Weight Loss

Without Plateau

By Daniel Magyar

Copyright @2022

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the author to
reproduce any part of the book.
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www.dmprotainer.com
 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS HEALTHY METABOLISM?
HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A
HEALTHY BODY METABOLISM?
DISEASES AFFECTING THE NORMAL
METABOLISM OF YOUR BODY -
METABOLIC DISORDERS
UNHEALTHY HABITS THAT AFFECT
BENEFITS OF HAVING A HEALTHY METABOLISM
METABOLISM AND WEIGHT LOSS
FAST AND SLOW METABOLISM
BOOSTING YOUR METABOLISM FOR
WEIGHT LOSS
MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE
DURING WEIGHT LOSS THAT RESULTS IN CALORIC
DEFICIT
BASAL METABOLIC RATE
BEST METHOD FOR WEIGHT LOSS
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU
ENCOUNTER A PLATEAU IN WEIGHT LOSS
INTRODUCTION
 You’ve probably heard of the term metabolism before, you’ve probably
been taught about it in your classroom, or perhaps, you came across it in a
magazine or on the internet. Metabolism is as popular as the process itself. If
you’ve never heard about it before or if you have and are still confused or not
sure of the term, I take the privilege of telling you about it.
Understanding your body metabolism is very important in your weight
loss or gain process. It is needed for you to stay healthy and fit. Metabolism
is simply the chemical reactions that occur within a cell; as you may know,
cells are units that make up the human body.
They are the reactions needed for the cell to carry out its activities and
occur in all living things, plants and animals included. Metabolism in humans
is the total of all the chemical processes or reactions that occur in all body
cells. For your body to perform the essential functions needed to maintain
life, such as growth, reproduction, movement, excretion, and so on, it will
need to perform the chemical reactions of metabolism. This implies that you
won’t be able to carry out your normal activities without metabolism. You
won’t be able to eat your favorite food, move from one place to another,
urinate and pass feces, and worst still, you won’t be able to breathe.
Metabolism is what makes all living things, including you, a living thing. The
cells of all living things carry out chemical reactions to stay healthy.
The chemical reactions of metabolism occur between certain materials or
substances of the cell to form new products, usually organic materials. They
are the activities that help your body eliminate toxic substances capable of
causing harm. The processes are usually carried out effectively with the help
of enzymes; enzymes help mediate metabolism reactions by increasing the
speed. Your body gets energy from the environment, such as the nutrients
you consume in food and the solar system. Now, your body converts this
energy gotten from food to the energy needed for its activities. It does this by
breaking the food into smaller molecules, thereby releasing energy in the
process. The smaller molecules, like amino acids, and the energy from food
are then used to form large molecules like proteins, essential to the body.
Proteins make up the human body and provide support to it. Think of
proteins as the individual blocks brought together to make up a building.
Proteins are the body’s building blocks and are needed for the growth and
repair of tissues. The proteins not only support the body but also transports
molecules from one part of the body to another. Some of the proteins act as
enzymes that speed up important chemical reactions like clotting of blood,
digestion of food, contraction of muscles, and so on. Some proteins are
hormones that can be seen as messengers that help in communications
between the cells, tissues, and organs of the body. Aside from all these,
proteins provide body structure, ensure your body’s pH is properly
maintained, boost the immune system, and help maintain the fluid balance in
your body.
Proteins are composed of amino acids; 20 amino acids assembly in
different forms to form the different proteins. The 20 amino acids are
synonymous with the 26 letters of the alphabet. They come together to form
proteins, like the letters that unite to form words. The metabolism in all living
things is similar. In the presence of sunlight, green plants convert carbon
dioxide into starch (carbohydrates), oxygen, and other carbon-containing
compounds. This process is known as photosynthesis. Without this process,
you won’t have foodstuffs to eat from plants, as it is how plants can produce
the food substances you consume. However, the reverse is the case in human
beings like you and me. The carbohydrates from the plants and other organic
materials consumed combine with 1oxygen to form water and carbon dioxide
and release energy. That is, the carbohydrate you eat and other nutrients are
broken down with the oxygen you inhale to release water and carbon dioxide,
as well as the energy needed for the body’s functioning. You can notice the
balance of the exchange of the process; plants require the carbon dioxide you
exhale when you breathe to combine with water and produce food and
oxygen, while you inhale the oxygen and break down the food into energy,
water, and the carbon dioxide needed by plants.
The world was designed to live in balance indeed!
 WHAT IS HEALTHY METABOLISM?

Asking the meaning of healthy metabolism is synonymous with asking

why you have to eat every day of your life, like why don’t you just eat today
and forget about food tomorrow. Or why don’t you just eat once a day and be
sustained for the rest of the week? Well, first, answering the question of why
you have to eat every day, our body system is like a vehicle’s engine. All you
have to do to keep the engine running is give it fuel daily and proper
maintenance. After you do this, you eat behind the wheels, kick off the car,
and start driving to your desired location. Our engine takes care of the ride.
This is the same with your body; you have to fuel your body every day with
food to keep it running and effectively carry out all your daily activities
without worrying about it shorting down or not.
Healthy metabolism simply means having a sufficient daily supply of
calories gotten from food needed for all the metabolic reactions. If
metabolism is the chemical reactions that take place in the body needed for
everyday activities. In that case, a healthy metabolism is when the chemical
reactions take place effectively because they have been supplied with all they
need: energy. Energy is the connective tissue between catabolism and
anabolism. It is released during catabolism and absorbed during anabolism. It
is needed for the building and repairing of the body.
It is measured in kilojoules (KJ) and is very essential for the normal
functioning of the body. Metabolism allows the maintenance of the body’s
everyday activities, known as homeostasis.
A healthy metabolism is achieved when the energy released, and the
energy captured is at equilibrium. It is gotten when there is a balance between
anabolism and catabolism in the body. That is when there is an equilibrium
between the breaking of large molecules into smaller ones and the formation
of large molecules from smaller ones. For example, when your body has a
healthy metabolism, it can break down the amount of protein it consumes and
builds the exact number of proteins it needs to build and repair tissues. Now
imagine what happens when you don’t consume a sufficient amount of
protein; the body breaks down the tissues of your muscles to release the
proteins it needs.
The metabolic activities of your body continue even when you are doing
nothing. Your body may be synonymous with a car’s engine; when you kick
it off, you will relax and control the wheel. However, the body is different
from a car because, unlike the human body, you can shut down the engine
completely when you park it in the garage. You still have to keep your body’s
systems running even when you are not active.
Imagine you stop breathing when you sleep. That means death, right?
Your body’s metabolism doesn’t stop even when you are sleeping. You
would still need to digest and absorb the food you ate before you sleep,
regulate the level of hormones, maintain the temperature and pH level, and
circulate blood throughout the body.
When you give energy to your body through the food you eat, your body
either uses it immediately or stores it as glycogen in the liver or muscles or as
fat in other body parts. The body needs a certain amount of energy daily to
function. This is called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

BMR is the number of energy (calories) needed for the normal functioning
of the body. In other words, it is the number of energy needed by the body to
maintain homeostasis. It is about 7,100 KJ per day for men and about 5,900
KJ for women. Your metabolism is healthy when you eat enough calories
sufficient for the normal functioning of your body and is unhealthy when you
eat more calories than you can burn or you can store. Unhealthy metabolism
leads to overweight and contributes to heart-related diseases. However, the
rate of metabolism differs from one person to another. Some people have a
fast metabolism, while others have low metabolism. A high metabolism
means you can burn a lot of calories even at rest, and your body needs a lot of
calories to keep functioning. Low metabolism means you burn fewer calories
at rest, and your body needs a few calories to function. People with high body
metabolism tend to eat a lot compared to people with low body metabolism.
How Your Body Carries Out Metabolism
Speaking of balance, the process of metabolism in the human body is
balanced. As large molecules are destroyed to form smaller molecules,
smaller molecules combine to form large molecules. Your body can do these
through the process of catabolism and anabolism. Metabolism in the body
involves catabolism and anabolism. Both are needed to release and capture
energy for the body to function effectively. They happen at the same time as
energy is released and energy is used.
The Process of Breaking down Food – Catabolism
Catabolism is the process of breaking down food in your body to release
energy for you to carry out work. It involves breaking down large complex
molecules into smaller ones and occurs when the food you eat gets digested.
To completely understand the process of catabolism, you need to know about
the classes of food you consume. There are six classes of food, they include;
carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oil, minerals, vitamins, and lastly, water.
One or more, if not all, of these classes, can be found in the food you eat
daily, especially carbohydrates, proteins, fat, and oil, usually consumed in
large quantities. When you eat this food, they pass through your mouth and
throat, passing through your esophagus, a long tube-like organ that extends
from your mouth to your stomach. From the esophagus, the food goes to your
stomach. Some of the food like protein, fat, and oil are digested in your
stomach. However, the main digestion occurs in the small intestine. The
small intestine not only digests food but also absorbs its nutrients.
The food you eat does not just stay there till you excrete some of them;
they are broken down and absorbed. They are usually large and complex
molecules. Digestion involves splitting the large and complex molecules into
smaller and simple molecules. This is because the nutrients cannot be
absorbed in their large forms but in their smaller ones when broken down. To
be able to use the food nutrients you eat for energy to perform your activities
and grow, the large molecules have to be broken down. Carbohydrates have
to be broken down into their simpler and smaller form known as glucose in a
process called glycolysis. Also, proteins have to be broken into a smaller and
simpler form called amino acids, and Fats and oil into fatty acid and glycerol.
The whole process of catabolism takes several stages and is mediated by
several enzymes.
While these occur, a lot of energy needed for body activities is released.

The Building Process of the Body - Anabolism

Anabolism is the process of building up larger complex molecules from

smaller simple molecules. It is the opposite of catabolism, focusing on your
body’s growth and building. It organizes the smaller molecules and requires
energy to do so. It may interest you to know that the energy used for this
building up process is the energy gotten from the breaking down process of
catabolism. During the process of anabolism, carbohydrate or glycogen is
formed from its smaller components glucose through a process called
glycogenesis, proteins are formed from the individual amino acids, and fats
and oil is formed from fatty acids and glycerol. Anabolism helps provide
energy to the body. Whenever you perform exercise or any other activity that
expends a lot of energy, glucose, which is the body’s main energy source, is
often run down. The kidney and liver are capable of producing glucose from
non-carbohydrate sources. What this means is that when the end product of
carbohydrate, which is glucose, is getting finished and there are no more
carbohydrates in your stomach to be broken down, your body can be able to
build up glucose using non-carbohydrate molecules. This process is called
Gluconeogenesis.
It doesn’t only occur during exercise but during fasting and hunger to
make sure you stay alive. Anabolism also aids in increasing the intensity of
bones, making them stronger, and boosts the immune system by producing
white blood cells. The product of anabolism is larger complex molecules that
form structures of the cell. For example, proteins are formed from anabolism,
and as I mentioned above, proteins are the body’s building blocks and are
necessary for some body processes. Anabolism is very necessary to build
organs and tissues. It replaces dead cells of tissues and can repair worn-out
tissues. Therefore, the body breaks down the food you eat into smaller
products and uses the smaller molecules to build the tissues and organs the
body needs. Before anabolism takes place, there must be the presence of
precursors, which are the molecules or compounds needed to produce the
macro-molecules and a source of energy. The whole process of
photosynthesis that produces the food you eat is anabolism. It involves the
use of energy (from sunlight) and builds large and complex molecules
(Carbohydrates) from smaller and simple molecules (Carbon dioxide and
Water). Human beings usually obtain their energy from ATP, while plants
obtain theirs from Sunlight.
In a more practical term, catabolism is what happens when you’re trying
to lose fat in some parts of your body, like your belly or your thighs.
Meanwhile, anabolism is what happens when you’re trying to build a muscle,
like your biceps. Both are the two metabolic processes that occur in your
body, they may have opposite reactions, but they are still dependent on each
other.

10

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A

HEALTHY BODY METABOLISM?

Maintaining a healthy body metabolism is very necessary. The body must

be given exactly what it needs to keep running. The following tips can help
you maintain a healthy metabolism;
• Fuel your body with a lot of calories every day: You do this by
consuming a sufficient number of macronutrients. Just like you water a plant
every day to make it bloom, you can supply your body with an adequate
number of calories to make it active. Macronutrients contain a healthy
number of calories needed for your body to function. Eating an adequate
number of calories will ensure a healthy metabolism by providing all the
metabolic needs of your body.
• Get enough rest: Rest is essential for your body to function well. Ensure
you sleep well every day, at least 8 hours daily. Lack of sleep can disturb the
hormones responsible for food metabolism.
When you don’t sleep, the hormone responsible for appetite, known as
ghrelin, is stimulated and produced. This causes you to eat a lot, increasing
the number of calories in your body. Lack of sleep can also cause insulin
resistance, increasing your blood sugar level. In addition, the hormone
responsible for suppressing appetite and making you feel full (Leptin) is
reduced when you don’t get enough rest. Sleep is generally good for the
body; it makes you ease out stress and stay healthy.
• Drink a lot of water: Water is needed to maintain the body’s metabolism.
It serves as a body coolant and helps to regulate body temperature. You are
advised to drink two cups of water before eating because it suppresses your
appetite and prevents you from eating more calories than you need. It
improves the metabolic rate. Replace the soft drinks you take with water.
Also, water flushes the products of metabolism, which may be toxic to your
body systems.
• Consume less sugary drinks: Sugary drinks usually come in the form of
soft drinks and beverages. They contain a lot of calories that may be
unhealthy for your body’s metabolism. When you consume excessive
calories than your metabolism can break down for energy, the rest gets stored
as fat, and this affects your metabolism by slowing it down. The overweight
that comes with consuming these sugary drinks also increases the risk of
diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, and so on.
• Exercise daily: Exercise helps you to keep fit. Talking as little as a walk
every day is good for your health. It helps burn extra calories around your
heart and prevents you from having heart-related diseases. The body uses
more glucose than fat when at rest, so exercising your body helps destroy fat,
especially the ones that are not needed.
• Maintain a happy mood: When you have balanced emotions and
maintain a happy mood, all your body activities seem to be carried out
effectively, and it reflects in your metabolism. However, when you have
unbalanced emotions, it may reflect on your body activities and slow down
your metabolism. To keep a happy mood, avoid stress, do things you love
like reading interesting books, going on evening rides, engaging in valuable
conversations, and so on. This will help you have positive energy and good
metabolism.
How Can You Tell if You Have a Healthy Metabolism?
Determining if you have a healthy metabolism is good and essential in
knowing and understanding your body. It is important to know your body
because at the end of the day, it’s your body, and you have to care for it. If
you take care of it, it takes care of you in return. Here are some ways to know
if you have a healthy metabolism.

