 What is the definition of metabolism? Metabolism generally, is the process of our bodies converting food into energy. Calories are that energy. It can be stored for quick energy use or if not needed, your body will store it as adipose (fat) tissue for later energy use. Your BMR or basal metabolic rate will pretty much always stay the same unless you are eating less than your BMR. For instance my body needs about 1400 calories to maintain bodily functions and other systems that keep me alive. If you regularly do not eat at your BMR, your body will down regulate your metabolism by slowing down the processes it does in the background, you know the ones that keep you alive, in effort to conserve energy. If you do this in an effort to lose weight, it will backfire and weight loss will stall. Even if you yo-yo diet, where some weeks you eat way more calories than your body can use for daily energy requirements and then other weeks you eat only 1000 or so calories per day, your body will still not let go of that precious adipose(fat) tissue that it might need to convert into energy someday because it doesn’t understand that you will eventually give it more food. Our body can only think about what is happening, right now. Now that we have covered that I want to go back to the first sentence, about metabolism. I want to share some information about that metabolism at work by the thermic effect of food. More specifically the thermic effect of the three macronutrients, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Your BMR rises slightly after you eat because your body uses energy (calories) to digest foods we consume. Which one of those three macros has the greatest thermic effect?? Now I am not saying that the thermic effect of food is a great weight control or weight loss tool, however when you think of it in the long term effect, like your whole freaking life, it can be a huge difference maker. Now let’s dive in and find out why… The rise in our BMR has a range from 2% all the way up to 30% depending on the size of the meal and the macronutrient content (carbs, proteins & fats) in those meals.
We will start with the thermic effect of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates include breads, grains, sugar {all forms}, pasta, rice, quinoa etc. Carbs have 4 calories per gram so if you eat 25 grams of carbohydrates that is 100 calories. 25 x 4 = 100 Carbs raise your BMR by 5-10% We will meet in the middle and use 7% and calculate the thermic effect of 100 calories of carbs. 100 x .07 = 7 calories burned during digestion. So you have 93 or so calories left over for energy use or storage. Interesting. Next up, fats... Fats include healthy fats, saturated fats, regular fat, mono and poly, trans, partially hydrogenated oils. Fats have 9 calories per 1 gram. If you eat 100 calories of fat, you have consumed roughly 11 grams of fat. 100 / 9 = 11.1 . Fats raise your BMR by 0-5%. Now let's find out the thermic effect of 100 calories of fat. We will go with the 5% figure. 100 x .05 = 5 calories burned during digestion and the other 95 calories is either used up for energy that day or can be stored for later use by your body. The effect could also be less. What if it's only 1, 2 or 3%? That is still 97 or more calories left over for energy or storage. Very interesting. The last macro is protein. Proteins have 4 calories (like carbs) per gram. If you eat 25 grams of protein you have consumed 100 calories. 25 x 4 = 100 Protein can have a thermic effect of 20%-30% on your BMR. We will meet in the middle at 25% and use the same 100 calories. 100 x .25 = 25 calories burned during digestion. It could also be 20 or 30 calories depending on the exact effect. So the calories left over for your body to either use for energy(or storage) could be 70 to 80 calories. Whoa! Big difference from the other macronutrients. If you think about it in the long term. Say you are supposed to eat 150 grams of protein per day, that is 600 calories of protein a day... 600 x .25% = 150 calories that day that your body burned that day, just digesting protein. Now let's take that 150 calories further… 150 x 7 (days) = 1050 calories that week!! 1050 x 52 (weeks) = 54,600 calories that YEAR burned just by your metabolism doing its job. Holy cow!!! Remember when I said think long term about the thermic effect. This is why. Even if the thermic effect was only 20% for protein at 600 calories per day of protein consumption.. That is still almost 44,000 calories a year burned just through digestion. This is what makes protein, the macronutrient of satiety (suh-tia-uh-tee). It takes your body longer and more energy to digest it. Thermic effects aside, eating a diet with at least 100 or more grams of protein per day will be beneficial for your overall health. Especially if you are strength training, your body will need those grams of protein to repair muscles stronger and bigger. Not to mention having a diet with the right amount of protein will help your bones stay strong, helps with regulating blood sugar (because potentially consume less carbohydrates) could help with a healthier heart (because you potentially consume less fat or saturated fats). The list goes on and on! I hope you all were able to follow along and learn a little something. Have a great one! Made with the help from the following articles... https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-reasons-to-eat-more-protein#TOC_TITLE_HDR_10 https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ConditionsAndTreatments/metabolism
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