Weight Management: Is It Metabolism or Just Bad Habits?

When it comes to diet and exercise, one-word people love to throw around is metabolism. “Metabolism this” and “metabolism that” and “when you get older you metabolism slows down”. But when it comes to our overall health, is it our bodies that slow down or us?

From medicinenet.com

Metabolism: The whole range of biochemical processes that occur within a living organism. Metabolism consists of anabolism (the buildup of substances) and catabolism (the breakdown of substances). The term metabolism is commonly used to refer specifically to the breakdown of food and its transformation into energy.

Basically, its the body’s way to break down and store food for energy. When we’re younger our bodies don’t store food as much. As a kid, we play during recess, participate in the gym in school, then we get out and are usually enrolled in little league sports. Our ability to move around and burn off the extra nutrients in food may seem a lot faster. We really don’t have time for the bad habits that keep on the weight.

As we get older, do our bodies really slow down or do we just go to a less active lifestyle? Even if we work on our feet all day, most people have a mildly active workday. At best, most people who are still doing adult leagues like volleyball or softball it’s typically once a week. Then of course, when we do get home from these less than active jobs, we’re exhausted from the long days and go right into relax mode.

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Then of course there are the people who blame genetics. “Our mom/dad was overweight so that’s why I am.” is another common phrase. Your family might have a history of health issues along the way, but one major factor that’s passed on is bad habits. Bad diets are passed from generation to generation. We form more bad habits from our parents when it comes to diet than anything. As kids, we ate what they put in front of us.

If we grow up being taught to eat junk and quick meals we’ll eventually grow up and eat poorly. Then when we become less active our “metabolism” slows down. Our bodies are still processing food in the same manner they always have. The difference is we go from eating consistently and burning the nutrients we take in, to a lifestyle where we eat meals further apart. The farther we go between meals causes our body to go from utilize to store.

Food is your energy source and while most food is delicious, that’s its purpose in life, to give you energy. If you stock up on food in the form of overeating, your body is metaphorically a bear in hibernation. Your energy source is being stored until you can make it until your next meal. Its basically going into survival mode.

Unlike a bear, you’re not in a state of energy conservation. Even a low activity day you’re still awake and somewhat active. Your body knows that and is causing you to constantly stock up while you wait for the next meal. You’re subconsciously training your brain to take in more food to maintain the energy needed to get to it’s next meal.

Blame “metabolism” if you want, but its your bad habits that are one of the biggest factors of your weight. Going to a less active lifestyle and loading up on food storage is causing you to be overweight. Even if you’re eating healthy, you’re either eating too much because you don’t eat often enough, or your intake might be smaller and less healthy sources of energy.

First thing to correct this, is get on a diet that has you eating at the same time as often as possible. This step is more important than what you’re eating, to start that is. Get your body used to resupplying energy each day so it doesn’t go into survival/storage mode, then change your diet.

Break your bad diet routine and your body will use what it has stored to get you to time you eat. If you don’t, your body will be like “I need all these calories” because it doesn’t know when its going to re-up.

Believe it or not, routine is just as important as your diet. What we think is metabolism is essentially our bodies doing what they need to do to survive cold winters without more food. Get more consistent meals, eat healthier, push your time between couch breaks a little further apart and your body will use its energy more efficiently.