Sustained Energy to Carry Out Work

Having enough amount of energy to go on with your daily activities
means you have the right number of calories needed to maintain homeostasis
in your body. This happens when you eat a good meal and have just the
calories to fuel your activities. This implies the whole metabolic process to
extract energy from the calories you consumed was effective and balanced.
When you don’t have enough strength to do work, it may be because you
didn’t eat the consumed number of calories and that your metabolism is poor.
Poor body metabolism doesn’t produce energy for you to function daily.
Proper Food Digestion
Good digestion of food is a sign that the process of breaking down the
calories in food to release energy is being carried out properly, meaning
metabolism is healthy. Indigestion means your food is not adequately broken
down; that is, catabolism is not efficient. Once catabolism is not effective,
energy is not released for normal activities and anabolism to take place. This
affects the whole metabolic process in the body. Improper digestion is often
associated with bloating, constipation, and pain in the abdominal region.
Good digestion breaks down the food well and makes sure you get all the
energy and nutrients you eat in the food.
 When food is not properly digested, all the nutrients go down your bowl
and straight to the toilet. Such a waste!
Less Feeling of Stress
Whenever you are stressed, a hormone called cortisol is produced. This
hormone is capable of increasing your appetite and causing insulin resistance.
It can increase your appetite by increasing fat and carbohydrate metabolism,
making you crave more food. When you have food cravings, you may
consume an unhealthy number of calories that will affect your metabolism.
Also, cortisol increases insulin resistance.
This makes your body cells unable to utilize the energy from glucose and
leaves you weak. Stress is due to lack of sleep, and it disrupts your body’s
metabolism. Less stress is a sign of healthy metabolism, as it implies; less
cortisol is produced, and your body’s metabolic processes are carried out
effectively.
Normal Blood Pressure
High Blood Pressure or Hypertension occurs when blood is pumped at
high pressure against the walls of the blood vessels that carry blood from
your heart to all parts of your body, known as the arteries. It is usually
associated with diseases such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, and
cardiovascular diseases. It is caused by poor diet, especially diets with a high
quantity of salt, cholesterol, and lack of physical exercise. It is related to
dysfunction in metabolism. Whenever there is poor metabolism of fat
calories, cholesterol accumulates around the heart resulting in hypertension.
Hypertension reduces the metabolism of fat in the muscles of the heart
resulting in other heart-related diseases. Cholesterol blocks the cardiovascular
system only if there is too much inflammation in the body for a long time. In
the absence of inflammation, it can flow through the body with no issues.
Having normal blood pressure shows that your body’s metabolism is healthy
and implies a good diet and weight.
Normal Glucose Level
Glucose is the sugar found in the blood. A high glucose level is a sign of
unhealthy metabolism as it could be because your body breaks down more
carbohydrates into glucose than it can store in the muscles and tissues in the
form of energy. Therefore, there is an imbalance between catabolism and
anabolism. This happens when you consume an unhealthy number of
calories, thereby providing your body with more energy than it needs. Excess
glucose can result in Diabetes and accumulate in undesired parts of the body,
causing overweight and hypertension. On the other hand, a low glucose level
means insufficient energy is needed for you to carry out your activities and
also implies poor metabolism. However, having a normal sugar level implies
having a healthy metabolism that releases the right amount of energy you
need daily.
Healthy Body Weight
A healthy body weight is a sign of a healthy metabolism. It means you eat
healthy food with good nutrients and fewer calories like fruits, vegetables,
lean proteins, and healthy fats and carbohydrates. This implies you do not
have unhealthy calories stored as fat; you drink a lot of water, have enough
sleep, and supply your body with enough calories needed for its activities.
Being overweight shows an imbalance of metabolism, either because there is
a hormonal imbalance of hormones needed for metabolisms such as insulin or
an excess supply of calories your body needs. Having an unhealthily low
body weight also demonstrates poor body metabolism as it implies. There are
not enough calories supplied to the body to release energy during catabolism,
and there is no energy for anabolism to take place. Also, low body weight can
imply an insufficient supply of proteins in the diet, resulting in the body
breaking down the muscles to produce the proteins it needs for its functions.
A Boosted Immune System
Having an active immune system is achieved when you consume a good
amount of essential nutrients such as lean proteins and food containing
vitamins that produce the immunogens that fight diseases.
A boosted immune system can fight diseases, while a poor immune
system will make you more susceptible to diseases and fall sick all the time.
Metabolism and the immune system have close energy. Energy is needed
for the immune system to fight diseases. Effective release and management of
energy from metabolism provide the immune system with the strength to
function well. The immune system will not be able to function well with a
low amount of energy; therefore, an active immune system implies an
effective metabolism. Also, when the immune system is not strong enough,
you may get infected with diseases, which slows down your body’s metabolic
process.
A normal Level of Cholesterol
The fat molecules you consume are broken down into two major
components: fatty acids and glycerol when digested and after metabolism.
Glycerol belongs to a group of chemical compounds known as alcohols,
while fatty acids are chains of hydrogen and carbon (Hydrocarbon) joined
together by bonds. Some of these fatty acids are saturated, while others are
unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have only single bonds between the carbons
in the chain, while unsaturated fatty acids have double bonds. Unsaturated
fats are usually liquid at room temperature and are what you know as oil,
while saturated fat is solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fats are mostly
derived from unsaturated fat, while saturated fats are of animal origin and can
be found in the meat you purchase from the market. Saturated fats are a
beneficial type of fat, and they help to increase the level of cholesterol in the
blood, reduce the level of inflammation and stabilize the heart’s rhythm.
The level of blood cholesterol helps to facilitate a lot of cellular activities
in the body; these activities include the production of steroid hormones, bile
acid, and bile salt. Steroid hormones help to produce other vital hormones,
most of which function in reproduction and body processes. In contrast, bile
salt and acid aid in the digestion of this fat molecule. You can think of them
as fat dissolvers who play the most important role in that process. While
reduced cholesterol will hamper many metabolic processes, an overtly
increased level will also cause harm to the circulation of blood by blocking
its passage in the blood vessel.
Recent studies show that cholesterol does not threaten the body when
inflammation is low, and the triglycerides are at low levels. It is thus
important to make sure the inflammation markers like CRP remain low.
However, it is now necessary to note that the production of cholesterol is
by the breakdown of saturated fatty acids into unsaturated fatty acids.
Therefore, the rate of conversion and interaction between these two fatty
acids is necessary for maintaining a normal level of cholesterol.
Improved Level of Blood Circulation
 Poor blood circulation can be due to a metabolic disorder known as
hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a condition where important hormones
necessary for body activities known as thyroid hormones are produced in
sufficient quantities. Thyroid hormones are responsible for maintaining
metabolic activities such as the rate at which your heart beats and the
temperature of the body. They regulate the level of calcium in the blood.
Calcium helps to loosen up the smooth muscles surrounding the blood
vessels. The blood vessels are usually elastic to expand and accommodate the
blood that flows through them. The muscles surrounding the vessels also
contribute to the expansivity of the vessels. When the calcium level that helps
to expand these vessels is reduced due to a deficiency of thyroid hormone,
the arteries become less elastic, and the blood pressure increases to pump
blood.
Also, as I earlier said, poor metabolism can be due to a fat metabolism
problem that increases cholesterol levels and causes blood vessel stenosis. In
addition, a default in the metabolism of proteins affects the circulation of
blood. Proteins are essential for transporting nutrients in the blood. When
amino acids are released during the catabolism of proteins and are not
effectively utilized to build these proteins during anabolism, the circulation of
blood around the body is affected. Therefore the poor circulation of blood
around the body is a sign that there is a defect in the body’s metabolic
process, either in the metabolism of certain nutrients like proteins and
carbohydrates or in the production of hormones essential for metabolism like
thyroxine.
Improved Memory
Having a great memory can be related to having a healthy metabolism.
Studies have shown that people with good body metabolism have a sharp
memory. When you have a healthy metabolism, the High-Density
Lipoproteins (HDL) level is high while that of low-Density Lipoproteins
(LDL) is low. High-Density Lipoproteins are good cholesterol in the body
and are used to form important hormones like steroid hormones.
Meanwhile, low-density lipids are the unhealthy cholesterol capable of
building in the blood and causing harm to the body. Over the years,
researchers have come up with a theory that loss of memory is due to low
levels of good cholesterol and high level of poor cholesterol. Cholesterol is
good for the functioning of the brain. When there is a high level of good
cholesterol, the brain functions more effectively and retains more memory,
but a high level of poor cholesterol leads to memory loss. In other words,
when your body’s metabolism is healthy and fat is properly metabolized,
your brain memory increases.

DISEASES AFFECTING THE NORMAL

METABOLISM OF YOUR BODY -
METABOLIC DISORDERS

Having seen the tips on knowing whether or not you can say you have a
healthy metabolism; you may be wondering what might have been the
reasons for an unhealthy metabolism. Sometimes, having an unhealthy
metabolism can be because of bad habits you do every day. Other times, it
could be because of some metabolic disorders you have. As I stated earlier,
metabolism involves the chemical processes in your body that transform the
calories in the food you eat into the energy needed for your normal activities.
However, it may not always be efficient in performing its function
effectively.
Metabolism disorders happen when metabolism does not occur properly
and the essential products of metabolism, especially energy, are produced in
either too few or too many quantities. When a product of metabolism is not
produced in the right quantity, the body’s normal process (body homeostasis)
is affected. Metabolic disorders are either caused by
• Deficiency of an enzyme needed to mediate a chemical reaction: When
the enzymes needed for the chemical reactions are missing or not produced in
the right quantity, metabolic activities are often obstructed. For example,
when the enzyme (amylase) needed for the breakdown of carbohydrates into
glucose is deficient, the catabolism of carbohydrates is disrupted, and energy
will not be released for activities to be carried out.
• Malfunctioning of the organs needed for metabolism as a result of
disease: These organs (the pancreas, liver, and kidney) are needed for the
metabolism process to take place. When any of them get infected by a disease
and starts to malfunction, the metabolism of the body is affected. For
example, the kidneys are responsible for excreting the toxic wastes of
metabolism. If they get infected by a disease like kidney stones, they won’t
be able to remove the metabolic wastes out of your body.
When this happens, the toxic waste is retained in the body and disrupts the
metabolic activities of the body.
• Lack or inadequate supply of the nutrients needed for metabolism: When
there is a shortage in the supply of essential nutrients needed to carry out
metabolism, the metabolic processes are affected. For example, when you do
not eat enough proteins in your diet, there will be a shortage of amino acids
(the end product of proteins) needed to develop essential proteins needed for
your body.
The disease affecting metabolism includes;
1. Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder due to high blood sugar
(glucose) levels. In most cases, it develops due to a deficiency of insulin.
Among all the hormones, insulin is the only hormone that reduces blood
sugar levels by removing glucose from your blood and into the cells.
Your cells use some of that sugar for energy and then store leftovers in
your muscles and liver for later use. It is of two types; type I and type II.
Type I, also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, is due to insulin
deficiency and may occur in childhood and adulthood. In this condition, your
immune system destroys insulin-making cells in your pancreas.
Without insulin in your body, glucose remains in the blood. Type II is also
called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. It is a chronic condition that
affects the way your body processes blood sugar. Here, your body either
doesn’t produce enough insulin, or it resists insulin. This results in too much
sugar circulating in the blood. It occurs from the ages of 45 and above. It is
more common than type I and accounts for 90% of all cases of diabetes.
After eating, your body begins breaking down carbohydrates to release
energy from them. Your body then uses this energy to keep organs and
biological processes functioning. Diabetes mellitus impairs the body’s ability
to release and store energy from food. Insulin levels become lower than they
need to be, leaving high levels of glucose in the blood, which may lead to
severe consequences.

2. Gaucher’s disease
This is a disorder in the metabolism of fat, in which your body is unable to
break a certain type of fat. The large molecules of the fat will remain
unbroken, and as I said earlier, the body is not even to absorb large molecules
and utilize them for anabolism. The fat molecules end up deposited in the
liver, spleen, and the marrow and joints of bones.
This results in immense pain and damage to the bones, weakening them
and leaving them susceptible to fracture. The fatty acids deposited in the
spleen and liver build up in these organs, disrupting their function and
causing them to enlarge. This makes your abdomen look swollen. Gaucher’s
disease is caused by the deficiency of an enzyme responsible for the breaking
of fatty acids. The major symptoms accompanying it include; abdominal pain
due to the painful enlargement of the spleen and liver, weakness of bones,
and blood disorders such as anemia. The treatment for this disease is Enzyme
replacement therapy which involves the replacement of the deficient enzyme
responsible for the catabolism of fat.

3. Glucose-galactose malabsorption
Glucose-galactose malabsorption is a condition characterized by the
inability of the body to absorb the end products of catabolism and
carbohydrates, which are mostly glucose and galactose. It is a metabolic
disorder in which the glucose and galactose from carbohydrates can’t be
utilized by the body’s cells. Therefore, the energy from these molecules
cannot be used to carry out homeostasis, and the molecules can’t be utilized
for anabolism either. This results in severe diarrhea for your body to flush out
the glucose and galactose. Also, glucose and galactose are usually found in
the urine of people suffering from this condition. This disease is also
accompanied by constant dehydration and the urge to drink water all the time.
The remedy for it is the removal of glucose, sucrose, and lactose from the
diet. The signs of this defect may be seen in the early life of the individuals
when they suffer severe diarrhea when fed breast milk or baby formulas that
contain galactose, glucose, and lactose. Lactose is a carbohydrate that
contains glucose and galactose.

4. Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD)

MSUD is a rare metabolic disorder that makes the body unable to break
down certain chains of amino acids, leading to the harmful accumulation of
these chains in the blood and urine. People infected with this disease are
unable to completely digest the protein you consume like fish, meat, and egg.
The process of catabolism of proteins is ineffective; therefore, the end
products used to produce essential proteins needed for the body’s functioning
are unavailable. MSUD derived its name from one of its symptoms which is
sweet-smelling urine. It is usually inherited by children from their parents.
They are infants who are diagnosed with the disease during a newborn blood
spot screening test done after 5 days of birth. Immediate treatment occurs
after diagnosis, and the treatment continues throughout the person’s life.
When treatment is not administered at the right time, the child may
experience life-threatening conditions such as seizures and may end up dead
or in a coma. The symptoms of the disease can be visible in the first few days
or weeks of birth. They include; loss of appetite, loss of weight, and sweet-
smelling urine. The kids may also experience a series of metabolic crises in
the early stay of their life. The metabolic crisis causes them to lack energy, be
irritable, vomit, and experience difficulty in breathing. To fight this disease,
the diet of the kids needs to be regulated, and foods containing a high level of
protein need to be limited in their diets.
 5. Phenylketonuria (PKU)
Phenylketonuria, also called PKU, is a metabolic disorder characterized
by the build-up of phenylalanine in the body. Phenylalanine is one of the
essential amino acids; when it is not broken up, its build-up can be very fatal
to the body. In phenylketonuria, the enzyme responsible for the breakdown of
this amino acid is deficient because the gene responsible for creating the
enzyme has been modified. It is an inherited disease passed from parents to
offspring. Unfortunately, it has no cure but can be managed with effective
treatment throughout the person’s life. The management of the disease
involves consuming diets that do not contain phenylalanine. PKU can lead to
brain damage, seizures, behavioral disorders, and intellectual disabilities
when left untreated. The symptoms of the disease include; a bad body, urine
and breath odor, skin rashes, delayed level of development, and light color of
hair, eye, and skin. Phenylalanine is the precursor of melanin, meaning it is
one of the products that form melanin, the pigment that gives your skin and
hair their color.
When phenylalanine metabolism is ineffective, melanin is not produced,
leaving the color of the hair, eye, and skin very light. Pregnant women who
have PKU are capable of putting their babies at risk when they fail to follow
the special PKU diet.

6. Hemochromatosis
Hemochromatosis is a metabolic defect that affects the metabolism of iron
in the body. In this condition, the iron is not metabolized. It is deposited in
excess quantities in the vital organs of metabolism, such as the liver and
lungs. It can also lead to the deposition of iron in the heart resulting in heart
diseases. It is also passed from parents to children as the gene responsible for
it is inherited. It can lead to conditions like cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, and
diabetes. People with this disease may experience symptoms such as fatigue,
lower sex drive, impotence, pain in the abdomen, joint pain, loss of memory,
and body weakness. These symptoms do not appear in individuals until they
get older. Men usually begin to notice these features after they clock 40, and
women after the clock 60, usually after their menopause. Treatment for this
disease involves constant removal of blood from the body to lower the level
of iron mostly found in the blood cells.
 7. Mitochondrial syndrome
The mitochondrion is an organelle of a cell. It is often referred to as the
powerhouse of the cell. This is because it is where energy is produced in the
cell. Mitochondrial syndrome or disorder occurs when the mitochondria
cannot break down the food you eat with oxygen to release the energy for the
body. This defeats metabolism’s major aim, which is to release the energy
needed to maintain homeostasis. The mitochondrial syndrome is an inherited
disease; people suffering from it usually experience stunted growth and
delayed development. The common symptoms of this disorder include; loss
of appetite, abdominal pain, weakness of the muscles, body weakness,
change in the color of the skin, and vomiting. The mitochondrial syndrome
has no cure but can be managed by embarking on ketogenic diets and taking
supplements.

