GOINDIS NATUROPATHY TRUST(INDIA)
Charity Registration No.845/4 dated 03.09.2003
THE METABOLIC SYSTEM
SANTOKH SINGH PARMAR
FOUNDER TRUSTEES:
Satyendra Singh Goindi, MSc, LLB, ND
Gurkirpal Kaur Goindi, BA, BEd, DPE, ND
Santokh Singh Parmar, B Arch, Dip TP, Dip LA, MRTPI, AITP, AIIA
Devinder Singh Saroya, PCS
Gurmukh Singh Girn, MSc, MCRP, AITP
6 The metabolic System
What is Metabolism?
6.1 Metabolism is the process of transforming foodstuffs into tissue elements and into energy (movement and heat) for use in growth, repair and general functions of the body, and to running a marathon. Metabolism happens in your muscles and organs and the result of it is what we commonly refer to as “burning calories”. Metabolism is essentially the speed at which your machine body’s motor is running. It is the metabolic rate that influences your energy level, mood and exactly how quickly you gain or lose weight. Most people are born with normal metabolism but their lifestyle influences it for better or worse.
6.2 Basically, our body burns calories to sustain three main functions: –
(i) Basal (Resting) Metabolic Rate (BMR) – This is the amount of energy or caloric expenditure required by the body when it is at complete rest – even when we are lying down doing nothing – to maintain body functions such as breathing, heartbeat, muscle tone, maintaining body temperature etc. BMR accounts for 60-70% of the daily calories burnt for an average person. The other 30-40% helps maintain body tissues and muscle mass. To roughly calculate, BMR multiply the body weight in kilos by 22.
(ii) Activity – This is the energy used doing movement and exertion – from lifting our arm to operate the remote control to doing housework, walking and exercising. The calories burnt, depends upon how active or passive lifestyle we have. The activity level calories roughly are 30% of BMR for inactive persons, 50% of BMR for average activity and 75% of BMR for strenuous activity.
(iii) Dietary Thermogenesis – This is food induced heat production – the digestive calories burnt in the process of eating, digesting, absorbing and assimilating food in the body. Digestive calories will be about 10% of both BMR and activity level calories. As an example, drinking 2 litres of iced water a day will burn 100 calories just heating the water to normal body temperature.
6.3 Example – For a person weighing 60 kg with average level of activity, the guideline average daily calories will be: –
1320 BMR calories (60 x 22) + 660 average activity level calories (50% of BMR calories) + 198 dietary thermogenesis calories (10% of both BMR and average activity level calories) = 2,178 calories.
How to Improve Metabolism?
6.4 Where do the Calories Go? – Liver 27%; brain 19%; muscles 18%; kidneys 10%; heart 7%; other organs 19%. Whether you are trying to lose extra kilos or compensating for the inevitable slowing down of the metabolic rate that comes with age or simply you want to remain hale and hearty, the following are some surefire ways to boost metabolism, to keep your energy pulsating and the body in shape. The more of these ways you are able to incorporate into your lifestyle, the more you will boost your metabolism. That means you will be burning more calories 24 hours a day! So bring discipline to lifestyle, get rid of negativity, have positive and cheerful attitude and bounce back with high spirits and vibrant energy with these health-giving tips: –
(i) Never wake-up to Tea or Coffee – Instead eat real natural food, which is easy on the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and stomach, say seasonal fruit within 15 minutes of waking. Any stimulant like caffeine in tea, coffee and nicotine in cigarettes jolt the system out of slumber. It increases the blood pressure, heart and breathing rates, and makes the body feel stressed or “kicked” to which, the body will respond by slowing down metabolism and hampering fat burning. Moreover, the Cuppa can mask your hunger, so you go hungry for a longtime without realising it. All it does is create a huge calorie and nutrient deficit in the morning, and the body has no other option than to overeat later to make up the deficit. With sunrise, the metabolism peaks and the cells need nutrition. This is the time to eat and to eat big healthy breakfast. Once your cells receive nutrition through food and the blood sugar comes to an optimum level, feel free to have your tea or coffee. The breathing and heart rates etc will still increase, but now your breakfast will act as a buffer. Moderate consumption of coffee or tea (especially green) is known to boost metabolism but not first thing in the morning.
