Each of us pursues some special goal: someone wants to lose weight, someone, on the contrary, gain weight. We all know a whole bunch of tricks, diets, various nutritional systems and exercise that can help us achieve our goals. But we forget to take into account one important fact that can either help us or ruin all our plans. This is our metabolism.

Metabolism- This is the metabolism that occurs in our body under the influence of various biochemical processes. The human body continuously receives nutrients that are used to maintain energy and human life. Even if you sleep or are at rest, you still use the energy that your body creates, your body. That is, metabolism is a continuous process. This process is conditionally divided into two stages:

catabolism- the process of decomposition of complex substances and tissues to simpler ones, in order to further use them to maintain body processes.

Anabolism- the process of synthesizing new structures and tissues. So during the period of anabolism, muscle tissue is restored.

Metabolism can be accelerated or slowed down and this is influenced by a number of factors:

• Age
• Body weight
• Amount of adipose tissue
• chronic diseases

The metabolic rate and its quality greatly affect the work of the whole organism as a whole, because the formation of hormones that affect the functioning of various parts of the body itself depends on how well nutrients are absorbed in the body. And of course, our appearance, the amount of fat, the amount of water in the body depends on the metabolic rate. The metabolic rate affects how many kilocalories a person needs to maintain life.

How to know your metabolic rate

Often we see a fat person who eats very little, and immediately diagnose him: "You have a slow metabolism." However, we draw hasty conclusions, since we cannot judge the metabolic rate only by this fact. It is possible that the same person actually eats little only in your presence. Or suppose he has any chronic diseases that have a negative effect on the processing of body fat.

So, to find out the level of your metabolism, or rather, how much energy your body consumes per day, there is a certain universal formula. The unit of measurement of this energy will be calculated in kilocalories.

The male:(66 + (13.7 * weight) + (5 * height) - (6.8 * age)) * 1.2

Woman:(655 + (9.6 * weight) + (1.8 * height) - (4.7 * age)) * 1.2

The result is the basal metabolic rate (BMR) or basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the average number of calories that a person spends per day, taking into account daily activities, but excluding physical activity.

Thus, you will find out how many calories you need to consume per day, so as not to gain excess weight and not harm yourself. Therefore, both the lack of nutrients and their excess negatively affect the metabolism and slow it down.

What can disrupt metabolism

If you restrict your diet and consume low-calorie foods, then most likely you are not getting the amount of nutrients and energy that your body needs. As a result, the body is in a state of stress and sends a signal to the brain that a hunger strike is coming, and therefore, it is necessary to stock up on nutrients for the future. And for the future, the body can only store fat. This is the first negative factor. The second is that the body slows down all its processes, including metabolic ones, so that the incoming calories are sufficient for it.

Diet

It is important to eat small meals often. As it is necessary to constantly throw firewood into the stove in order to maintain the fire and heat at a certain level, so nutrients must enter the body. The process of digestion also expends a large amount of energy on its breakdown and assimilation. If you do not heat up your metabolism for a long time, then it gradually enters into rest mode and this means that during this period you spend much less calories. In addition, a one-time plentiful meal threatens you with excess body fat.

Sedentary lifestyle

Everyone knows that a person who leads an active lifestyle and goes in for sports has a good appetite and at the same time an excellent shape, which does not tend to gain excess weight. And all this happens because, firstly, when a person is active, his heartbeat quickens, which means that the blood runs through the body much faster and enters into various chemical processes. A large amount of oxygen enters the body, under the influence of which the breakdown of fatty acids occurs in the blood. And secondly, a person who goes in for sports has a good, developed musculature and sometimes a significant mass. And I have repeatedly written that it is in the muscles that fat is burned. In addition, the more muscles a person has, the higher the level of his metabolism.

Lack of vitamins and minerals

In our "difficult" time, it is very difficult to maintain the level of vitamins and minerals in the body at the proper level. Our food has become more and more carbohydrate, and those fruits and vegetables that are available in grocery stores and markets either do not contain useful substances at all, or contain harmful substances, toxins and nitrates. Any athlete knows that taking vitamin supplements is very important to maintain good physical shape and strength performance. And in a situation of deficiency of vitamins and minerals in our diet, taking special vitamin complexes is simply necessary.