8. Tay-Sachs Disease
This is a metabolic disease characterized by the inability of the body to
break down a particular type of fatty acid known as GM2 Ganglioside. It is
passed down through genetics from parents to children and is a result of the
deficiency of the enzyme needed to break down the fatty acid substances.
These substances accumulate and build into toxic amounts in the brain and
spinal cord, affecting the nervous system and the body’s general functioning.
People with this disorder begin to show the signs when they are about 3 to 6
months of age. It progresses as they grow older, and the symptoms they begin
to exhibit include being unable to move, seizures, blindness or loss of sight,
loss of hearing, stunted growth, slow mental responsiveness, and so on. The
symptoms progress as they grow older to muscle spasms, more frequent
seizures, weakness of muscles, and psychiatric disorders.
 UNHEALTHY HABITS THAT AFFECT

BODY METABOLISM
Sometimes, the habits you nurture have an effect on the metabolism of
your body. Practicing good habits can lead to good body metabolism, just as
practicing a bad habit can result in unhealthy body metabolism.
Identifying these bad habits and crapping them out of your life can go a
long way in maintaining your metabolism and, likewise, your health.
Here are some of the bad habits you may be practicing that contributed to
your unhealthy metabolism;
1. Smoking
Smoking is one of the major bad habits affecting your body’s metabolism.
Cigarettes are made with tobacco. Nicotine is added alongside other addictive
that can cause cancer of the lungs and other organs. Cigarettes can suppress
your appetite, reducing the number of food you eat and lowering the calories
you need to carry out your activities. This is why most smokers have low
body weight and are mostly less energetic. They also increase insulin
resistance in the body, increasing blood glucose level and putting your body
at risk of contracting diabetes. Nicotine reinforces the cigarettes and makes
you get addicted to smoking. It stimulates the adrenal glands to produce a
hormone known as adrenaline in the blood. Adrenaline increases the rate of
respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure, increasing the risk of
cardiovascular diseases and stressing out the heart. Smoking increases the
rate of metabolism, burning down the calories in your food, and with the little
calories you can eat because of the suppression of your appetite, your body
begins to burn down the essential fats you need and the stored energy in your
tissues. This explains why most people add weight when they stop smoking.
Consuming other non-smoking products such as snuff and chewing tobacco
also disturbs the body’s regular metabolism.
2. Practicing a Sedentary Lifestyle
Practicing a sedentary lifestyle means spending most hours of the day in a
single location without changing position. You often sit for long hours at
your desk working in your office and barely change position. This is an
unhealthy habit as it slows down the body’s metabolic process. Metabolism is
increased by body movement. An intense workout is capable of burning a
large number of calories in the body.
However, simple physical activities can help you burn fat and maintain a
healthy metabolism even when you don’t practice it. These basic activities
include things as little as standing up, cleaning the house, and walking a walk
down the hallway. While sitting and working in your office, you can decide
to stand at intervals and stretch a little. Many people love the easy life they
have been blessed with by technology, such as taking an elevator in a
building. At the same time, others love to be driven to their jobs by their
chauffeurs. While this is understandable as they may have a very demanding
job that requires their time, it’s best to
take the staircase in place of the elevator and to drive to work once in a
while to burn a little fat. These basic activities are collectively known as Non-
Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). You may not have time to do
workouts, but at least you can make time for these activities for a healthy
metabolism because sitting or staying in a place for a long time burns just a
little amount of fat.
3. Not Having Enough Quality Sleep
Not having enough sleep, say 8 hours a day, can disrupt the metabolic
processes of your body. You may be skipping sleep due to a tedious job or a
demanding course you are studying that requires long hours of reading, but it
is even still dangerous for you because sleep is required for normal
functioning of the brain and the body generally.
As seen above, lack of sleep is capable of disrupting the metabolism of
carbohydrates, increasing the level of blood glucose and leaving you
susceptible to diabetes. Lack of sleep also lowers the body’s metabolic rate
and increases your chances of gaining weight. The rest sleep offers is needed
for the muscles of your body. Sleeping at night is very essential for your
body. You may be wondering what happens if you stay up all night but make
time to sleep in the day and if it’s healthy. Well, it’s not healthy at all. As a
matter of fact, sleeping at late hours in the day is better than skipping sleep
throughout the night. Not sleeping at night disrupts the circadian rhythm or
cycle of the body.
The circadian rhythm or cycle is the natural process responsible for the
sleep-wake cycle of the body and repeatedly occurs every hour. It is like your
brain’s internal clock that monitors the cycle of sleepiness and alertness of
the body, meaning it tells the brain what time it is to sleep and what time it is
to wake up and stay alert. It initiates the urge to sleep at night, the alertness
that comes with waking up in the morning, and the general performance of
the body. It also regulates the rate of metabolism because the rate of
metabolism differs during sleep and alertness. Sleeping in the night for the
right number of hours is needed for a healthy metabolism and a high
performance in a day. Also, eating just before you go to bed can fire your
body’s metabolism and affect your quality of sleep. It can increase your
body’s need for water and make you tired when you wake up. Therefore, lack
of quality sleep can affect the metabolic processes that occur during sleep and
affect the body’s normal functioning. In all, it is good to avoid eating before
you sleep.
4. High Intake of Sugary Beverages
Too much consumption of soft drinks is not good for your body’s
metabolism. Soft drinks usually contain a type of sugar known as fructose.
Excessive consumption of fructose is unhealthy. Fructose disrupts the
metabolism of lipids (a group of organic compounds including fat, oils,
sterols, and waxes), increasing the level of unhealthy cholesterol in the blood
and accumulating fat around vital organs like the heart and liver. This can
result in chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases and fatty liver disease.
It raises the level of uric acid, a toxic byproduct of metabolism that causes
high blood pressure and gout, a disease characterized by painful joint
inflammation caused by an accumulation of uric acid in the blood. Fructose is
capable of increasing appetite, making you want to consume more food than
your body needs and resulting in overweight. Fructose causes insulin
resistance, increasing the level of blood sugar, which can result in type II
diabetes and obesity. Fructose also results in leptin resistance. Leptin is
produced by the body’s fat cells and is usually targeted at the brain.
It informs the brain that you already have enough fats stored and don’t
need to consume any more calories. When your body fails to recognize
leptin, you continue to eat more calories, which are stored as fat in certain
areas of your body, such as your belly and thighs. This is to say, fructose can
also cause uneven distribution of fat in your body.
The chances of being overweight and obese are also increased by the
number of calories contained in soft drinks. Soft drinks contain a lot of
unhealthy calories that slow down the rate of metabolism of your body.
Drinking water is always advisable in place of sugary beverages.
Water contains fewer calories, aids in digestion, and can help suppress
your appetite by making you satisfied.
5. Drastically cutting down the Calorie Supply to Your Body
People feel the best method to lose a lot of weight is to cut down the
calorie supply to their bodies. They end up doing this drastically by eating
very little every day and skipping meals. However, cutting down the calorie
supply to the body may aid in weight loss, but it becomes detrimental to the
body when you begin to consume too few calories. For a healthy metabolism
to be maintained, you need to consume a certain number of calories to enable
the body to carry out the activities needed for normal functioning. You also
need the energy gotten from the food to carry out your daily functions. If you
don’t eat enough calories long-term, your body metabolism will be slow, and
your normal functioning will be affected. In addition, you will not have the
energy to carry out work and experience tiredness and body fatigue.
When you drastically cut down the number of calories you consume, your
brain will receive a message that the supply of calories is being reduced and
will therefore reduce the rate at which you burn down calories. The reduced
rate of metabolism may pose a problem to your weight loss journey as fewer
calories are burnt at a lesser rate without burning out the fats you wish to
shred. Drastically cutting down the calorie supply to your body is detrimental
to the energy needed for your daily performance and your health.

BENEFITS OF HAVING A HEALTHY

METABOLISM

The life of every human being is centered around metabolism. Metabolism

is what maintains the body; it replaces dead cells and tissues and transforms
the food you eat into energy, and breaks them down into the nutrients needed
for development. Having and maintaining a healthy metabolism comes with a
lot of effort, but it’s all worth it in the end because when you take care of
your body, it takes care of you in turn. The following are the benefits
guaranteed when you have and maintain a healthy Metabolism;
Adequate Energy to Carry Out Work
When you have a healthy metabolism, the energy needed to perform work
will not be an issue. This is because metabolism will perform its duty of
burning down calories at the right rate to release the required energy needed
by the body to perform its normal activities such as breathing, excreting,
sitting, and so on. Furthermore, you will have a lot of energy for your daily
activities and will be able to store the rest in case of emergency. Your body
will burn down all the nutrients you consume effectively without letting them
get excreted due to a defect in metabolism. So don’t be surprised when you
begin to outwork your colleagues and carry out your duty energetically.
Absence of Body Toxins
Healthy metabolic processes will release some toxic substances as
products. These toxins are usually harmful to your body systems.
They include substances like uric acid, which, as we saw above, can
accumulate and form painful inflammations known as gout. Poor metabolism
will retain these toxins, making them accumulate in organs. Healthy
metabolism comes with improved blood circulation that helps cleanse the
body by carrying these toxins to the organs where they are excreted, either as
feces, urine, or sweat. Therefore, healthy metabolism ensures that no single
toxic waste is left in your body system, keeping you healthy.
More Quality Sleep
When your body’s metabolism is healthy, the calories are being burned
down at the right time interval, and the quality of sleep is improved. This is
because your body’s circadian rhythm is uninterrupted, meaning you go to
sleep early and wake up at good intervals every day.
An interrupted circadian rhythm also ensures you sleep for at least 8
hours, and you sleep at night and wake up with full alertness in the morning.
Healthy metabolism also comes with less stress, and less stress gives you a
good night’s rest without any body pains. Having a stress-free quality sleep
due to a healthy metabolism makes you wake up with a lot of energy for the
day as metabolism was effective in your sleep.
Good State of Health of Vital Body Organs
Healthy Metabolism can protect the vital body organs like the heart and
the liver and reduces their probability of having problems. If the metabolism
is effective, more energy will be available for these organs to carry out their
functions without encountering issues. Proper metabolism of lipids in the
body ensures that the blood has an increased amount of good lipids like High-
Density Lipoprotein and leaves the body with lesser cholesterol. Meanwhile,
poor metabolism of lipids leaves the body with a high level of cholesterol that
gets deposited in the heart and the liver, resulting in diseases like heart failure
and fatty liver. Also, the improved blood circulation that comes with healthy
metabolism reduces the incidence of high blood pressure and heart attack.
Therefore, you don’t need to worry about the health state of your vital organs
if you have a healthy metabolism.
Maintenance of the Weight and Figure of your Body
When your body metabolism is healthy, you will smile whenever you
climb the weighing scale to check your weight every morning. Healthy
metabolism gives you a healthy weight because the nutrients are not
preserved in excess or inadequate number but in the right quantities. Proper
metabolism of the protein you consume will provide the right amount of
amino acids needed for building the body, leaving you looking healthy.
Meanwhile, when there is a default in the metabolism of proteins, you may
have a poor muscle mass and look malnourished. The inefficient metabolism
of lipids causes uneven distribution of body fat, spoiling the fitness of your
body. Metabolism helps maintain a steady body weight by burning the right
number of calories needed to maintain the body. With a healthy metabolism,
you can have that figure and weight you’ve always wanted without
undergoing cosmetic surgery.
Having a Constant Happy Mood
Having an elevated mood is one of the benefits of having a healthy
metabolism. If your body metabolism is active and healthy, it also means
your nervous system is properly functioning. The autonomic nervous system
is part of the nervous system responsible for involuntary activities and also
responsible for body moods such as boredom, happiness, sadness, depression,
and so on. Healthy metabolism releases the essential nutrients to the body;
when these nutrients are supplied to the autonomic nervous system, it fuels it
and makes it more active. This will reflect in your mood and make you happy
most of the time. However, an unhealthy body metabolism will imply
insufficient nutrients to the Nervous system due to poor circulation of blood,
leaving you looking doll and depressed. Therefore, if you always show up
happy with a positive energy every day and they ask you what your secret is,
you can tell them it’s because you have a healthy body metabolism.
Lesser Chances of Contracting Diseases
Chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and
cancers are often caused as a result of poor body metabolism. When the
metabolism is normal, calories will be burnt down effectively, reducing body
weight and preventing overweight that contributes to these diseases. Also,
proper metabolism of glucose reduces the blood glucose level and prevents
diabetes. A balance of hormones during healthy metabolism also reduces the
incidence of these diseases. When the metabolism is healthy and circulation
of blood is improved, the chances of getting heart disease are low. Lastly,
healthy metabolism boosts the immune system by producing a sufficient
number of white blood cells and other immunogens needed to fight diseases.
Have a Younger Appearance
A good trick to looking younger is to have a healthy metabolism. Just like
flowers bloom when you water them, your body looks younger and bubbling
when you nourish it with rich nutrients like lean proteins. A healthy
metabolism can effectively metabolize these nutrients and ensure your body
utilizes the most of them for its health and appearance. When the metabolism
of fat is effective, there will be less loose fat that hangs out on the face and
body. Also, healthy metabolism ensures good weight distribution and
tightened skin adding to facial beauty and reducing the rate of aging. With
the low incidence of diseases that happens when your metabolism is proper,
the longevity of your life is increased. Also, you appear younger when you
have a healthy metabolism as your body is being cleared of any toxins.

METABOLISM AND WEIGHT LOSS

While all types of the body should be celebrated, having a body you are
not proud of can affect your self-esteem in several ways. It can leave you
staring at the body for hours and not being proud of what you see.
There are several reasons why you may want to lose weight; it may be
because you want to have a particular body size, you don’t like your current
weight, or you just want to lose weight. Losing weight is also very vital when
you have a weight that is detrimental to your health. Being overweight can
increase your chances of getting cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, heart
attack, hypertension, and other diseases such as diabetes mellitus. In general,
having a healthy weight not only makes you look and feel good but also
reduces your chances of getting diseases and boosts your self-confidence.
As you know by now, metabolism includes the process that involves
burning down the calories you eat into energy. Since it involves the breaking
down of nutrients you consume into energy and stores the rest of the calories
as fat in your muscles, tissues, and organs like the liver, adding to body loss,
it remains a vital part of your weight loss journey.
However, while it is easy to blame the reason for weight loss only on poor
body metabolism, the number of calories and type of nutrients you consume
determines your weight to a large extent. You may be able to burn fat via
exercise, but if you don’t understand how your body processes the calories
you consume, you may end up gaining back all the weight you lost during
exercise. Metabolism remains an essential factor because how will these
calories make you add weight, and how else will you burn the existing
weight? You must consume a healthy number of calories and diets containing
vital nutrients such as lean proteins, vitamins, and minerals for a healthy
weight. However, you will still need metabolism to process these nutrients
before you can utilize them.
The way your body can burn down calories depends on three major
factors;
1. Basal Metabolic Rate
This is the rate at which your body burns down calories to release the
energy needed for its normal activities. Like I said, your body needs a
specific amount of energy to maintain homeostasis and perform the activities
that make you stay alive such as breathing, pumping of blood, beating the
heart, and so on. These are the activities that your body doesn’t ask for
permission before they perform. Basal Metabolic Rate affects how calories
are being burnt in the body; it is high in some people and slows in others. It
will be discussed in detail later in this book, and the factors affecting it as
well as how to calculate it will be explained.
2. Diet-Induced Thermogenesis
Thermogenesis can be defined as all the chemical processes that lead to
the release of heat. It includes metabolic activities that lead to the production
of heat. Diet-Induced Thermogenesis, sometimes referred to as Specific
Dynamic Action, involves the chemical reactions that take place in food
processing, which include; breaking down the food, absorbing it, transporting
it, and storing it in the body. These processes require calories to take place.
Therefore, the calories you consume in food not only provide energy for your
activities but also provide energy for its processing. Studies have shown that
as significant as 10% of the calories you consume in the food you ingest are
used for the processes of digestion and absorption of food. That is the thermic
effect of food, the energy needed to ingest food is about 10% of the total
number of calories you ingest. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) differs from
one nutrient to another; some proteinous foods have more thermic effects
than others.
3. Daily Physical Activities
Imagine not having the energy to carry out the basic activities
you do every day, such as standing up from your bed, walking to the
living room, going to your place of work, and sitting on your couch.
That’s crazy, right? Unlike the homeostatic activities discussed above,
these activities are carried out voluntarily and require a lot of calories.
Exercising your body every day also requires energy. All these are what
you do with the calories left from the food you ingest after you remove the
calories needed for homeostasis (via BMR) and the calories needed for Diet-
Induced Thermogenesis. These physical exercises are very important because
when you don’t burn down these calories, they get stored as fat in your body,
causing a positive energy balance and increasing your body weight.
Therefore, you can see that the calories you consume are necessary to
maintain normal activities, digest and process food, and carry out your
physical activities. The question is where the rest of the calories not being
expended for energy goes. The rest of the calories are stored as fat.
However, how many calories are left to be stored as fat largely depends on
how many calories were expended during metabolism. Therefore,
metabolism remains the center of attraction in weight loss. A metabolism that
favors weight loss burns a sufficient number of calories when your body
performs all three of the above activities at an excellent rate to release energy.
Metabolism is a natural process of the body. It differs from one person to
another, which is why people gain more weight than others or lose weight
more than others despite consuming the same number of calories. This is
because some people have a faster rate of burning calories, while some
people burn calories at a slower rate.