(ii) Never Skip Breakfast – Breakfast breaks the fast after 9-10 hours or more since our last meal and sleep. Your stomach and spleen (or metabolism) is at their strongest first thing in the morning. Metabolic rate is shaped like an icecream cone, highest in the morning, declining gradually through the day. Eating a seasonal fruit within 15 minutes of waking and eating substantial healthy breakfast later improves the metabolism as much as 25%. On the other hand, if you just have tea/coffee and a light bite and skip breakfast, your body thinks it is “famine” and its natural reaction, as protective mechanism, is to completely shut down the metabolism or slow it down to a crawl in an attempt to preserve whatever fuel reserves it contains as fat for the future “famine”. Since BMR accounts for 60-70% of energy expenditure, it is clearly the largest form of energy expenditure to maintain good health and ideal weight.
Those who skip breakfast are also the ones likely to develop high cholesterol, high blood pressure, blood sugar problems linked to diabetes and heart diseases. Eating breakfast has been proven to improve concentration, problem solving abilities, mental performance, memory and mood, besides good health. So make it a habit to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
A nutritious fulfilling breakfast should provide our 25-30% of daily nutrient needs to keep us healthy and bubbling with energy. This will also provide you the nutrient boost and will banish your cravings to binge on high calorie weight promoting junk foods in the latter part of the day, which happens if you skip breakfast. So, if you have been skipping breakfast, start eating from now on, even when you don’t feel hungry. It will take about 3 weeks to reset the biological hunger clock, once you begin.
(iii) Avoid Fasting and Feasting – Eat Small Meals Frequently – Long gaps between meals is a big destroyer of metabolism. When you fast, the body actually turns away calories, which are converted into fat. Even when the body needs energy, it actually burns muscle and holds on to the fat. There is some evidence to suggest that eating small, more frequent meals keeps the metabolism on the right path i.e. burning calories faster than large, less frequent meals. The more frequently you eat, the more frequently your metabolism will get a boost. Provided your small meals don’t fall into the quick-fix, high fat and sugar laden snacks, eating little and often can also help to control hunger and make you less likely to binge. There are two reasons why meal frequency may improve metabolism. Firstly, the levels of thyroid hormones begin to drop within hours of eating a meal, which slows metabolism. Secondly, it may be that thermogenic effect of eating several small meals is higher than eating the same amount of calories at once. So eat 7-8 small meals, say every two hours, instead of 2-3 large meals a day.
Also severely restricting your food intake for several hours to reduce weight is crazy as it actually slows metabolism and weight loss. When your body gets a regular dose of a small number of calories often, through the day, it feels reassured and loved. Eating should be a celebration and a way of loving our body and providing it with healthy nourishment. Not eating for long hours (more than 3) or starving is an act of punishment, like being angry at ourselves. When your body gets fewer calories at a time, they are metabolised better and the body sees no reason to store these as body fat.
(iv) Munch Healthy Snacks – If you can’t avoid 2-3 large meals, the next best thing is to munch a carrot or an apple or anything healthy and nutritious between meals. Other good snacking options include oatcakes with low fat soft cheese, a handful of unsalted whole nuts, vegetable sticks, low-fat or fat-free yoghurt and berries. Snacking can actually help you lose weight. Snacking prevents you from becoming too hungry. The hungrier you are, the less control you have over what and how much you eat. Also it will keep your energy/sugar levels stable and your metabolism stoked.
(v) Keep Hydrated – Your metabolism needs plenty of water to function properly. Drink 2½-3 litres of water/liquid (more in hot weather and if you exercise) at regular intervals through the day. Staying well-hydrated is essential to flushing the body of toxic waste products that are released during metabolic processes.
