Did I speed up my metabolism?

Posted by LD on April 28, 2010 under Weight Loss | 3 Comments to Read

So I’d like to tell you a story. This happened to me the other day and it really bothered me. As the weather is getting nicer I am wearing less bulky clothes. One of the ladies in the office asked me if I lost weight. That didn’t bother me obviously. I said yes, I dropped 20 lbs in 12 weeks. She then asked how I did it. I walked her through all the aspects of my diet plan and my exercise regiment. At the end of this long description she looked at me and said “Well you have a fast metabolism…” What!? In 5 words she discounted everything I explained, as well as belittled my 12 weeks of hard work. Now I’ know she didn’t mean anything by it, but it seems like such a dismissive statement.

Image: Paul Brentnall / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So am I correct in being annoyed? or do I have a fast metabolism? Well first we need to ask what is metabolism? Its defined as: The set of chemical reactions that happen in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. That doesn’t seem dead simple. Lets just say its everything your body does to keep you alive. In the context of diet and weight loss metabolism seem to have 2 meanings. Metabolism really means the calories your body burns in a given amount of time (usually per day). But what people think it means is the calories someone burns effortlessly.

We are all unique.

So the 4 things that factor into your effortless metabolism are sex, height, weight, and age Obviously sex, height and age you have no control over. This is were some people are luckier than others. Guys burn a couple hundred more calories than girls, taller people burn about 10 more calories per inch than shorter people, younger burn about 7 more calories than someone a year older. So I do have a faster metabolism than her because I am a guy, I am taller and younger than her.

We are all the same.

Now if you lined up a bunch of 5′ 10″, 175lb, 32 year old guys my metabolism wouldn’t stand out in any way. The numbers would only vary by a few percent.

What else goes into daily calorie requirements?

Lets look at weight. The lighter you get, the lower your metabolism will go. The good news is that its only about 2 or 3 calories per pound of fat. So if you weighted 200 lbs and lost 25 lbs of fat your daily calorie requirement would go down 50 – 75 calories (about as much as 2 Hershey’s kisses). Its more like 5-7 calories per pound of muscle so try to keep the muscle.

Now what actually goes into your real metabolism are those 4 factors and activity level. This is what you have the most control over. The more active you are the more calories you burn. This is obvious right? No one expects to be able to eat like Michael Phelps (8-10 thousand calories per day) without putting in the 4-5 hours of intense training he does. But people refer to his fast metabolism all the time. He is normal, he just does an abnormal amount of work per day.

What annoyed me about the statement is it made it sound like I couldn’t help but lose weight. That my body did all the work while I sat on the couch and watched TV. The truth is that I do speed up my metabolism every day by hitting the gym, and being more active.