FAST AND SLOW METABOLISM

You may be thinking, ‘Why do I eat more food than my friend or family
members?’, ‘Why do I still feel hungry a few minutes after eating a whole
bowl of food?’ The reason people stare when you order another bowl or
complain of hunger just after eating. You may be experiencing this because
you have a fast metabolism. Metabolism differs in humans; some people have
a faster metabolism than others. Some people naturally have a fast
metabolism, while others have a slow metabolism. I will explain what I mean
by fast and slow metabolism in the paragraphs below;
Fast Metabolism
A fast metabolism is when the chemical reactions occur at a fast rate. It
enables you to burn a lot of calories even when your body is at rest. This
makes you expend more energy than someone who ate the same quantity of
food. You will need more energy to function than someone with a slower
metabolism, implying eating more food than others. Fast metabolism could
be due to the person’s nature; some people naturally have a fast body
metabolism. It could be due to genetics; fast metabolism can be passed down
from one generation to another. The lifestyles individuals practice also
contributes to the rate of metabolism.
In addition, men generally tend to have a faster metabolism than women.
 Contrary to popular opinion, fast metabolism may not lead to weight loss.
You may be wondering, ‘If my body burns calories at a very fast rate, then I
should be slimmer than I am right now.’ While that can be possible, a fast
metabolism can lead to overweight also. Research has it that people who are
obese have a fast body metabolism. However, anyone can have a fast
metabolism, and it doesn’t matter if they are fat, slim, short, tall, male, or
female.
Here are some of the signs you have a fast metabolism;
1. Always feeling tired
Fatigue is one of the signs you have a fast metabolism. This is because
your body is always tired from constantly burning calories to release energy.
This overworks your body and makes you feel worn out most time.
2. Constant Perspiration
If you have been wondering why your clothes are always soaked with
swear even when you are resting and not doing anything. It may be because
you have a fast metabolism. Fast metabolism causes you to sweat almost all
the time. Due to the continuous work, it performs, your body is constantly
overheating, and it causes you to sweat a lot.
3. High Rate of Respiration
The rate of respiration is the rate at which you breathe; it is the number of
breaths you take per minute. Fast metabolism comes with a high rate of
respiration. This is because burning down food at a fast rate requires a lot of
oxygen, so you inhale a lot of oxygen to meet up with the metabolic needs of
your body. Also, carbon dioxide is one of the products of burning calories
with oxygen. When excess calories are burnt down, a lot of carbon dioxide is
produced. This carbon dioxide must be removed from the body when
breathing. Therefore, you breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide
at fast rates due to the fast metabolic activities going on in your body.
4. Weight Loss
Sometimes, fast metabolism comes with a loss of weight. It is possible to
experience a loss of weight when if you have a fast metabolism.
This occurs when you do not consume enough calories to meet up with
the large needs of your fast metabolic needs. This makes your body burn
down the energy stored as glucagon in your muscles and liver to provide the
energy you need. It also breaks down your muscle tissues to release amino
acids needed to carry out metabolism. While some people with fast
metabolism eat too few calories to lose weight, it is unhealthy as it leaves you
with a poor body mass and distorts the normal process of your body systems.
5. High Heart Rate
When you have a fast metabolism, you will notice your heart beating at a
fast rate. This is because fast metabolism breaks down a lot of calories and
releases a lot of nutrients into the bloodstream. The heart will do a lot of
work in pumping blood to circulate these nutrients around the body. This
leads to stress on the heart leading to an elevated heart rate.
6. Always Having the Feeling of Hunger
A fast metabolism leaves you hungry most of the time. You may feel like
eating again just a few hours after eating. This is because the calories you
consume are burned very fast, leaving your body asking for more calories to
maintain its regular activities. The constant feeling of hunger can likewise be
due to the irregularity of hormones that comes with a fast metabolism. Fast
metabolism can regulate the production of hunger hormones like ghrelin and
leptin. Ghrelin, which is the hormone responsible for increasing appetite, is
produced in large quantities during fast metabolism. This is to make you feel
hungry and makes you consume the number of calories your body desires.
Leptin, the hormone responsible for alerting the brain that the fat storage is
filled and suppressing appetite, is being inhibited. This causes you always to
feel hungry.
7. Anemia
Anemia is a medical condition characterized by loss of red blood cells or
having fewer red blood cells or hemoglobin than the normal number. Red
blood cells are very important blood cells. They contain a pigment known as
hemoglobin that transports oxygen around the body.
They have a lifespan of 120 days, after which they are degenerated and
replaced by new ones. The metabolic process is responsible for breaking
down these blood cells (catabolism) and building up new ones (anabolism).
Usually, these red blood cells are broken down faster than they are formed in
fast metabolism. These leave a fewer number of red cells than the usual
number. This fewer number of red cells are usually under pressure to supply
the body with oxygen. As I mentioned above, a large amount of oxygen is
needed for fast metabolic processes. Therefore, fast metabolism can lead to
loss of red blood cells, resulting in anemia.
8. Insomnia
Insomnia is also a medical condition characterized by poor quality sleep,
not enough sleep, or both. Poor quality sleep means not getting the most out
of sleep, like when you don’t sleep at the right hours or when you still feel
tired even after a considerable amount of sleep.
Sleep affects your daily performance. Having a good quality sleep for a
good number of hours is healthy as it makes you active and energetic during
the day; meanwhile, having poor quality makes you less active during the
day. Fast metabolism can keep you awake all night because it can make you
hyperactive and stay active instead of sleepy during night hours. Fast
metabolism can make it difficult to initiate or maintain sleep leading to
insomnia.
9. Hyperactivity and Anxiety
The whole process of fast metabolism makes you active to burn down
calories. Fast metabolism increases the production of hormones that make
you hyperactive and anxious. These hormones are cortisol and adrenaline.
When your body’s metabolism is fast, you feel stressed, and the hormone
cortisol is released in response to the stress. These increase your anxiety,
blood pressure, and glucose level. Also, when released into your
bloodstream, adrenaline makes you hyperactive and energetic. So when you
discover that you always have anxiety and are hyperactive, don’t panic; it
could be because your body’s metabolism is high.
10. Irregular Menstrual Cycle
You may be experiencing irregularities in your menstrual cycle and be
wondering if anything is medically wrong with you. Your irregular menstrual
cycle can be caused by fast metabolism. Fast metabolism can cause hormonal
disorders that distort your menstrual cycle. For example, insulin resistance
may occur when your body’s metabolism is high, and this affects the cycle.
Also, fast metabolism results in lesser High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), and
this causes irregularities in the menstrual cycle.
However, it is worth noting that this differs from one individual to
another. The rate of metabolism differs across the different stages of the
menstrual cycle, and some people burn more calories while they are on their
periods while others don’t.

Is Fast Metabolism Healthy or Not?

Fast Metabolism is not considered unhealthy. However, it can be
detrimental to your health depending on different factors. First, depending on
the number of calories you consume. When you consume fewer calories than
your body needs, you lose your stored fat, energy, and muscles. This may be
unhealthy for you and will lead to loss of weight.
Also, when the large appetite hormone irregularities that come with fast
metabolism make you consume a lot of food than your body can metabolize,
you become overweight or obese.
Fast metabolism can be unhealthy if it results in severe anemia due to the
breaking of red blood cells at a faster rate than they are built up. Severe
anemia leads to an unhealthy situation known as hypoxia, a condition in
which the tissues are deprived of a sufficient supply of oxygen. Hypoxia can
result in loss of consciousness and even death. Lastly, fast metabolism is
unhealthy when it leads to an elevated heart rate and blood pressure,
increasing the possibility of cardiovascular diseases.

Slow Body Metabolism

Just like you could be asking yourself why you feel hungrier than your
colleagues who eat the same food as you, you may also be the colleague
wondering why you don’t feel hungry when others feel hungry.
You may wonder why a small amount of food is enough to satisfy you
compared to those around you. The reason for this is simple; you have a slow
metabolism.
Slow metabolism means your body’s chemical reactions take place at a
very slow rate. It means your body burns just a few calories when you are at
rest. When you have a low metabolism, you don’t need to eat many calories
to carry out your activities. This is because your body burns down the few
calories you consume gradually at a slow pace. A good number of people feel
having a slow metabolism can only make you fat, as your body does not burn
out the calories it consumes. However, a slow metabolism can also make you
slim because you eat a few nutrients that get stored as muscle or fat tissues,
leaving you with a small body mass. Just like fast metabolism, poor
metabolism can be due to your nature. It could also be due to inheriting the
genes from your parents.

Other Reasons for Slow Metabolism include;

1. Hypothyroidism
This condition characterized by low production of thyroid hormones can
result in slow metabolism because the thyroid hormones speed up the
metabolic processes of the body. Thyroid hormones control the rate at which
the activities in your body take place, including metabolic activities.
Therefore, when they are produced in inadequate quantities, the metabolic
activities of the body slow down.

2. Low Level of Insulin

The level of insulin in the body affects the metabolism of glucose. Insulin
helps the body’s cells recognize glucose and use it for energy. When the cells
can access glucose, they can perform their metabolic activities. However,
when there is a low insulin level, the body cells cannot use the energy from
glucose, and metabolic activities are retarded, resulting in slow metabolism.
People with slow metabolism usually have an insufficient level of insulin or
have insulin resistance.

3. Not consuming Enough Calories

When you don’t consume the calories your body needs for its activities,
your body’s metabolism will be affected. This is because, without adequate
calories, your body burns down the stored fats and muscles, causing you to
lose weight. When your weight loss becomes fatal to your health, your body
reacts by slowing down the metabolic processes to avoid further weight loss.

4. Low Level of Estrogen or Testosterone

Estrogen and testosterone are sex hormones of the body. The ovaries of
females produce estrogen, while testosterone is produced in the testes of
males. These hormones have an effect on metabolism in their respective
genders. Low estrogen or testosterone levels can reduce the body’s metabolic
activities and can result in the storage of excess body fats. This is because
when the level of these sex hormones is low, loss of muscles and subsequent
increase in body fat occurs. Loss of muscles reduces the body’s metabolism.
5. Age
This has a very significant effect on metabolism, as your body metabolism
reduces as you get older. Your body becomes less effective in burning
calories because you lose more muscles and gain more fat with age. Muscles
usually burn more calories than fat, so the loss of muscles means a lesser
ability to burn calories and a slower metabolism. Also, some hormones that
cause fast metabolism reduces with age. For example, the sex hormones we
saw above (estrogen and testosterone) naturally dip as you age. In women,
estrogen drops drastically after menopause.
When this happens, metabolism is no longer as effective as it used to be.

6. Certain Medications
Metabolism can be affected by certain types of medications. Some
medications like anti-inflammatory steroids, when used for a long time, can
cause insulin resistance and additional storage of fat. Insulin resistance
impedes the chemical processes of metabolism. Also, additional fat storage
makes the metabolic processes slow.

Signs of Slow Metabolism

 1. Constipation
Constipation is a condition characterized by difficulty in emptying the
contents of the bowels. It results in passing out hard feces. Slow metabolism
slows down the entire process of digestion (catabolism) and the movement of
food through the small intestine, where digestion and absorption of nutrients
take place, to the large intestine (Bowel). In the bowel, water is absorbed, and
the rest is excreted as feces after a bowel movement. Slow metabolism slows
down the movement in the bowel.
This buys the bowel more time to absorb water from the feces. The
slowing down of the bowel movement results in the formation of hard feces
and causes difficulty in excreting feces, leading to constipation.

2. Weight Gain
In case you find yourself being worried when you gain an unexplained
weight despite performing your physical activities and curtailing the number
of calories you consume, you should consider the cause of the weight gain to
be a slow metabolism. The rate of the chemical processes of slow metabolism
may not be enough to break down all the calories you consume. This will
lead to an increase in body weight. Also, the fatigue that comes with slow
metabolism results in a lack of body activities and contributes to weight gain.
Hypothyroidism is a disease condition related to slow metabolism. It is
characterized by insufficient production of thyroid hormones. Thyroid
hormones speed up the metabolic processes of the body. When it is not
produced in sufficient quantities, it slows down the metabolic processes of
the body and results in the accumulation of excess salts and water in the
body. When the kidneys are not able to excrete the excess water and salts in
your body, you will gain weight, at least 5 to 10 pounds. Also, burning only a
few of the calories you consume causes your body to store the remaining
calorie as fat.

3. Feeling Sluggish all the Time

Slow metabolism could be the reason you feel sluggish most of the time.
This is because it cannot effectively burn down the calories you eat to release
the energy needed to carry out your activities. The weight you gain when
your metabolism is slow can result in you not feeling light to do work. In
addition, unlike in fast metabolism, where the hormones responsible for
anxiety and hyperactivity, cortisol and adrenaline are produced in large
quantities, in slow metabolism, these hormones are released in small
quantities, making you feel less anxious and active. When your body
metabolism is slow, you will find yourself lesser energetic even after eating
because a lesser amount of energy is released from the calories you consume.

4. Difficulty in Losing Body Weight

The major obstacle you will face in your weight loss journey may be a
slow metabolism. A slow metabolism makes losing weight very difficult. As
I’ve stated before, in slow metabolism, only a few calories are burnt down,
and the remaining calories that are not burnt down for energy are stored
usually as fat. When you reduce the number of calories you consume to lose
weight, slow metabolism conserves more calories for energy instead of
burning them, making weight loss difficult. Embarking on exercises to lose
weight by burning down calories is retarded by slow metabolism as it makes
your body burn calories at a lower rate than it should be.

5. Having a Dry Skin

A slow metabolism can also make your skin appear dry and unhealthy. It
may also affect your skin pigmentation. In slow metabolism, the nutrients
you eat in food needed for healthy skin are not fully broken down and
released into the bloodstream. Also, the circulation of blood is usually poor in
slow metabolism. These nutrients keep the cells of the skin healthy and alive.
When these nutrients are not supplied to the skin because poor catabolism of
food made them unavailable or because poor blood circulation was unable to
supply them to the skin, the skin appears malnourished and dry.
The body is always cold in slow metabolism because not much heat is
released from the slow chemical processes. Therefore, the skin usually sweats
a little because there is less heat in the body and also to converse the little
heat it produces. When there is less sweat, the skin appears very dry and not
oily. One of the major pathways the body uses to remove the waste products
of metabolism, some of which may be toxic to the body, is sweat. When only
a little amount of sweat is excreted, the skin stores these wastes, which may
cause infections. Dry skin leaves the skin irritated and prone to breakage.

6. Loss of Hair
You may wonder why you have a lot of hair in your comb whenever you
brush your hair. It could be a result of slow metabolism. A slow metabolism
can also result in loss of hair. Just like nails, hair needs a lot of nutrients for
its maintenance and growth. When nutrients from the food you eat are not
released into the bloodstream due to slow metabolism, your hair does not
receive any of these nutrients, resulting in hair loss or poor hair growth. Also,
hyperthyroidism, usually associated with a slow metabolism, can result in
hair loss because thyroid hormones are essential for the growth and
maintenance of hair follicles.
The loss of hair occurs on the hair on your eyebrows, on your legs, and on
your scalp. Slow metabolism leaves you prone to alopecia.

7. Having Brittle Nails

You will notice how your nails easily break if you have a slow
metabolism. You will also notice how they have increased rough edges. Just
like nails and hair, the reason for this is that the nails are not supplied with
the nutrients for their growth. The nutrients that nourish nails and make them
healthy include; Vitamin C, proteins, iron, magnesium, and so on. When
these nutrients are not supplied in their right quantities, your nails end up
brittle. Also, you may experience loss of nails due to slow metabolism.

8. Frequent Headaches and Dizziness

A slow metabolism can also cause headaches on both sides of the head.
Although there hasn’t been any clear proof of the connection between
headaches and hypothyroidism, studies show that a good percentage of
people suffering from hypothyroidism usually experience frequent
headaches.
 Also, your brain depends mostly on glucose as a source of energy. Your
brain is supplied with inadequate glucose when enough calories are not
broken up to release glucose because of slow metabolism. This leads to you
being dizzy. Therefore, if you ever wonder why, you have headaches all the
time or why you feel always feel dizzy, it could be a result of slow
metabolism.

9. Low Blood Pressure

Low blood pressure can be a good sign of slow metabolism. When there
are not enough nutrients to be transported, the heart is not under pressure to
pump blood around the body resulting in poor blood circulation and low
blood pressure.

10. Always Feeling Cold

Heat is usually generated from the chemical processes of metabolism. The
body becomes cold when the metabolism is slow because slow metabolism
doesn’t produce enough heat to keep your body warm.

