Metabolism and Weight Loss in Springfield

It’s not uncommon these days to be hearing more and more about differences in metabolism being responsible for both weight loss and gain. Some people in Springfield even see a sluggish metabolism essentially as an insurmountable genetic predisposition, making it close to impossible for them to lose weight. A question our Springfield community members should be asking themselves is one that many fail to ask. But what exact role does metabolism actually play in gaining weight? Many of us are surprised upon hearing the correct answer. But to fully understand this answer, it’s vital to comprehend what metabolism is and how it functions throughout your entire body. Our team of weight loss experts at Springfield Weight Loss Center hopes that you will find this article pragmatically educational and beneficial.

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What is Metabolism?

It’s remarkable to consider the fact that the food we eat and drink we consume gives us all of the energy we need to live, play, work, and enjoy our time with our families in Springfield. But what might be more intriguing is how that food and drink transforms into that useful energy. But don’t worry, this isn’t meant to be an AP course in biochemistry, it’s more to give you a working understanding of metabolism so you can have a deeper knowledge concerning weight gain and loss.

Metabolism is best thought of, in this instance anyway, as the regulator of our bodies’ energy needs. We are in a constant state of needing to use energy. We use it to breathe, pump blood, heal, and digest food. It’s a system that doesn’t get to rest. Upon consuming fluids or foods, our bodies combine our own enzymes and chemicals with that food at a certain rate which will meet our energy requirements. A common example of this is when people exercise, their bodies tend to break down food faster and more quickly convert energy reserves, like fat. This is done to match the greater energy needs the body requires.

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What Processes Require Metabolism to Create Energy?

We’ve mentioned this before, but metabolism contributes in one way or another to every system in our body. The significant amount of energy required to pump blood, heal ourselves, breathe, and even sleep is easily forgotten. It’s significant to surprise many people when they hear that the energy required to perform the above tasks is far greater than the amount of energy required to perform other daily tasks, and even exercising. There isn’t much variance when it comes to these core processes, or “background systems”, as they account for almost 70 percent of our daily caloric expenditure. The process of calories being burned for these background systems is termed a basal metabolic rate (BMR) or resting metabolic rate (RMR). Your BMR won’t change much from one day to the next, but there are a variety of factors that contribute to your basal metabolic rate being different in each person.

1. Your body’s bulk and make up. This probably comes as no surprise, but research has found that people with larger frames and a greater percentage of muscle mass typically burn more calories. This principle applies to breathing, pumping blood, and other background systems – all require higher energy in people with larger frames.
2. Your age. A variety of research has shown that the older you get, the more slowly you burn calories. This can mostly be attributed to fat replacing muscle, as muscles require more energy to be maintained and function well than fat does.
3. Whether you are male or female. In the same way that the amount of muscle we have helps determine the rate at which we burn calories, men tend to burn calories at a higher rate than their female counterparts, due to their typically higher muscle-to-fat ratio.

   In view of our BMR only accounting for roughly 70 percent of our daily calorie consumption, you might be wondering where the remaining 30 percent is being directed. The answer is one of two places, more often than not. It’s either used for the breaking down of food or daily physical activity.

Food gives us the majority of energy our body needs, but it also requires energy to be broken down and utilized. This breaking down of food, termed thermogenesis, plays a big part in the metabolic process of the body. It requires roughly 10-13 percent of the energy you receive from calories to break down, absorb, move, and store it to be used down the road. As we saw with our BMR, the day-to-day energy requirement levels don’t vary often.

In the end, the final process which burns a significant amount of calories is one of which you have to control. Each person has governance over how much physical activity they experience each day. Whether it is walking, mowing the lawn, playing a game, or going for a job, each of these activities make up the final 30-35 percent of the total energy requirements we’ve been discussing. Because physical activity is the only one of the three metabolic processes that contributes to the consumption of calories and energy, which varies each day, it follows that it’s also the most significant factor that determines weight loss or gain.

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Metabolism and Weight

As you read this article, it likely is becoming clearer that while your metabolism is largely responsible for turning calories into energy, it has little to do with how much weight you lose or gain. You should also be able to remember that roughly 70 to 80 percent of our metabolic rate does not fluctuate, and therefore there is little we can do to change it. Even though it’s easy to lay the blame of weight gain at the feet of your metabolism, what we eat and the amount of daily exercise are the presiding factors when it comes to actual weight loss or gain.

So the next logical step you might already be considering is how exactly exercise and nutrition relate to weight gain or loss. It’s helpful to think of metabolism as a scale when answering this question. Irrespective of an individual’s metabolic rate, if that person eats more calories than what they burn on any given day, the inevitable conclusion is weight gain. The reason behind this is not too tough to understand, since it’s basically a numbers game. Any calories not burned will be stored for use at a later time when we might not be able to eat enough. That’s just how the body operates. But in modern America, it’s extremely rare that anyone of us does not get the requisite amount of calories each day, so the extra calories stack up. To synthesize this idea, the only way you can cut down on weight is to either exercise more or eat less. If you do one or both of these things, there will be a lower amount of calories available for our basal metabolic rate, physical activity, and food processing. This forces the body to start burning the energy it has stored up, usually in the form of fat. If that happens, the end result is an increase in weight loss or a decrease in weight gain.

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So what can I do to burn more calories and lose weight?

We are so glad you asked, because here at Springfield Weight Loss Center, we specialize in working with you to change your body’s set point for its ideal weight. This lets you lose more weight while burning more body fat. Our natural weight loss program is comprised of a specific low glycemic index, an anti-inflammatory diet combined with supplementation and weight loss coaching. The ChiroThin formula, by ChiroNutraceutical is a natural dietary supplement, which is why we say you can lose weight without drugs. It contains a variety of nutritional ingredients that have been shown to help with fatty acid transportation, blood sugar stabilization, increase in metabolism, detoxification, and fatty acid metabolism. When blended with healthy and specific combinations of anti-inflammatory, low glycemic index, your body becomes more efficient at turning stored, unconsumed calories (fat) into energy.

Broadly speaking, ChiroThin affords the body to be able to metabolize fat more efficiently, and utilize it as energy when someone burns more calories than they have consumed over a certain period of time. ChiroNutraceutical has specially designed the ChiroThin formula to be supplemented by purposeful amounts of amino acids, cell salts, and vitamins for added benefit. What’s more, the ChiroThin Weight Loss program has dietary and behavioral modification guidance in addition to a tailored strategy. When this strategy is followed it can significantly impact the likelihood of long term weight loss success. There are weight loss surgery alternatives that work, and ours at Springfield Weight Loss Center shows you how to lose fat, and how to lose weight without exercising as well. Talking to your Springfield Weight Loss Center doctor in Springfield is always the best start to addressing your weight loss concerns.

By Adrian Walton