(vi) Eat Light Last Meal at least 2-3 hours prior to hitting the Bed – Basically our activity is lower than what it was in the morning, so is metabolism and the digestion capacity of the stomach. Therefore, eating a heavy meal late at night is a sure shot recipe for weight gain because the body stores more unburnt calories as fat during sleep. In the night, body cells are naturally not very sensitive to energy or nutrients, so if you overload your stomach, most of it will get wasted or converted to fat. Overloaded stomach will also disrupt the sleep pattern.
(vii) Eat Spicy Food – There is evidence to show that spices especially chillies, can raise the metabolic rate by upto 50% for upto 3 hours after you have eaten a spicy meal.
(viii) Increase Thermogenic Effect of Food – About 10% of the calories we consume each day are used up in metabolising and digesting what we have eaten. So consume more complex carbohydrates like wholegrains and cereals and high-fibre fruits and vegetables which burn more calories than simple carbohydrates.
(ix) Build Muscle Mass – Metabolism slows as we age by as much as 2% a year. But we can counterbalance nature by increasing and strengthening our muscle mass. Muscle tissue largely determines our metabolic rate. It is the single most important predictor of how well we metabolise our food, how well we burn calories and body fat. Our muscle tissue uses 16-22% of our daily calories just to exist. Staying fit and keeping our metabolism active involves a two-pronged strategy – burning off existing unwanted fat as well as checking its accumulation. It is most wise to invest calories in building muscle and toning up the body. So smarten up and increase the muscle mass in the body with moderate strength training exercises. Toned muscles send metabolism through the roof and it stays pumped up for many hours after the finish of the workout. For every ½ kg of muscle, the body uses upto 60 extra calories a day on average. This is because muscle is metabolically more active and burns more calories than fat and other body tissues even when we are not moving.
(x) Do Regular Exercises – Your metabolic rate is directly related to the intensity of exercise you perform. Low intensity exercise doesn’t do much for your metabolic rate but moderately high intensity does. Remember, if you are not sweating and getting tired after your brisk walk or any other exercise, then you are fooling yourself into thinking that you are doing the right thing. You have to push yourself and come out of the comfort zone to get results by exercising at 60-80% of your maximum heart rate (220 – age). Remember that even the number of calories you burn during half an hour exercise session become somewhat irrelevant; what is important is the metabolic rate at which you are burning calories both during the exercise as well as other 23½ hours of every day of your life.
(xi) Get Active and Fidget More – The level of routine activity and fidgeting help burn more calories. Be aware of this fact and adopt the hard way to do things, i.e. take every opportunity to shift, move and keep fidgeting. A few ideas for metabolising and burning calories: – stand rather than sit; tap your feet; swing your legs; drum with fingers; stand up and stretch; move your head from side to side; change position; pace up and down; use stairs more than lifts; walk or cycle than using the car for local shopping.
(xii) Get Enough Quality Sleep – A good quality, restful and peaceful sleep is the backbone to good health and losing fat. While we sleep, our body repairs and rejuvenates the cells, balances the hormones and gets ready for the work the next day. If at night the stomach is overloaded, the body’s recovery system take a beating and the food does not get metabolised properly i.e. broken down, digested and absorbed. Adults should normally get 7-8 hours good quality sleep in a totally dark room without any trace of light contamination. Children need much more sleep and older people less. Avoid sleeping during the day except for after-lunch nap of 10-20 minutes – that too if your body needs. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of unhealthy eating, leading to weight gain. Sleep is prescribed by Nature and good sleep also improves your defence mechanism – immunity.
Santokh Singh Parmar
Naturo-Food Therapist & Lifestyle Consultant
Mobile: +91(0) 9815922330
Websites: www.naturofoodtherapy.org & www.foodtherapy.org
Note: The above information and advice and indicative remedies are not a substitute for the advice, your doctor or naturo-food therapist may give you based on his/her knowledge of yourself.