11. Irregular Menstrual Cycle

Like fast metabolism, slow metabolism is capable of altering the
menstrual cycle. Hypothyroidism can affect the sex hormones that regulate
the menstrual cycle, such as estrogen. Also, slow metabolism fails to release
the micro molecules needed to form some of these hormones.

12. Slow Heart Rate

Slow heart rate, also known as bradycardia, occurs when your body’s
metabolism is slow. This is because slow metabolism slows down all body
processes, including how fast or slow your heart races. Also, your heart beats
slowly because of poor blood circulation due to a lesser amount of nutrients
circulated through the body.
 13. High Level of Cholesterol
Slow metabolism leads to the build-up of cholesterol. This is because the
calories that have not been broken down for energy due to the slow metabolic
processes are stored as cholesterol in your body. In addition, thyroid
hormones enable the excretion of excess cholesterol from the body through
the liver. When thyroid hormones are not produced in sufficient quantities, as
the case may be in slow metabolism, the excess cholesterol will not be
excreted but will remain in the body.

14. Change in Mood and Poor Memory

You may be experiencing mood swings as well as depression and poor
memory due to slow body metabolism. Slow metabolism results generally
slow down the functions of the body.

Is Slow Metabolism Healthy?

Slow body metabolism is not often considered as healthy. This is because
it doesn’t provide the body with sufficient energy needed for it to maintain its
normal activities. It doesn’t give you enough energy needed to do your daily
activities because it doesn’t effectively burn down all the calories you
consume into energy. This defeats the sole function of metabolism, which is
to transform the calories you eat into energy. In addition, slow metabolism
stores the extra calories in your body, making you overweight. Being
overweight may increase the chances of chronic diseases like diabetes
mellitus, high blood pressure, and several cardiovascular diseases.
Therefore, slow metabolism may lead to a couple of health issues.
 BOOSTING YOUR METABOLISM FOR
WEIGHT LOSS

While the number of calories you consume matters in weight loss, you
will want to boost your metabolism to speed up the weight loss process; after
all, you burn the calories at a faster rate. And as you’ve seen, a slow
metabolism can be a huge hindrance in your weight loss journey by making
you gain extra weight and challenging to shred body fat. Boosting your
metabolism when it is not fast enough will help you maximize the calories
you consume and lose weight.
1. Increase the mass of your muscles
Increasing your muscles’ mass helps boost metabolism because muscles
require a lot more energy to be maintained than fat. Also, an increase in
muscle mass increases the resting metabolic rate of your body.
An increase in your resting metabolic rate increases the number of calories
your body burns at rest every day and boots your metabolism. To increase
your muscle mass, you have to increase your intake of proteins that are
broken down to form muscle tissue. Also, muscle mass can be increased via
weight training.
2. Drinking Enough Water
Drinking a lot of water every day increases the metabolism of your body.
Water can help boost your metabolism. When you drink water, your body’s
metabolism speeds up. This is due to the amount of energy required by your
body to warm the water to normal body temperature. An increase in the
energy your body expends increases your body’s metabolism. Consuming a
lot of water doesn’t only boost your body’s metabolism but also keeps your
body fresh and hydrated. Taking sugary drinks in place of water adds more
calories than your body can metabolize and ends up slowing down your
body’s metabolism.
 3. Monitoring Your Food Consumption
To boost your metabolism, you can monitor the number of calories you
consume. You achieve this by portioning your meals into segments to
calculate the number of calories you consume at intervals. The reason for this
is to ensure you provide only the exact number of calories your body can
take. Eating a proportionate amount of food leaves you satisfied and reduces
your intake of an unhealthy number of calories. This also stimulates your
metabolism, increasing weight loss and preventing you from gaining extra
weight.
4. Try to Avoid Stress
As seen before, stress has a way of stimulating hormones that lower the
body’s metabolism. It increases your appetite for food and makes you
consume more calories than you need. When you get stressed out, the
metabolism of your body is reduced. Stress can result in not getting enough
sleep and can increase the level of fat in your abdomen. It leads to the release
of the hormone cortisol, which results in you consuming a lot of calories than
you can digest, slowing down metabolism. Stress also causes insulin
resistance. Insulin usually stimulates the body to store calories rather than
burn them. So, when insulin resistance occurs, the rate of burning calories is
reduced, and the cells of your muscles, fat, and liver do not respond well to
glucose in your blood. You will not burn as many calories as you should, and
you may not store as much fuel as you should. Tips in dealing with stress
include; reading a captivating book like a novel, listening to good music,
daily meditation, practicing yoga, and exercising.
5. Getting Enough Quality Sleep
Sleeping for adequate hours every day helps stabilize your body’s
metabolism. It gives your body enough time to rest and digest the food it
wasn’t previously able to. Besides this, sleep also has a great influence on
appetite and hunger. It does this through its effect on specific hormones such
as ghrelin and Leptin. When we sleep, the production of ghrelin increases
while leptin’s production reduces, and by increasing ghrelin, sleep increases
hunger while reducing appetite through its action on leptin.
The importance of sleep is not only relegated to food digestion, hunger,
and appetite alone. Sleep significantly influences how energy is produced
through the breakdown of fats in the body. Lack of sleep reduces the
breakdown of fat into energy. Therefore, the body becomes less functional in
utilizing fat as energy and resultantly more effective in storing fat when it
doesn’t get enough rest. Getting poor sleep will also disrupt the circadian
rhythm, which will, in turn, affect glucose/insulin resistance, increase cortisol
levels and by so doing, distort the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar.
6. Exercise
Exercise is the total of all planned or unplanned activities that expend
energy and burn calories from our body. These activities include walking,
running, swimming, weight-lifting, etc. The importance of these activities in
maintaining a healthy metabolic process cannot be over-emphasized. They
have a shared function of boosting all metabolic processes in the body by
increasing the rate at which the heart takes oxygenated blood and digested
food (which happens to be the energy currencies for metabolic processes)
through all organs of the body.
Through its ability to take oxygenated blood and food around the body
coupled with the periodic muscle tone, exercise increases the growth of
muscles. Exercise also helps to regulate metabolic hormones like thyroid
hormones which are necessary for weight loss. It also increases body tissue
movement, thereby generating thermal energy that burns fats and calories.
The sweat produced in the exercise process is also greatly influenced in
maintaining the regulation of salt (and other solutes)/water content of the
body, a metabolic process called osmoregulation.
7. Consume More Protein/Fat than Carbohydrate
Undoubtedly, most of our favorite foods are those rich in carbohydrates.
Though they have an undeniable function of providing our body with energy,
they also have a way of disrupting the process of metabolism when they are
taken in excess or not in balance with other food diets. When you consume
food that is richer in protein, the high thermic effect increases the metabolic
rate of the body. Also, you will build more muscles and prevent muscle loss,
reducing the Basal Metabolic Rate.
Carbohydrates are the most straightforward food to digest compared to fat
and protein. The body takes more time and energy to digest protein and fat,
increasing the body’s metabolism. Apart from this, the calories gotten as a
product of carbohydrates are stored as fat when in excess.
This explains why eating much of snacks, or carbohydrate-filled foods can
make a person fat even without consuming fatty diets.

MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE

DURING WEIGHT LOSS THAT RESULTS IN
CALORIC DEFICIT

Over the years, I’ve worked with many people in their weight loss journey
and have helped many of them achieve the weight of their dreams. One of the
major challenges these people have encountered is dealing with the caloric
effects. The caloric effects occur when you reduce the number of calories you
consume and affect the number of calories your body needs. The first thing
most people do when they wish to lose weight is to reduce the number of
calories they eat. When they do this and lose a few pounds, they feel it’s the
accurate way to lose weight and keep reducing their number of calories till
they experience a metabolic adaptation.

Caloric Effect
 This is characterized by burning more calories than your body receives.
This happens when you consume fewer calories than your body needs to
perform its normal functions. It is not so healthy because when the calories
your body burns are not enough to provide the energy needed, your body
ends up burning all the stored glucose in the muscles and liver and a
significant amount of muscle mass. The caloric deficit doesn’t only occur
when you consume fewer calories than your body requires but can also occur
when the metabolism of your body is too fast, making you burn more calories
than you consume in the food you eat.

Negative Effects of Caloric Deficit on Your Body

While cutting down your calorie supply may seem effective and help you
lose body weight at first, the repercussions are not good for your health and
the normal functioning of your body. The effects can even affect your weight.
Here are some of the ways caloric deficit can be harmful to your body;

1. It can result in nutrient deficiencies

Not eating enough food can result in deficiencies of nutrients.
Your body will not receive an adequate supply of nutrients, affecting the
functioning of several body systems. For example, when insufficient protein
is consumed to be broken down into amino acids, the digestive processes of
the body are slowed because the enzymes that mediate the chemical
processes are not produced. Amino acids are needed for producing these
enzymes. Insufficient amounts of amino acids also affect other systems like
the nervous system, which needs a lot of nutrients to function properly. It
generally affects the body’s metabolism as the hormones that regulate these
activities are not produced. In addition, when important mineral nutrients like
iron are not produced in adequate quantities, the effect can be lethal because
the production of red blood cells is affected, distorting the movement of
oxygen around the body.

2. Slow metabolism
 A caloric deficit can lower the metabolism of your body. This is because
when the calorie supply is reduced, your body runs out of calories to burn
down for energy and burns down your body tissues to release energy. This
results in a massive loss of body weight. Now, your body tries to stop this
weight loss from reaching a fatal stage by slowing down your metabolism. A
slow metabolism thus reduces the rate of burning down calories and stored
body fat. In addition, caloric deficit results in muscle mass loss and body fat
gain. Since body fat burns calories at a lower rate than muscle tissues, your
body’s metabolism is slowed down, and slow metabolism is not good for
weight loss. Therefore, slow metabolism is another reason why you should
prevent a caloric deficit.

3. It may result in infertility issues

Reducing the calorie consumption of your body can result in infertility
issues, especially in women. Firstly, a caloric deficit can slow down the
metabolic processes, and a slow body metabolism affects the production of
sex hormones, testosterone, and estrogen. In addition, fertility in women,
especially the ability to ovulate, depends on the level of hormones. The
hormones needed for ovulation to take place are estrogen and luteinizing
hormones. The production and release of luteinizing hormone depend on the
number of calories consumed.
When the calories consumed are barely enough for the metabolic
processes and energy, the level of luteinizing hormones is reduced. This
affects the level of fertility, and as you’ve seen, the level of estrogen drops
down when slow metabolism, which is one of the effects of caloric effect,
occurs. Also, studies have shown that consuming an inadequate number of
calories affects the production of estrogen.
Therefore, reproductive function is reduced when women consume
insufficient calories to maintain weight. Infertility caused by a caloric deficit
may manifest as irregular or absent menstrual cycles. When this occurs, you
have to visit a doctor for examination.

4. It can cause weakness in your bones

 A caloric deficit can result in a few intakes of nutrients needed for the
development and maintenance of bones, such as vitamin D and calcium.
Also, restriction of calories during caloric deficit can result in stress. During
stress, the hormone cortisol is released in large quantities. Calorie affects the
maintenance of bones by causing calcium resistance. This reduces calcium
absorption into the blood and prevents calcium from entering the bones.
Calcium is a major building block of bones, and inadequate calcium reduces
bone density, causing bone weakness. Furthermore, because calcium is
required for other activities such as muscle contraction, the bone is broken to
release calcium into the blood when a sufficient supply of calcium is
unavailable. In addition, the hormones estrogen and testosterone help in bone
formation and reduce the breaking done of bones.
These hormones get reduced during a caloric deficit. When the number of
calories consumed is low, and these hormones are produced in inadequate
quantities, bone formation is distorted, and the breakdown of bones is
enhanced. In general, caloric deficit may be the reason for your weak bones.
When you reduce your consumption of
calories, you reduce the important nutrients needed for strong bones and
the quantity of the hormones that aid in the bone build-up. For strong bones,
eat enough calories!

5. A general feeling of fatigue

When an insufficient amount of nutrients is not consumed, your body
begins to weaken, and you feel dizzy and fatigued. This is because a small
number of calories is available to be broken down to release energy. When
inadequate carbohydrate is eaten, little amount of glucose is released for the
body to carry out homeostasis effectively and for you to carry out work,
making you feel fatigued most of the time. The caloric deficit comes with a
slow metabolism, and slow metabolism makes it difficult for your body to
break down stored energy. Furthermore, there won’t be much-stored energy
because there weren’t enough nutrients consumed to store. Also, in slow
metabolism, the hormones responsible for activity adrenaline are produced in
small quantities; therefore, the body is generally inactive. Dizziness also
occurs when you are going through a caloric deficit. This is because
glucose’s main energy source in the brain is inadequate, and the brain is
deprived of it. Therefore, dizziness and fatigue are consequences of a caloric
deficit.

6. Constipation
Consuming an insufficient number of calories can result in constipation.
When slow metabolism occurs due to caloric deficit, the body’s digestive
process is reduced. The body takes time to digest and absorb the nutrients,
and when the food reaches the bowel, the movement is slowed down, and
more fluid is absorbed; this results in difficulty in passing out stool and
passage of hard feces. In summary, the body tries to get the most of the little
nutrients you consume during caloric deficit and slows down digestion,
resulting in constipation.
7. Increased Risk of Developing Gallstones
Gallstones are developed in the gall bladder, an organ that stores the bile
acid responsible for breaking down fat. When gallstones are developed, the
passage of bile is interrupted, and the metabolism of fat is affected. Caloric
deficit increases the risk of gallstones because when glucose is not produced,
the body needs energy; this makes it form ketone bodies as an improvisation.
Ketone bodies are made from the fatty acids in the liver. When excess ketone
bodies are produced, gallstones are formed. The formation of gallstone is
facilitated by caloric deficit and can be prevented when you consume enough
calories for energy.
8. Ineffective weight loss
When you reduce the amount of food you consume and cut off your
calorie intake, your body burns more calories than it stores, resulting in
weight loss. When the caloric deficit continues, and your body keeps burning
more calories than it can store, it lacks the energy to carry out its normal
activities. You also lack the energy to perform your activities. Since not
much energy is stored, your body breaks down the muscles to release energy.
As we’ve seen, muscle loss reduces the body’s metabolic rate as muscles
perform many metabolic activities. When the body’s metabolism is reduced,
the body doesn’t burn down fat at a fast rate, and more weight is gained
instead of lost. Also, when the body gains to lose weight due to the caloric
deficit, the brain sends a message to reduce the body’s metabolic activities to
preserve body weight.

