Learn everything you need to know to keep your metabolism in check.Every cell in your body requires energy to function―whether it’s delivering nutrients to your brain, pumping oxygen from your lungs to your muscles during a long power walk, or producing infection-fighting white blood cells deep in your bone marrow. Metabolism is the name for the system by which the body converts the calories in food to energy (blood sugar) to perform these and many other functions.
Many factors contribute to your metabolism, including heredity. You’re born with an internal speedometer that regulates your base metabolic rate (BMR), the pace at which your body uses energy when you’re at rest. BMR accounts for approximately 60 percent of the total energy an average person expends in a day. (The rest is used in digestion, exercise, and non-exercise activities―showering, chopping vegetables, or fidgeting.) “We are not sure what makes people different in terms of metabolism; the genes determining that have yet to be identified, but it’s being explored,” says Gary Miller, PhD, associate professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Read more
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