Metabolism Influence for Fat Burning

METABOLISM - we often hear these words when discussing matters related to body weight. we call obese people have slow metabolism, whereas we say that thin people have fast metabolism, so they will not be fat, despite eating anything. Indeed, genetic factors determine how fast our metabolism, but do you know that your metabolism can be changed? In fact, we can program our metabolic rate?

Which is often regarded as a metabolism is actually a BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. BMR is the amount of energy that our body needs just to live, without doing anything, when we are in a lying position, and our stomach is not digesting.


BMR formula often used is as follows:
Male:  BMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight kg) + (5 x height cm) - (6.8 x age years)
Women:  BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight kg) + (1.8 x height cm) - (4.7 x age years)

If we do activities other than lying as mentioned above, BMR multiplied by the number below:   

Inactive, Little or no exercise, desk job - Male: 1.4, women: 1.4
Light, Some daily light exercise - Male: 1.5, women: 1.5
Moderate, Regular aerobic exercise - Male: 1.78, women: 1.64
Heavy, Energy-intensive job or serious athlete - Male: 2.1, women: 1.82

Example: Anna, Women, weight 70kg, height 167, age 28, moderate activity
BMR = 655 + 672 + 300-131 = 1496
Energy requirement = BMR x 1.64 = 2453.

Once we can calculate our daily calorie needs, we came to know that our body requires x calories to survive and perform daily activities. But this often misunderstood by most people.


Most people think (or if I may say, EVERYONE thinks), if I eat just a little can make me fat, it means I have to eat less. From this thought, almost everyone try to eat only once a day or two times just to maintaining they personal physician formula which they says that 'calories intake less than calories out then you will be skinny'.

Some people with iron will and even managed to eat as little as possible, and increase the amount of exercise, so calories intake could be even smaller. Did they lose weight? Apparently nothing works. Maybe one or two people succeed, but when they stop dieting and return to normal eating, their weight went straight back to the starting point even more severe.

It is true, as the example above, that Anna energy requirement is 2453 calories, if she diets so that only 1000 calories intake per day, our thinking was she had kept her formula of calories 1000 < calories out 2453. But something that not noticed by Anna is, when she reduces the amount of calories so drastically, the body BMR which is 2453 become more smaller.

We can not calculate how small, but the body only understand one thing, that the owner of the body is in a state of danger. less eating, and maybe just being stranded in the ocean without food while waiting for rescuers to come. We would often hear that the victims of earthquake, buried under the rubble for 5 days without food and still can be saved and stay alive. Just imagine if for 5 days without any food at all, while body need BMR 2453, of course in two days is certainly starve and run out of fat before they could be saved.

But our body is very advanced machine, when we consume calories that below standard, the body will go into SURVIVAL or IN DANGER mode. So the 2453 numbers were going down to conserve energy reserves in the body. And the fatal is when the body under these conditions, any food that comes in will be stored as fat because the body is scared, not knowing when it will get food. Our bodies also make energy savings, as well as when we are short of money, of course we are saving money, because we do not know when we will get the money again.

Our bodies are advanced but still not able to distinguish low calories we consume it whether we are dieting in order to lose weight, or whether we are in danger or stranded somewhere without food.

The solution to lose weight is to reduce calories intake by 500 calories per day by eating less than 500 calories, or eat the same amount but add exercise to burn of 500 calories. Or could combine the two, for example diet to reduce 300 calories of food, and exercise to burn 300 calories. Do not reduce food by 500 calories and exercising as well as of 500 calories. there will be a shortage of 1000 calories. And once again it will lower our BMR.

The second program is to remain the BMR high, we have to eat as often as possible, and recommended to eat 5-6x is divided into 3 main meals and 2-3x snack. Eating 6x the amount of counted calories, suppose we want diet of 2000 calories, then it does not mean we eat full meals 6x per day as usual, but dividing 2000 calories into 6x.

Roughly it can be concluded that Anna energy needs per day is 2453, but for example because she eats too little, so the calories intake if only 1000 calories (even though the correct diet should only reduce about only 500), then the formula will be 2453-500 = 1953. energy needs is 1953, but the food intake only 1000. So these deficit of 953 calories is dangerous. When a deficit occurs, the body will try to restore this deficit and this is what eventually became the Yo-yo effect of dieting. Which is after dropping weight drastically and soon the weight will come back up quickly.