Water is very important for a person, since a person consists of 80% of water. And the loss of some fluid can be critical not only for human health, but also for his life. What can we say about the metabolism. Metabolism, that is, the transformation of nutrients from one state to another, occurs in the intercellular fluid. Therefore, water balance is very important for metabolic rate. Any slight violation of this balance directly affects the level of metabolic processes in the direction of their slowdown.

How to avoid metabolic disorders

• Eat often - every 2-3 hours
• Eat small meals - 200-250 grams each serving
• Eat a balanced diet - 40-50% proteins, 20-30% carbohydrates, 15-20% fats
• Take vitamin complexes that are sold in any pharmacy
• Sleep at least 7 hours a day
• Drink at least 1.5 liters of water per day
• Eliminate alcohol from your diet

How to speed up metabolism

Build muscle! 1 kg of muscle burns about 100 kcal per day. Fat reserves practically do not participate in the process of burning calories. This only happens when you put your body through intense training, and the muscles require more energy to work than at rest, and the body begins to use its own fat. By the way, another reason to build muscle is that it is in muscle tissue that fat is burned.

Eat proteins! Protein food is very important in the nutrition of not only athletes (and especially in them), but also ordinary people. All the cells in our body are made of protein, all our matter is made of protein, our muscles and bones are made of protein. Protein is the most important element in building the human body. Lack of protein leads to an imbalance of nutrients in the body and to metabolic disorders. It is also important that protein is the main designer of our muscles, which play a huge role in accelerating metabolism (see the previous paragraph).

Drink water! Water is everything. Without water, a person cannot live even a few days, while without food he can live for a long time, more than a month. This suggests that water is more important for our body than food. Learn to drink water correctly - in small sips throughout the day. Carry a small bottle of water with you when you go on business or to work. Drink about 2 liters per day, and be sure to 1 glass of water in the morning on an empty stomach.

Have breakfast! Morning meal is very important in order to disperse the metabolism for the whole next day. If you do not have breakfast in the morning, then your body will not wake up until the very dinner. Moreover, breakfast should be full, nutritious. But not too oily or sweet. It should energize you for the whole day. It should be a protein-carbohydrate food, where carbohydrates will be predominantly slow.

Alternate calories! Many athletes know that by following the same workouts or the same diet, they will never achieve the desired results, due to the fact that our body is designed in such a way that it adapts to any changes. Therefore, adhering to the same number of calories (reduced) for a long time, you risk slowing down your metabolism. Of course, you need a calorie deficit to lose weight, but you need to give your body a rest. This means that once a week, allow yourself a high-calorie meal that exceeds your usual level. This will allow the body not to experience stress and not feel a lack of energy.

Be active! Even if you have come up with a thousand excuses for not going to the gym or exercising at home, then make sure that even doing ordinary household chores or at work, you are more often on the move. If you work close to a bus stop, skip a couple of bus stops and walk that distance. Ignore the elevators. Even if you live on the 15th floor, walk half the way. Switch TV channels not with the remote control, but manually. Find any convenient moment to be physically active.

Rest! I hope that after an active day you will not have problems with sleep, because it plays an important role in the metabolic process. If you do not get enough sleep, you feel unwell, you have no appetite, your muscles are weak and motionless, then your body saves energy. Don't allow it. Go to bed no later than 23:00, in no case on an empty or full stomach. There should be no discomfort. Eat 2 hours before a meal is not very plentiful.

Get rid of bad habits! Needless to say, alcohol and tobacco negatively affect our body. In addition to the fact that these substances contain poisons that gradually poison all systems of our body, they also affect the level of metabolism. Drinking one serving of alcohol eliminates the benefits of one intense strength training session. In addition, these substances affect the functioning of the central nervous system - the head mechanism of our entire body. Alcohol reduces growth hormone and slows down the production of testosterone, the hormone responsible for muscle growth and metabolic rate in men. Nicotine leads to dehydration of the body due to the fact that the body intensively removes toxins with the help of liquid. Whether these substances do little harm to our organism.

One last piece of advice - avoid stress at all costs. Try to see only the positive in everything. Watch the video and relax, or just smile.