephedrine only offers a handful of pounds per year worth of lost weight from the added effects of a little faster metabolism, said Arent.
And, just because eating speeds up the rate at which your body does stuff doesnt mean eating breakfast, a major claim of many of those metabolism jumpstart links above, will suddenly turn you into a slim and trim health fiend. Theres nothing magical about breakfast, said Zimmerman. She pointed out that insidious homeostasis keeps your metabolism in check throughout the day when you arent eating, insidious in that your body would rather not lose weight. You should still eat breakfast, but not with weight loss as a goal. It just so happens that eating meals gives you the energy you need to survive.
So, there are no metabolism jumpstarts. Everyone I spoke to explained that if your goal is losing weight, its a slow process requiring lifestyle and habit changeseating less, eating healthier and exercising more. Assuming youre currently at a state of energy-in-equals-energy-out, Glancy recommended for one pound per week of weight loss, you would have to cut your diet down by 500 calories every day. I always promote 250 calories of caloric restriction, not eating dessert, and 250 calories of additional activity. High protein diets seem to positively affect body composition according a few studies by Jose Antonio, assistant professor in exercise and sports science at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, though the companies donating protein powder to those studies are also sponsors to the journals conferenceso we take the results with a grain of salt. Finally, complete restriction diets dont work for anyone. You must eat.
Cutting some food out of your diet without adding some form of exercise also isnt optimal. While adding muscle wont significantly raise the metabolism, said Arent, If youre losing weight and lose muscle it has a negative impact on the metabolism, he said. That means strength training like weightlifting is important for maintaining a lower weight. Losing muscle weight can make it more likely to regain fat later.
Glancy added one caveat, citing a study I reported on previously. We dont completely know how the gut microbiome, all of the bacteria that live inside of our digestive tract, fits in with all of this, she said. Its possible that our long term eating habits might change the diversity of the bacteria living in our gut, and we might be able to change the way those bacteria aid in our digestion. It seems like that might be a possibility, she said, but were not there yet in our understanding of how microbiome composition relates to function. Plus, the diet thats best for those bacteria is probably one with more vegetables and fewer refined sugars, the one doctors and nutritionists would recommend anyway.
In short, people make money from selling supplements, they make money from convincing you youre fat, and they make money telling you that there are ways to not be fat by buying their product or listening to their advice. But if youre living unhealthily, there arent jumpstarts or quick fixes to a healthy lifestyle. You have to actually change your habits.
See more here:
There's No Easy Way to 'Jumpstart Your Metabolism' - Gizmodo