9. Reduction in Body Immunity

Reducing the number of calories that you normally consume can lower the
immunity of your body. The reduction in immunity is also lowered by serious
physical exercise. Research carried out on a group of athletes showed that
they decided to lose weight by cutting down their calorie supply and
engaging in serious physical exercise had a reduced body immunity. They
were very susceptible to diseases and kept falling ill. However, those who
didn’t cut down their caloric supply had a better immune system and were not
susceptible to diseases. The immune system needs the energy to function and
fight diseases. Decreasing the supply of calories decreases the energy supply,
making it weak. In addition, reducing calories reduces the nutrients required
to maintain a strong immune system. The nutrient includes vitamins,
minerals, and proteins. When the level of proteins is cut down, the body lacks
enough amino acids to build the essential proteins that fight diseases, the
immunogens. When fewer immunogens are produced, there are fewer agents
to protect the body, and immunity is reduced. Also, these nutrients are needed
for the formation of blood cells, particularly white blood cells. The white
blood cells aid in combating diseases that attack the body. When they are
produced in low quantities, your body’s immunity decreases. Therefore,
cutting off the calorie supply to the body reduces the energy supply needed
for a strong immune system and also reduces the essential nutrients needed to
form the components of the immune system that fight diseases. Mistakes
People Make In Weight Loss That Slows Down the Process and Can Result
in Caloric Deficit Aside from cutting down the caloric supply, people make a
lot of mistakes when they want to lose weight, resulting in them not losing
weight at all or losing weight and becoming unhealthy. Caloric deficit results
in loss of energy for the basal metabolic rate, for the digestion of the food
you consume, and the energy to carry out your physical activities. Some of
these mistakes are their lifestyle practices, and others are the type or amount
of nutrients they consume. The mistakes people make include;
1. Eating Inadequate amounts of Proteins;
In a bid to lose weight, people reduce the amount of food they consume
and end up cutting down the portion of protein they consume.
 Proteins are very important in your weight loss journey. Proteins are
essential in producing the amino acids needed to build muscle tissues.
When you have a lot of muscle tissue, your body metabolism increases,
increasing weight loss. Eating a lot of protein produces more muscles and
prevents the loss of muscles during weight loss. However, muscle
mass will break when inadequate protein is consumed to release energy.
When muscles are broken, few remain, which slows down the body’s
metabolism. Slow metabolism, in turn, increases body weight. However,
eating an adequate amount of proteins will prevent all of these and speed up
the body’s metabolism rate, helping the body lose weight. Lastly, the thermic
effect of proteins is high, making proteins burn down fat when it is being
digested in the body.
2. Not Keeping Track of the Food you consume
A lot of people who want to lose weight make the mistake of reducing or
increasing the number of calories they consume without keeping track of it.
When you don’t keep track of the quantity of food you consume, you may
end up eating more calories than your body can burn or a lot fewer calories
than you originally planned on eating. Keeping track of the number of
calories and the type of nutrient you consume will aid in your weight loss. In
that way, you don’t end up eating too much or too little number of calories. It
also ensures that you supply your body with the right number of calories it
needs to maintain its body activities and provide you with energy to carry out
your work effectively. Knowing how to calculate the number of calories in
the food you need will help the tracking process. Also, tracking your daily
food consumption will help ensure you do not miss out on any essential
nutrients needed for good health and weight loss.
3. Eating Too Many Calories
A lot of people want to lose weight but still consume a lot of calories.
When you consume more calories than your body needs, the rest of the
calories are stored as fat tissues adding to your weight. Also, fat tissues burn
calories much slower than muscle tissues, so your body’s metabolism tends
to slow. Slow metabolism is not good for your weight loss as it doesn’t
effectively burn the large number of calories you consume. These fat tissues
also get deposited in the liver, which may result in fatty liver.
 It is very important to avoid consuming too many calories if you want to
lose weight. Curtailing the number of calories, you consume doesn’t only
help you maintain a good weight but also helps you maintain good health.
The fat built as a result of the extra calories ends up getting stored around the
heart, increasing the chances of contracting cardiovascular diseases. Eating
too many calories makes you overweight, increasing your chances of
contracting diseases like stroke, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease,
diabetes, and so on. To avoid consuming too many calories, drink a lot of
water. Water has very few calories and a satiating effect; it makes you feel
full and thus suppresses the appetite that causes you to consume too many
calories.
4. Practicing a Sedentary Lifestyle and Not Exercising
People often feel they can lose weight by just relaxing in their comfort
zone and not doing anything. They practice a sedentary lifestyle, wake up,
stay in bed for hours, use an evaluator, go to work, sit at their desk and work
for hours without standing up. This doesn’t help in weight loss at all. It
doesn’t help to burn down fat; instead, it results in fat build-up and slows
down metabolism. To lose weight, you have to do away with these habits and
try to move your body to do work. There are activities you can do, activities
as little as walking around your house, cleaning your room, taking the
staircase, riding a bicycle, and standing up for a few minutes after sitting
down for hours. These activities can go a long way to assist in boosting your
metabolism and thus helps in weight loss. Studies show that even sitting to
watch the television burns more calories than sitting on a desk typing for
hours. Make sure you don’t stay in a place for too long; try to move your
body and change position at intervals. Exercise is also very good for losing
weight; it helps burn down body fat and build body muscles that speed up
metabolic processes. However, exercise is not the only thing effective in
weight loss. Exercise without a reasonable rate of metabolism and a good
caloric plan will impede your weight loss. Exercise is also good in keeping
vital organs like the heart in a good state. To lose weight effectively, do not
practice a sedentary lifestyle, do a lot of basic physical activities, and try to
engage in exercise activities once in a while.
5. Not Drinking Enough Water
Several times, people feel they can skip the part about drinking water;
they make a weight loss plan and forget to add ‘Drink a lot of water.’ This
disrupts the whole weight loss plan. Drinking a lot of water is very essential
in losing weight. Water helps to digest food, and it serves as a universal
solvent that dissolves food and carries it down the digestive tract. Water helps
to boost the metabolic rate; a study of the metabolic rate before and after
drinking water revealed that the metabolic rate after drinking water was high
compared to before drinking the water. Water is an excellent metabolic
booster, and a good metabolism is needed to burn calories. Whenever your
body is dehydrated, its metabolism is slow. It also helps to suppress appetite.
You feel satisfied whenever you drink water; this is why people are
encouraged to drink two glasses of water before eating. Water helps to ensure
you don’t eat more calories than your body requires. And the beauty of it all?
It is affordable! Water is available and affordable everywhere, so make sure
you add clean water to your weight loss plan and accompany every meal you
eat with it.
6. Exercising Too Much
A lot of people’s idea of losing weight is spending long hours in the gym
to burn down a lot of calories. While exercise is good for your overall weight
loss plan, too much of it can be harmful. Too much exercise can burn all the
fat in your body, including the useful ones stored for important functions. It
can result in general body stress. Stress leads to the release of cortisol in large
amounts. When cortisol is released into the blood, it slows down the body’s
metabolic processes and increases hunger, making you crave a lot of food,
especially foods containing sugar and fat. This is not good for weight loss as
it increases calorie intake.
Also, when cortisol is produced in excess quantities, it can reduce the
number of testosterones in the body, which in turn causes a decrease in
muscle mass. As you’ve seen, a decrease in muscle mass affects metabolism.
Excess exercise can reduce the body’s general performance; your body
becomes less agile and active. It can also lead to fatigue when your body
cannot recover the essential calories it needs that have been lost in the gym.
When you’re constantly burning down calories, all the energy stored will be
depleted, and the body will not have enough energy to carry out its functions,
leading to fatigue. In other words, exercise is good for weight loss, but excess
of it can affect your body metabolism and, in turn, your weight loss plan.
 7. Not Consuming Enough Calories
This is by far the most major mistake people make in weight loss. People
feel they lose weight when they completely cut down the calorie supply to
their bodies. While reducing your intake of calories can contribute to weight
loss, not eating enough calories can stop the process.
As we’ve seen, your body needs an adequate number of calories to carry
out its regular activities. It also needs a reasonable number of calories to
process and store the food you need. When you don’t supply your body with
the right number of calories needed for this, you end up becoming calorie
deficient. Here, your body burns down more calories than it gets from the
food you eat, and this causes you to lose weight and important body tissues
like your muscles. When this happens, your body reacts through a negative
feedback mechanism and reduces the metabolic process to conserve energy.
When your body’s metabolism is slowed down, the rate of burning fat is
reduced, and you gain more weight instead of losing it. Not consuming
enough calories results in not having enough energy to carry out your work,
and you end up feeling tired, dizzy, and experiencing difficulty in losing
weight. To maintain a steady weight loss and avoid a caloric deficit, consume
only the right number of calories your body requires.
8. Not setting Realistic Weight Goals
Oftentimes, people want to lose weight without setting weight loss goals,
or they set goals that are not realistic. People write up a large amount of
weight they plan to lose in only a few days. This makes them do things to
lose weight rapidly, such as excessive exercise and eating a minimal number
of calories. When they do things and end up not losing weight, they become
sad and depressed. Worst still, they gain more weight, become sick, or
fatigued. The process of weight loss should be taken gradually and should not
be rushed. To lose weight effectively, set realistic goals within a time frame.
 BASAL METABOLIC RATE

Do you know you can burn down a lot of calories even as you lay in your
bed doing nothing? Imagine you didn’t breathe or your heart didn’t pump
blood while you sleep; that will mean death, right? You burn a lot of calories
in your sleep because your body systems do not stay utterly inactive while
you sleep but keep running to keep you alive. Your body systems are like the
security that works at night in a store even when the other workers have gone
home to ensure that everything is in its right places and is not stolen. Your
body keeps working even when you fall into the deepest of sleep to ensure
you wake up to a functioning system.
However, energy is needed for these systems to work; calories must be
broken down to release the energy. The systems need the energy to perform
the essential life-sustaining functions needed to keep you alive. These life-
sustaining functions include; inhaling and exhaling oxygen, circulating blood
around the body, beating the heart, regulating body temperature, destroying
and repairing cells, and maintaining body ph.
Basal metabolic rate, also known as BMR, is the rate at which the body
burns down calories at rest to perform the important functions needed to
sustain life. It is the rate at which energy is expended per unit of time when
the body is at rest. The unit for measurement is energy per unit time, which is
Joules per second. It can also be measured in the unit of watts. Basal
metabolic rate makes up the most significant proportion of energy expended
daily. Therefore, it is mostly accountable for differentiating how energy in
the food you eat is expended compared to other people. Some people burn
calories at a faster rate than others at rest; this is because several factors affect
the rate at which calories are burnt. Factors Affecting Basal Metabolic Rate
As mentioned above, several factors affect Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).
Some of these factors are internal, while others are external factors. The
factors include;
1. Lean muscle Mass
The mass of your body’s muscles, especially your lean muscle mass, has a
massive impact on the Basal Metabolic Rate of your body.
Lean muscle refers to the muscles made up of densely packed contractile
tissue containing just a little amount of fat within or around them. They are
different from other low-quality muscles that contain a lot of fat. Lean muscle
mass, also known as Free Fat mass, is the amount of mass of lean muscles in
the body. It is a component of the body weight and is calculated by
subtracting the mass of body fat from the total body weight.
Lean muscle mass is closely related to BMF. The higher the lean muscle
mass, the higher the metabolic rate of metabolism. Muscles are more
metabolically active and burn many calories than fat. This is why metabolism
slows down when you lose muscle mass; muscles increase the body’s energy
expenditure at rest. You should have a good lean muscle mass to have a
normal and healthy body metabolism. Lean muscles burn down more calories
than other muscles containing fat. To grow and maintain your lean muscles,
consume a lot of lean proteins in your diet. Also, you can engage in strength
or resistance training.

2. Gender
Gender has a role to play in the Basal Metabolic Rate of people. Usually,
men have a high BMR than women. This is because men usually have a
higher lean muscle mass, making them burn calories faster. Women usually
have more amount of fat in their bodies compared to men, especially in
feminine parts of their bodies like their breasts, their buttocks, and their
thighs. This reduces their metabolic rate. Most of the food women consume is
stored as fat, and a lesser quantity is used to build muscles and bones. The fat
is stored as energy in anticipation of a time the serious need will arise, like
during lactation and breastfeeding.
Apart from lean muscle mass, men have more amounts of testosterone
than women. Testosterone increases the Basal Metabolic Rate by increasing
the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. It increases insulin
sensitivity and glucose tolerance. It also increases the formation of lean
muscle fat and reduces the formation of fat. This is why men have a higher
lean muscle mass and less fat, making them have higher BMR than women.
3. Body Size
The Basal Metabolic Rate of your body has a directly proportional
relationship with the size of your body. People with large body sizes have a
high Basal Metabolic Rate, and people with small body sizes have a low
Basal Metabolic Rate. This explains why people who are big sweat a lot and
breathe faster than people who are small in size. Having a big body means
having larger organs that need to be constantly supplied with a lot of
nutrients, therefore implies always breaking calories and transporting
nutrients to fulfill this purpose. Having a big body size also means having
many metabolizing tissues actively burning down calories. To satisfy the
body’s metabolic needs and the metabolizing tissues, the body needs a lot of
calories, which is why people who have a large size are always hungry and
demanding food. However, people with small body sizes have smaller organs
and fewer metabolic tissues. Therefore, they have a lower metabolic rate and
fewer nutrients demand, making them consume normal amounts of nutrients.
People with large body sizes need a high supply of calories as well as a
high metabolic rate to maintain their body size. To maintain their body size,
they are constantly breaking down stored energy and constantly replacing
them at a fast rate. In addition, more body size means more surface area for
the loss of heat through sweat. For the body to maintain a constant
temperature, it has to produce the exact amount of heat it lost to the
atmosphere. This results in calories being burnt down to release heat for the
maintenance of body temperature. Therefore, people with large body sizes
have a high Basal Metabolic Rate compared to people with small body sizes
because they have more metabolic demands and have to produce a lot of heat
to maintain their body’s temperature. However, it is necessary to note that the
body mass referred to here is the lean body mass, which is a difference
between the total body weight and the total fat weight.
Lean body mass= Total weight - fat mass
Since the lean body mass is the mass of all organs involved in
metabolism, its size is directly proportional to the rate of metabolism.

4. Age
Age is another factor that affects the metabolism of the body. The basal
metabolic rate of the body decreases with age. It is the highest when an infant
is growing because the need for rapid growth causes the body to constantly
burn down calories to release nutrients and energy needed for the process.
Therefore, the child has a high basal metabolic rate. The rate also increases
during adolescence because of the several changes that take place, i.e., the
growth of public hairs, development of breasts and buttocks in girls, and
development of muscular features in boys. In adolescence also, sexual
hormones like testosterone and estrogen for men and women are produced in
large quantities to begin the reproductive phase of their lives. These
hormones increase the basal metabolic rate of the body.
In men, these hormones (testosterone) stimulate the development of lean
muscle tissues, making them have a high metabolic rate and even higher than
that of women of the same age.
However, the basal metabolic rate reduces as you grow older. This is
because, firstly, age comes with the loss of muscle mass. The muscle mass
decreases with age, making older adults have low lean muscle mass but
higher fat mass. The loss of muscles decreases their body metabolism.
Secondly, the sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) that speed up the
metabolic rate reduce with age. This is true, especially for women who have
reached their menopause. Their level of estrogen rapidly declines, affecting
their body metabolism. Thirdly, older people are not active as they used to be
when they were younger; they rarely perform any exercise and usually live a
sedentary lifestyle. The lack of physical activities reduces their rate of
metabolism. The decrease in the level of thyroid hormones that help stimulate
activity is another reason for their decrease in body activity and,
subsequently, their decrease in metabolism. In addition, as you get older,
your metabolic needs decrease, and your organs, especially the ones that
carry out a lot of metabolic activities, start to fail and become less functional
than they used to be. Therefore, the rate of metabolism increases in children
for their growth and adolescents for sexual development but decreases in
older people due to loss of muscle mass, fewer activities, and a decline in the
level of hormones.
5. Genetics
Genes have a role to play in body metabolism. The genes responsible for
metabolism are passed down from parents to offspring and from one
generation. This is why you see people in the same family having the same
large body size because they have a metabolic rate that maintains their body
size. Genes affect how the body burns down calories at rest, the thermic
effect of food consumed, and the rate at which the body burns down calories
during physical activities like exercises. Some people inherit a fast metabolic
rate from their parents and burn down calories at a fast rate, while others
inherit a slow metabolism and burn down calories at a slow rate.
6. Diet
The type of food you consume is one of the major factors determining
your body’s Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Consuming diets containing a lot
of protein has a positive impact on the metabolic rate.
Proteins have a high thermic effect on food, which is the amount of
energy needed to digest and metabolize food. The high thermic effect
increases the body’s general metabolism, including the basal metabolic rate.
Most importantly, consuming adequate amounts of proteins provides
adequate amounts of amino acids needed for the formation of muscle tissues.
When more muscle tissues have formed, the rate of metabolism of the body
increases; however, when you do not consume enough proteins, there won’t
be amino acids for the formation of muscle, and worst of all, the body breaks
down the already existing muscle tissues to release amino acids needed for its
functions. When muscle tissues are lost, the BMR of the body reduces.
7. Environmental Factors Affecting BMR
The environment you live in is capable of affecting your Basal Metabolic
Rate. External environmental factors such as climate changes and weather
also have a great influence on the rate of metabolic activities, the body on its
own is constantly trying to maintain a stable environment; hence a change in
external environmental factors will buffer the body’s metabolic atmosphere
to change either by an increase in rate or a reduction, in other to adapt to this
new environmental change. This explains why you feel the sensation of
urinating more often on a cold day and less on a warmer day. It clearly
explains the significant reduction in the fluid loss through the body by
evaporation and sweating on cold days, which are then narrowed to an
increased rate of urine formation. It is a general assertion that if the body
temperature is low, the body works so hard to checkmate the effect of the low
temperature, thereby increasing the temperature through that process and vice
versa. Therefore, when the environment’s temperature becomes too low or
too high, the body increases or decreases its activities to restore normalcy,
resulting in a change in the Basal Metabolic Rate.
8. Physical Activities Affecting BMR
It is without a doubt that the body utilizes an incredible amount of energy
by burning out kilojoules during exercises and other physical activities. This
is one of the reasons for tiredness and sometimes fatigue after a long day of
activities. The body tries to make up for this lost energy in a process that will
build the average body mass and increase its rate of metabolism to produce
replaceable energy from digested food. In the process, it increases the rate at
which the heart pumps blood through the body, carrying food substances to
all parts of the body, including protein, to build the masses of muscles and
body tissues. Physical activities keep the body active, and a lack of them,
particularly if you live a sedentary lifestyle, results in a slow metabolism.
Also, physical activities such as exercise help build lean muscle tissues and
increase the rate of metabolism. Fat cells that burn down calories at a slow
pace are broken down during physical activities. Therefore, physical
activities have a positive impact on Basal Metabolic Rate.
9. Drugs
It is a population observation of the feeling of agitation sometimes after
overuse of some drugs such as caffeine and nicotine, hence the reason why
they keep you active at work and prevent sleep when you have work to do at
night. These drugs increase your basal metabolic rate by increasing the food
digestion process to provide energy, heart rate, muscle tone, and excretion
rate through urination. Diets poor in iodine also have a significant effect on
basal metabolic rates. This diet ebbs thyroxine secretion from the thyroid
gland and consequently reduces the basal metabolism. Also, drugs containing
caffeine and nicotine can cause an increase in BMR.
10. Hormonal Factors
We have seen how hormones can alter the metabolic rate and their impact
on the body. Hormones are substances produced in parts of the body and
released into the blood to be transported to their site of action. Their site of
action is the place they exert their functions. Hormones are specific in action,
meaning they carry out only the actions they were designed for. They have a
huge role to play in regulating the Basal Metabolic Rate. The thyroid
hormones increase the general activities of the body, including basal
metabolism. An increase in the production and release of these hormones
increases the BMR, while a decrease in production will do the exact opposite
decreasing the BMR. This is why people with hyperthyroidism have a fast
metabolism, and people with hypothyroidism have a slow metabolism.
The hormone insulin is responsible for the intake of glucose by cells.
When it is produced in low quantities or when the cells cannot recognize it
during insulin resistance, glucose remains underutilized in the blood. This
slows down the BMR as less energy is released for the basal metabolic
actives. This also causes an increase in weight which also slows down the
body’s metabolism. The hormone cortisol released during stress is capable of
causing slow metabolism.
It increases the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats in the body, making
you hungrier, resulting in you consuming a large number of calories which in
turn slows down your metabolism. The sex hormones (testosterone and
estrogen) can also increase your body’s resting metabolism. As we have seen,
a reduction in their production with age can slow down the body’s
metabolism. These hormones and others can affect the Basal Metabolic Rate
of your body.

