Metabolism, energy and nutrient requirement

Overview

According to certain headlines you can boost your metabolism in 5 easy steps.

It is also suggested that you can also lose weight by improving your metabolism and rev up your metabolism by eating certain foods and performing specific types of exercise.

If you have an interest in losing weight, or maintaining a healthy body weight and being physically active you have probably come across the word "metabolism".

But, what do we mean by "metabolism" and what is the relationship between the nutrients we consume and metabolism?

What is metabolism?

• the sum total of all the chemical reactions that occur in living cells to maintain life
• chemical or metabolic reactions involved in the building and breakdown of organic molecules, and the extraction, storage and use of energy from organic compounds within the cells of living organisms
• every metabolic or chemical reaction requires energy
• energy metabolism: all chemical reactions which provide energy obtained from food
• digestion: metabolic pathway wherein carbohydrate, fat and protein contained in food you eat is broken into glucose, fatty acids, amino acids, and vitamins and minerals which can be absorbed into your body
• three other cellular metabolic pathways break down glucose, fatty acids and amino acids to release energy in the form of ATP the energy molecule
• vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients contained in the food you eat and water required for these metabolic pathways to function optimally

What is the relationship between metabolism and energy requirement?

 ...link to the full article to learn mor about metabolism and how weight gain and loss affects your BMR and energy requirement