Understanding What You Refer to as Fast Metabolism

Metabolism is one word that almost everyone uses but not everyone can give a definite answer to. I was seeing an interview with a celebrity and she was asked why she usually holds a towel around, and she answered that she sweats a lot because she had a high metabolism rate. That interview made me remember a time when a cousin of mine will always say that he could eat anything because he had a fast metabolism rate.

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You know, a lot of us do not even understand what metabolism rate means and we would use high and fast interchangeably when discussing metabolism and funny enough, when being used, they are referring to the ability for people to get fatter from eating. You would hear people say they have fast metabolism, so they cannot easily gain weight and then they look at people who gain weight easily and say they have slow metabolism.

Different definition by different people on the street and you begin to ask which should you take, it is the sweating profusely, or the eating and not changing body size? What is metabolism. In the body, metabolism has to do with chemical reactions that involves energy production that keeps us alive.

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While it is simple in definition, it is a complex process just like you saw in the image above but I am not going through all of that in this post because I want to look at that fast metabolism that a lot of you mention and explain in the simplest of term that i can. If you ask a scientist to mention something when discussing metabolism, there is a high chance they will mention "BMR" which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate and it is the rate of energy used for basic essential processes that keeps us alive such as basic function like blood pumping and it makes up a large percentage of the TMR which is the Total Metabolic Rate of the body which is the rate of energy energy to fuel everything needed in the body.

The body uses fat as a source of energy and it means people with fast metabolism are just burning fat quicker than some. According to Harvard Health Publication "Does Metabolism Matter in Weight Loss" it was written that some people are just lucky but really lucky cannot be said for everything metabolism. At some point in the day, metabolism is faster and at some point it is slower depending on the energy level required by the body. The body also demand energy based on activities such as eating, exercise, brain tasking and so on.

Muscle gains and metabolism aren't always working hand in hand. According to a study, researchers took participants and got them to train so they can have more muscles for 12 weeks but still realized that their BMR wasn't affected even though they had increased muscles. Although BMR doesn't increase, TMR sure does for athletes after exercise for a very long time.

Metabolism is a complex but fascinating aspect of our physiology. While some people may have a naturally faster metabolism, some could have slow metabolism as a result of fragmentation and dysfunction but remember that there are different phases for different metabolism rate. Understanding the basics of metabolism and how it affects energy use can help demystify this commonly misunderstood term. Whether your metabolism is fast or slow, recognizing the factors that influence it can help you make informed decisions about your health and lifestyle.

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Post Reference

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_{https://www.health.harvard.edu/does-metabolism-matter-in-weight-loss
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/basal-metabolic-rate
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7824356/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-metabolism
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/metabolic-rate
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6233655/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-024-00978-0}