The Weight Loss Secret: It’s All About Your Metabolism

What is Our Metabolism?

I had to start with a catchy title to grab your attention quickly and efficiently, and I’ve found that any mention of "weight loss" does the trick. I've been reading and trying to understand what metabolism really is and the power it has. I’ve realized it’s much more complex than what society generally believes. After reading the book I mentioned last blog post, I’ve gained a lot of respect for our metabolism. I truly think that understanding how it functions and what is under our control can make a huge impact on our health.

Metabolism: All the movements, changes, and actions that your body performs to convert food and nutrients into energy in order to survive.

Movement always uses energy; without energy, there is no movement. Our metabolism is the sum of all the movements that the body executes to exist. When we say we have a "slow metabolism," what we really mean is that the movement within our body isn’t happening at an optimal rate. People often associate a "slow metabolism" with difficulty in losing weight. This can lead to constipation, accumulation of toxins, poor circulation, infections, bad digestion, weight problems, and obesity, among other things.

It is estimated that more than 30% of the population engages in some type of diet, exercise program, or effort to lose or control their weight each year. There are various factors that affect your metabolism, and contrary to popular belief, nutrition is not the only aspect that must be improved to lose weight and feel good.

It’s true that our diets are very important when it comes to losing weight, but it’s not the only factor. Frank Suarez explains this idea with the following metaphor: The food we eat is like our body’s fuel. Food is to the body what gasoline is to your car. The metabolism, which converts food (the body’s fuel) into energy, is like your car’s engine. Having a "slow metabolism" is like having problems with your car’s engine—problems that can’t be solved solely by improving the fuel (diet). To solve the problem of a "slow metabolism," you have to understand the metabolism (the engine). This is why so many people fail in their diets; they don’t understand how the metabolism works and thus ignore it.

I thought his way of putting it into a real-life scenario was genius. It’s a simple way to understand how important it is to understand our metabolism—a perfect explanation of why a holistic approach to one’s health is vital. I will talk about factors that decrease the metabolism in next week’s blog post. Hope this was useful! <3