How to Measure Basal Metabolic Rate

There are many ways and indexes recorded to be effective in calculating

BMR. However, the basic principle of BMR calculation revolves around a
calorimetric analysis of a person’s amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide
inspired and expired. However, some other parameters in the calculation are
height, weight, age, and sex. They are two widely known equations for
calculating BMR, the Revised Harris-benedict BMR equation and the
Mifflin-st Jeor equation.
Revised Harris-Benedict BMR equation:
Male: (88.4 + 13.4 * weight) + (4.8 * height)-5.68* age)
Women: ( 447.6 + 9.25 * weight) + 3.10 * height) - ( 4.33 * age)
Mifflin-st Jeor equation:
Male: 9.99 * weight + 6.25 * height - 4.92* age + 5
Female: 9.99 * weight + 6.25 * height - 4.92 * age - 161

Importance of Basal Metabolic Rate

The importance of Basal metabolic rate cannot be overemphasized in
maintaining a healthy metabolism. Basal Metabolic Rates serve as a
determinant and an index to many body processes. Knowing the caloric
consumption of your heart, liver, kidney, and other visceral organs shapes
your healthy lifestyle forever. This caloric content serves the body’s primary
visceral needs, such as pumping of the heart, breakdown of food, neutralizing
toxic substances in the liver, production of urine, and other activities of your
internal organs after the body must have used the available caloric content for
this process. Every other remainder will aid in physical activities and when in
excess, deposited as fats. This difference is necessary for maintaining normal
body metabolism and diagnosing specific disorders. Below is an elaborate
explanation of the importance of Basal metabolic rates in maintaining a
healthy metabolism.
1. In Weight Management
It is a normal claim in recent times that weight gain is caused exclusively
by eating fatty food; however, this is not entirely true. With fat depositions
from normal fatty diets, fats are also a product of excess calories, which
explains why you can get fat even without having lots of fatty diets. This
caloric composition that is later converted into fat is a product of the excess
caloric composition used in basal metabolism. Hence, to maintain a healthy
weight system, it is necessary to know your BMR and adapt your caloric
intake accordingly. You can reduce your fats by knowing your BMR and
consuming fewer calories than that. This will reluctantly aid the body in
reconverting excess fats back to calories, reducing fats in fat stores. If you
would like to increase fat deposits, you can also know your normal BMR rate
and consume calories above that.
This will lead to the conversion of the excess calories into fats.
2. In Diagnosing Thyroid Disorders
The thyroid gland is located at the front of the neck region just below
what we know as Adam’s apple. This gland is essential in maintaining the
functioning of many activities of the body. It is the hormones for metabolism,
growth, development, maintenance of the body’s energy stores, and
subsequently, weight gain and loss. The thyroid hormone perfectly controls
these activities due to its great influence and relationship with the basal
metabolic rate; thyroid hormones burn fats, increasing your BMR level.
However, it is simple to argue that a low value and abruptly high level of
Basal metabolic rate indicate a reduced thyroid function (a pathological
condition known as hypothyroidism) and an overtly increased thyroid
function (a pathological case for thyrotoxicosis). Certain clinical conditions
can also be subjective to a low or high Basal metabolic rate. Conditions such
as fever, pregnancy, and cancer increase the BMR, while obesity, starvation,
Cushing’s syndrome, and sedative drugs reduce the Basal metabolic rates.
3. In Setting Up Your Meal Plan
 Understanding BMR and the need to know your BMR will be short-lived
if it does not help you plan your diet. BM rates tell you how many calories
you need to maintain your body and stay alive. While the basal metabolism
rate is not universal but specific to individuals, it is only healthy to set up
meal plans that go in tandem with your body’s energy requirement.
For better results, it is better not to leave out other diets, such as proteins,
because they also greatly affect maintaining a healthy metabolism.

What Is a Healthy or Good Metabolic Rate?

It is understandable that after knowing your BMR, the uncertainty sets in,
whether it is the best for you or deserving of urgent clinical management. It is
helpful to remember that basal metabolic rates are influenced by various
factors, some of which are modifiable and others over which you have no
control. The BMR varies; you must view it as a necessity, keep it within the
normal interval, and use your personal understanding to make adaptive
changes through your lifestyle and diets.
However, the BMR of an average man is 7100kj per day while that of an
average woman is 5900kj per day ranging from a negative 15% to a positive
15%. The significant increase in males to females is due to the increased lean
body mass in males compared to the female body tissue and the increase in
fatty tissues in females. However, several clinical signs are there to watch for
an overly increased or reduced rate.
It is also good to note that these figures are highly subjective and quite
variable within these average figures. It is good to integrate your BMR with
your lifestyle to maintain a healthy metabolic rate. Some of these proven
formulas will help you get an effective BMR value in tandem with your
fitness lifestyle and hence a more constructive approach toward maintaining a
good metabolic rate.
Multiply your BMR by 1.2 if you do not get any exercise at all Multiply
your BMR by 1.373 if you exercise lightly within one to three days weekly
Multiply your BMR by 1.5 if you get moderate exercise within three to five
days a week
Multiply your BMR by 1.72 if you get hard exercise within six to seven
days a week Multiply your BMR by 1.9 if you exercise very actively within
six to seven days a week The result will approximate your daily caloric need
in other to maintain your weight.

BEST METHOD FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Like I said, people want to lose weight for reasons best known to them,
such as improving their confidence, achieving a particular weight goal,
feeling better, and so on. However, regardless of the reason, having a healthy
weight is priceless as it not only makes you look good but also reduces the
chances of developing diseases such as Diabetes, obesity, high blood
pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases.
Overall, it is good to have a weight you are proud of. It makes you happy
whenever you look at yourself in the mirror and whenever you climb the
scale. Many people try several methods to lose weight but either gain more or
end up not losing weight. Some people start losing weight as a result of the
caloric deficit, but as time passes, they either gain back all they’ve lost, or
their weight remains the same. The reason for this could be because they
made one of the mistakes I previously spoke about, or they tried a method
that was not effective at all or started well till it became ineffective.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many people who want to lose weight,
and I’ve seen people try out a lot of methods, especially in the number of
calories they consume. The first step most people make when they want to
lose weight is to cut down the number of calories they consume; they starve
themselves of food and remain hungry.
They watch their friends or people they live with eat a lot of delicious
meals, and when they are asked ‘Why aren’t you eating?’ They respond, ‘I’m
on a diet,’ without even knowing what being on a diet truly means.
Some engage in unrealistic diet plans that leave them malnourished and
looking unhealthy. Other people’s idea of losing weight is to spend hours in
the gym trying to burn down all the fat they have in their body but end up
having a lean weight and a reduced immune system. While working out to
lose weight may be helpful, if you don’t understand your body and the
number of calories it requires, you may end up not losing the right or the
healthy number of calories you wish to or worst still, you may end up not
losing weight at all.
The Most Effective Method for Weight Loss
I know many people must have tried many weight loss methods that didn’t
work or made them gain even more weight. They may be wondering, ‘Will I
ever be able to lose weight?’ ‘Is there really an effective method of weight
loss?’. Well, I’m here to tell you that it is very possible to lose weight and
there is an effective way to do it. From my over ten years of experience
working with people through their weight loss journey, I have tried many
weight loss methods and have been able to derive the most effective of all. I
have tried this method on several people, and it has proven to be effective
most of the time, from year to year.
Before introducing this method, we need to recall that the calories you
consume in food are being broken down into energy needed to perform basic
life-sustaining activities (via Basal Metabolic Rate) for the digestion of food
(via Diet-Induced Thermogenesis) and physical activities like movement and
exercise. Of all these activities, the Basal Metabolic Rate requires the most
significant number of calories. After energy is used for these activities, the
rest is stored as fat in your body. When you consume the right number of
calories needed for your body’s metabolism, all the calories consumed will
be burned down for energy to carry out all the activities listed above. When
you consume more calories than is needed for your body’s metabolism, your
body uses precisely the number of calories it needs for its activities and stores
the rest as fat. This makes you gain more weight. However, when you
consume a lesser number of calories than your body needs for its activities, a
caloric deficit occurs, and your body breaks down the stored fat to release the
energy it needs to function. This causes you to lose weight.
To lose weight effectively, alternate between high caloric days and low
caloric days. The days when you consume a large number of calories close to
the Active Metabolic Rate, which includes the Basal Metabolic Rate, physical
activities, and diet-induced thermogenesis, are referred to as high caloric
days. It provides an adequate number of calories needed by the body to carry
out its basal life-sustaining functions and other physical activities. It supplies
the body with the energy needed for active metabolism. On the other hand,
low caloric days are days of consuming food that contains fewer calories,
lower than that needed to sustain your
Basal Metabolic Rate; that is, the calories consumed on low metabolic
days are fewer than the BMR. The number of calories consumed on low
caloric days is usually about 300KCal fewer than the calories needed for the
Basal Metabolic Rate.
The reason for eating high caloric meals is to provide the calories needed
to meet up with the metabolic needs of the body, while the purpose of low
caloric meals is to create a caloric deficit. What this means is that high caloric
days are the days your body’s metabolism is stable and the normal activities
occur at ease, while low caloric days are days your body craves more calories
than it has been supplied. Low caloric days usually create a caloric deficit,
causing your body to break down the stored fat to release the energy needed
for its basic and physical activities.
 Meanwhile, high caloric days are to provide your body with the exact
nutrients it needs. High caloric days are usually to prevent the negative
impact of the caloric deficit and to ensure your body is healthy as it breaks
down calories to lose weight during low caloric days. It ensures you lose just
the right amount of fat and makes up for the excess unhealthy fat you lose
during low caloric days. It also improves the impact of low caloric days as
your body gets used to supplying the exact amount of nutrients needed. Then
the calories get reduced, resulting in a caloric deficit and thus weight loss.
High caloric days are to make the body go back to active metabolism and
recover from the effect of low caloric days.
The best way to carry on this method is to alternate between 4 high caloric
days and 3 low caloric days. The diet plan is as follows; the low caloric days
will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the high caloric days will be
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. On the low caloric days, after
about 300KCal, fewer calories of BMR are consumed, and intermittent
fasting for about 23hours follows. When you are done with the fast, you are
to consume all the calories in one meal.
The meal will be a carnivorous meal containing meat, fish, or eggs. After
consuming this meal, you are to embark on a dry fast overnight starting from
12 hours. The low caloric days are supposed to create a caloric deficit for
weight loss to take place.
During the high caloric days that take place on Tuesday, Thursday,
Saturday, and Sunday, you are to consume food containing the number of
calories your body requires. This sustains your body’s metabolism and helps
regulate your body’s nutrient level. Also, it helps you overcome the negative
effects of caloric deficit such as slow metabolism, fatigue, deficiency of
nutrients, constipation, weakness of bones, infertility issues, and ineffective
weight loss. The type of nutrients to consume on high caloric days include
animal proteins such as milk products, meat, fish, and eggs. You can also
consume complex carbohydrates such as yam, rice, sweet potatoes, pasta,
quinoa, etc. No intermittent fasting occurs after high caloric days, and the
metabolism is active as it is fully fueled with a sufficient number of calories
needed by the body. On these high caloric days, you consume high-energy
food to keep the metabolism firing. They reduce the negative impact of
caloric deficit, which is metabolic adaption. They ensure the body doesn’t get
used to the low calories consumed in the low caloric days by reducing its
metabolism to make do with the calories eaten; this prevents the breaking
down of vital fat from releasing energy. Therefore, high caloric days are
needed to maintain the metabolism of your body which is essential for
effective weight loss.
Intermittent fasting is a periodic type of fasting that alternates between
eating and not eating at all or eating food with low calories based on a
schedule. The 23 hours of intermittent fasting you practice during low caloric
days is to help you in your caloric deficit. It provides your body more time to
break down the stored fat in your body to release the energy needed for its
sustainability during that period. Consuming all the calories in one meal will
help you regain your energy level.

During fasting, your body needs calories to break down, which is why you
should supply it with effective nutrients like protein breakdown.
Proteins help to regulate the metabolic rate with their high thermic effect.
They are also broken down into amino acids, which are used to form muscles
that improve your body’s metabolic rate. They help prepare you for dry
fasting, making you stay satiated longer during the fasting period. It also
helps regulate the level of the hormones responsible for appetite. It decreases
the production of ghrelin, the hormone that increases hunger, and increases
the level of leptin, the hormone that suppresses appetite.
The 12 hours of dry fasting done after consuming the carnivorous
diet is good for weight loss. When the body is starved of food for 12
hours, it burns down its stored fat to release the energy needed for it to keep
functioning in other to keep you alive. It also burns down these calories to
provide you with energy to carry out your work. Fasting for 12 hours not only
aids in weight loss but also helps to boost the immune system. It helps clear
out the dead and worn-out cells and allows the body enough time to
regenerate new ones.
It is important to know that you have to be very consistent with this
method. When you stop along the line of your weight loss plan and go back
to old habits, you may go back to your old weight, especially if you were on a
massive weight loss. For example, if you were 150 kilos and lost about 50
kilos but pull out from your weight loss journey and go back to your old
habits, you will return to 150 kilos straight away. This is because your body
remembers the former homeostasis when you consume the number of
calories that kept it firing. In addition, you can choose to add exercise to this
weight loss. Exercise helps speed up metabolism, burn down calories and
build muscles.
For this weight loss method to be effective, you must understand your
body’s metabolism. You must know how your body burns down calories and
how many calories you should consume daily. To do this, you have to
calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate. As we have previously seen, to
calculate your BMR, for men, multiply your weight in pounds by 6.23 and
add to the result gotten from the multiplication of your height in inches by
1.27. From this result, minus the result gotten by the multiplication of your
age in years by 6.8. That is;
B.M.R for men = (6.23 * Weight in pounds) + (12.7 * Height in inches) -
(6.8 * Age in years)
For women, Add 655 to the multiplication of your weight in pounds by 4.
35 and add the multiplication of your height in inches by 4.7, from the result
gotten minus the multiplication of 4.7 by your age in years. That is;
B.M.R for women = 655 + (4.35 * Weight in Pounds) + (4.7 *Height in
inches) - (4.7 * Age in years)
To calculate the metabolic rate of someone active, that is, to calculate the
active metabolic rate, multiply the Basal Metabolic Rate by 1.55.
That is;
Active Metabolic Rate = B.MR * 1.55
It is important to note that the results of all of these calculations are
approximations; they are not exact. However, they are close to the actual
values and give you information on the Basal and Active Metabolic
Rate of your body. This enables you to understand how your body can
burn down the calories it consumes.

How to Estimate the Number of Calories in Food

Now that you know how to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, the next
thing should know how to calculate is how many calories are needed to be
active. Knowing how to estimate the number of calories in the food you
consume will enable you to monitor your calorie intake and take adequate
quantities. As you already know, consuming more calories than is needed for
your BMR makes you gain weight but consuming more calories than is
needed for your BMR makes you gain weight.
It is not easy to tell how many calories a bowl of food contains by
just looking at it. Luckily for you, stores in many parts of the world,
especially in the US, are mandated to have a nutrition label on their packaged
food products. This is because the government cares about your health and
recognizes how the type of nutrient you eat affects your weight and
subsequently how it affects your health. The nutrition label states the type of
nutrients found in the food pack as well as the quantity they come in. For
example, you see things like fats; 20g on the nutrition label. This makes it
easier for you to estimate the number of calories you want to eat. All you
have to do is to go ahead and calculate the number of calories in the pack. I
will show you how to go about this calculation in just a few steps.

Steps to Calculate the Number of Calories in a Packaged Food

1. Find the nutrition Information on the Pack

As soon as you get hold of a packaged food, try to locate the nutrient
information on the food package. This information is usually found in a chart
format at the back or side of the pack. In the nutrient information, you will be
provided with the type of nutrient found in the food pack as well the daily
value that comes as a percentage.

2. Identify the major macronutrients in the food pack

The major macronutrients are three in number; they include proteins, fat,
and carbohydrates. These nutrients make up for the number of calories
contained in food because they contain mainly calories. They are the major
energy providers to the body. Therefore, the total calories they contain make
up for the major calories found in the food. Nutrients like vitamins and
minerals, which are micronutrients, may give you a filling effect but provide
your body with only a little or an insignificant number of calories. Also,
control your alcohol intake because alcohol also provides the body with a
reasonable number of calories.

3. Calculate and multiply the amount of each macronutrient by the

equivalent calories:
When you are done identifying the number of macronutrients
found in the pack, proceed to calculate the number of calories each
macronutrient contributes to the pack. You do this by multiplying the amount
of each of the macronutrients by their caloric equivalent.
Every macronutrient has a caloric equivalent. The caloric equivalent is the
number of calories contained in one gram of the macronutrient. The caloric
equivalent of a gram of protein is 4, meaning one gram of protein contains 4
calories. The caloric equivalent of carbohydrates is also 4. However, fat is 9,
which is more than the combination of carbohydrates and protein. So,
multiply the number of macronutrients in grams by their caloric equivalent.
For example, if the protein is present in 30g, multiply 30 by 4; the result is
120calories. This means the proteins in the food amount to 120 calories. If
carbohydrate is present in 15g, multiply 15 by 4, and the result is 60 calories.
This means the carbohydrates in the food make up to 60 calories. If fat is
present in 10g, multiply
10 by 9, and the result is 90. This means the fats present in the food
contain about 90 calories. Note that you can only do this calculation if the
number of macronutrients is in grams. Some companies may use kilograms in
their nutritional data. If this happens, you have to simply convert the
kilograms to grams by multiplying the number of kilograms by 1000. So if
there are 0.05 kilograms present, multiply by 1000 to give you 50 grams.
4. Calculate the total number of calories in the food pack;
After you have calculated the number of calories each macronutrient
contributes, you can go ahead and calculate the total number of calories in the
food. You do this by summing up the calories contained in the individual
macronutrients. Using the preceding example, the number of calories in
proteins, carbohydrates, and fats is 120, 60, and 90, respectively. The total
number of calories in the food will be the sum of these calories, which is, 120
+ 60 + 90 = 270
The result is 270 calories, meaning the total number of calories contained
in the food is 270 calories. Therefore, consuming a single pack of this food
means consuming about 270 calories. Usually, the total number of calories is
written in the caloric data. Always compare with the number you calculated
to ensure it corresponds.
The purpose of providing you with the individual nutrients and the
number of calories they contain is to aid in your dieting. For example, you
may want to consume food with lesser fat, but you may also want to consume
a total number of 300 calories. Calculating the number of calories provided
by fat in the food will help you determine if you wish to go ahead and eat the
food or not.
5. Calculate the calories of the number of servings you wish to
consume.
It is very important to note that the number of grams provided for each
macronutrient is only for 1 serving. This means that the total number of
calories you just calculated was for only one serving; that is, you consume
270 calories in only one serving. You should check the number of servings
the pack makes up. For instance, if the pack in the
example above contains 4 servings, if you want to prepare the whole pack,
the total number of calories you can consume in the park is multiplied by 4,
which is 1080 calories.
Calculating the caloric value of packaged food is simply because the
nutrients and number of calories are listed. But how about unpackaged fresh
food like fruits and vegetables? Unlike packaged food, calculating the
number of calories in unpackaged food is not easy because there is no
nutritional labeling. However, some online calorie calculator applications on
smartphones and computers enable you to check out some dietary
information. For example, they can estimate the number of calories found in
fruits and tell you the type of nutrients found in fruits and vegetables. You
can also look up USDA’s Food Composition Database to check some
information about the number of calories contained in the food you consume.
Lastly, you can look up the food you want to consume in your Food
Composition Guidebook when you go to a restaurant to eat.
Additionally, knowing the number of calories you consume is very
important for my method of weight loss to be effective. Don’t forget that on
low caloric days, you consume 300 calories, lesser than the number of
calories needed for your BMR. On high caloric days, you consume almost the
same number of calories needed for your Active Metabolism.
This will entail knowing both your BMR and the number of calories found
in the food you consume. In summary, the high and low caloric days’ work
side by side to ensure balance in your body as you deal with weight loss. The
low caloric days are mainly your weight loss days. Meanwhile, your high
caloric days are the days that help maintain active metabolism in your body
and prevent the negative impact of the caloric deficit from taking place in
your body. Both are needed for your weight loss journey to be smooth.
However, for this method to be effective, consistency is needed. You need
to be consistent in the diet plans and make sure you follow every step without
pulling out of the process.
In addition to diet consistency, you have to make sure you do not practice
certain lifestyles that mess up with your body metabolism and thus with your
weight, such as living a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and taking excessive
alcohol. You also have to ensure you avoid the things that increase your
appetite and make you crave an unhealthy number of
calories. For example, we have seen how stress and lack of sleep can
increase the amount of ghrelin (hunger hormone) and reduce the level of
leptin (filling hormone) in your body. Therefore, aside from practicing the
best method for weight loss which is the four high caloric days and three high
caloric days, you have to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU

ENCOUNTER A PLATEAU IN WEIGHT LOSS
 Many people begin weight loss practices when they notice a slight loss of
weight and everything appears to be going well, until their weight appears to
be static, without increasing or decreasing. When this happens, you notice the
arrow stops oscillating whenever you climb your weight scale but remains the
same. This is known as a weight loss plateau. Weight loss plateau occurs
your weight remains the same and stops changing for a while. It happens to a
lot of people when they embark on a diet or exercise to lose body fat. It is
usually very annoying and comes with a lot of frustrations, especially when
you are unable to identify the cause and thus unable to do anything about it. It
also discourages you from continuing to practice your weight loss process.
The weight loss plateau could be because of the type of weight loss
method you practice, especially when you do not practice my high caloric
days and 3 low caloric days. Other things can result in a weight plateau.
The causes of weight loss plateau include the following;
1. Loss of mean muscle tissues
When you drastically cut down your supply of calories, especially in the
first week of weight loss, your body becomes starved of calories and burns
down your stored fat to release the energy needed for you to do work.
However, some muscle tissues burn down alongside the fat, and this results
in loss of lean muscle mass. As we have seen, lean muscle mass increases the
rate of metabolism, so the loss of it results in lower body metabolism. Slow
body metabolism doesn’t help you lose weight but makes you either gain or
maintain it. Therefore, eating a low number of calories makes you lose
weight at first, but as the metabolism slows down, you begin to burn down fat
at a slower rate, and your weight becomes static.
2. Metabolic Adaptation
The excessive loss of body weight during the first few weeks of weight
loss results in metabolic adaptation in which your body creates a survival
mechanism to avoid further weight loss. This makes your body reduce your
Basal Metabolic Rate to burn down calories at a slow pace.
When the BMR is reduced, your body requires a lower number of calories
for the sustainability of the body. Therefore, the calories you consume still
end up being burnt down slowly, providing enough energy for your activities
and preventing further weight loss.
3. Maintenance of Body Weight
When you begin your weight loss journey and reduce your intake of
calories as well as engage in physical activities like exercise, you notice you
begin to lose weight. However, when you lose weight, the lower number of
calories you take and the physical activities you practice are needed to
maintain your new weight. This happens because you burn the exact number
of calories you consume. Therefore, you don’t store any calories or break
down any tissue to release energy. This causes your weight to remain
constant without increasing or decreasing, resulting in a weight loss plateau.
4. Consuming Alcohol
Consuming excessive alcohol while trying to lose weight can disrupt your
entire plan. It can disrupt your body’s metabolism by affecting your Basal
Metabolic Rate. Excessive alcohol can affect the burning down of fat in your
body. This is because you focus more on burning the alcohol instead of fat.
Also, alcohol contains an unhealthy number of calories which can spoil your
diet plan and cause you to gain weight instead of losing weight. Therefore,
taking excessive alcohol can result in a weight loss plateau.
5. Lactation
A weight loss plateau may occur during the period of lactation, which is
breastfeeding. This is because of hormonal changes that take place. An
increase in hormones enables you to retain body fluid and gain weight. It also
increases your appetite; you’ll constantly feel hungry, especially when
breastfeeding your baby. This causes you to eat a lot of food, increasing your
caloric intake and affecting your weight loss plan.
Therefore, while lactating weight loss is typically difficult, gaining weight
and reaching a weight loss plateau are both very possible.
6. Not Sticking to Weight Loss Method:
Sometimes, people engage in a weight loss method and begin to lose
weight, and they become so overwhelmed that they start derailing in it. Like I
said before, consistency is key in weight loss. Weight loss will not be
effective if you do not remain consistent with your method.
 If you begin with a weight loss plan and don’t follow it diligently, or if
you abandon it in the process, you will either experience an increase in
weight or a weight loss plateau. For example, in my 4 high and 3 low caloric
days method of weight loss, your body won’t have enough calories for its
active metabolism if you consume low calories on the high caloric days. It
will not recover from the caloric deficit. Subsequently, when you consume
high calories on low caloric days, you will not be able to achieve a caloric
deficit and won’t be able to lose weight.
Avoiding weight loss Plateau
Avoiding a weight loss plateau is one of the most important parts of your
weight loss journey. A weight loss plateau is capable of putting an end to
your weight loss journey by discouraging you from continuing. It may make
you feel like abandoning your entire weight loss plan and going back to
consuming the number of calories and nutrients you previously ate. When
this happens, all your efforts to lose weight and have a nice figure go down
the drain. Sticking to your weight loss plan and not practicing unhealthy
habits like smoking and consuming excess alcohol can help you prevent a
weight loss plateau.
Nevertheless, the best way to avoid entering into a weight loss plateau is
to make sure you keep firing your body metabolism and keep it from slowing
down. As we have seen, a plateau in weight loss occurs when you start losing
weight, and your body slows down your body metabolism to combat
excessive weight loss. When your body slows down its metabolism, it begins
to burn down fat at a slow rate. The number of calories you consume equals
the number of calories broken down, therefore, no calories are stored as fat,
and no fat is broken down, resulting in a weight loss plateau. To avoid this,
ensure you keep your metabolism high and avoid slowing it down. One of the
important steps to keep your metabolism firing is to ensure you include a
healthy amount of lean protein in your diet. Sometimes, people feel like
cutting down their calorie supply which implies cutting down their supply of
proteins, which makes them have a slow metabolism. Eat sufficient proteins
to maintain a healthy metabolism while practicing your weight loss journey.
When you do that, your body is supplied with enough amino acids, the end
product of proteins needed for generating cells and tissues and for the body to
function normally.
 Supplying your body with adequate amounts of amino acids prevents it
from breaking down muscle tissues to release the amino acids needed for its
activities. This way, you do not lose muscles when you lose weight.
Proteins also help in the building of muscle tissues which are responsible
for fast metabolism. In addition to eating adequate amounts of proteins, to
keep your metabolism firing, make sure you get enough quality sleep. Sleep
is needed for a healthy metabolism; it helps maintain the hormone level that
regulates metabolism. It also ensures your body gets enough rest which aids
in fast metabolism. Sleep provides enough time for all the food you
previously ate to be properly digested. Ensure you do not eat late at night
because this gives your body less time to digest food and stores the food as
fat, faulting your weight loss. Also, make sure you drink a lot of water.
Water is an excellent metabolic booster as your body warms it up to body
temperature when you consume it, increasing your rate of metabolism. Water
is needed for a healthy metabolism, and it aids in the digestion of the food
you eat and also suppresses your appetite by giving you a filling effect.
Therefore, maintenance of healthy metabolism is good for avoiding the
weight loss plateau. To maintain a healthy metabolism during weight loss,
make sure you consume adequate amounts of proteins, get adequate quality
sleep, avoid-late night eating, and drink a lot of water.

What To Do If weight loss Plateau Comes

You may not always be entirely successful in avoiding a weight loss
plateau because it cannot be considered an abnormality. It is rather a natural
event that takes place in weight loss, where your body does its job to protect
you by applying one of its survival mechanisms. The weight loss plateau is
bound to happen almost every time you engage in a weight loss plan. The
question is, what do you do when it happens?
Will you wait to hope for it to be over? Will you continue with your
weight loss plan? Or will you just give up on losing weight entirely?
Well, don’t worry about giving up whenever your weight seems static
when trying to shed weight because I’ve got you covered.
Just a few weeks after practicing my method, the most effective weight
loss method, which is 4 high and 3 low caloric days, you will undoubtedly
begin to see results. You will begin to notice the pointer on the scale tilting to
the left, indicating you are losing a few pounds. Should you be excited? Of
course, yes. I mean, you worked for it, so you deserve to be happy and
celebrate. However, as you continue with the weight loss diet plan, you will
notice that the arrow on the scale may remain static and stop tilting after a
while. If this happens, I’m pretty sure you may begin to feel some type of
way. You may even begin to ask questions like ‘What’s happening?’ ‘Didn’t
he say he has tried this method on a lot of people?’ ‘Why is it different in my
case?’ ‘Is it me, or is it the method? Well, it isn’t you, and neither is it the
method. It may just be nature taking its course. Since I introduced this weight
loss plan to you, I can also show you what to do when you reach a weight
loss plateau.
While the 4 high caloric and 3 low caloric days are effective in weight
loss, you may experience a weight loss plateau along the way.
When this happens, all you need to do is to adjust your diet plan. You do
this by reducing the number of high caloric days. After a few weeks of
practicing 4 high caloric days and 3 low caloric days, you change your diet
plan from 4 high and 3 low caloric days to 3 high and 4 low caloric days.
You can change from 3 high and 4 low caloric days to 2 high and 5 low
caloric days, after which you fast for about 48 hours.
You can reduce the number of low caloric days to 4; that is, you can
practice 2 high caloric days and 4 high caloric days. Note that the least high
caloric days you can embark on are 2 high caloric days.
The reason for increasing the number of low caloric days is to increase the
effect of the low caloric days and go back to active metabolism. This is
because when you keep practicing 4 high caloric and 3 low caloric days, your
body regains balance at some point and the calories you consume maintain
the new weight you gained, causing a plateau weight loss. Therefore, you
make up for the weight you lose in your low caloric days during your high
caloric days. To combat this, you have to create a new caloric deficit by
lowering the number of calories you consume, and this happens when you
reduce the high caloric days and increase the low caloric days. So, you can
begin practicing 3 high caloric days and 4 low caloric days, and from there,
progress to 2 high caloric days and 5 low caloric days.
 I hope you had a lot of fun learning about your body and the best way to
lose weight because I had a lot of fun teaching you. Make sure you practice
these effectively, and never forget that consistency is vital. Once you get on
the track of shedding weight, do not look back.
You got this!