Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Metabolism Definition - What Is My RMR?

By Dan Beckwith

Metabolism definition...metabolism is a bodily function that converts the food (calories) we eat into energy. We either burn them immediately for an energy boost, or we save them for later in the form of fat.

Have you put on a few pounds in the last couple of years? It could mean your metabolism is "slow" or less efficient than it should be. Do you have to squirm and struggle to get into your favorite jeans -- or worse, don't they fit at all? Before you start really having a problem besides a few tight clothes, create a better and healthier life for yourself and lose some weight in the process.

Losing weight doesn't have to be difficult. Plus, it does not mean you have to starve yourself. In fact, if you are ever hungry - you aren't doing it right!

There are so many diet programs out there, that it can be very confusing. Too many "Get Thin Quick" programs - that come with so many promises, it boggles the mind. They all come with slick advertising and tons of testimonials, and they are quite tempting. But keep in mind, few if any of them show their participants a year later. Why? Because they've all gained back the weight... plus more!

So, the time has come for you to take charge of your body and master your weight. Losing weight is all about the efficiency of your metabolism. Once you fully understand how it works and you can calculate what your "resting metabolic rate" or RMR is, you've already done half the work.

Resting metabolic rate defined...

Metabolism definition - What Is RMR? It's your resting metabolic rate, the pace at which your body uses or stores fuel (i.e., burns calories or turns them into fat) even when you're resting and not doing anything. Quite a few things influence your metabolism. Like...

Ever wonder why we tend to gain weight as we get older? Because age is one of the factors that affects our RMR.

Most diets trample all over our metabolism. When we dramatically cut back on our caloric intake, we will lose a few pounds but at the same time it slows down our metabolism.

That means when we go off the diet, we'll be gaining back all the weight we lost -- but now, we've done ourselves a disservice because the dieting has slowed down our metabolism, which means that we gain weight much easier. And so, presto, we gain the weight back plus more.

We generally call that yo-yo dieting. (Assuming you had a yo-yo that keeps going up and up and up!) As soon as we stop dieting, all the weight comes back. Up and down like a yo-yo.

When you lose weight rapidly, unfortunately you're not just losing fat. You are also frequently losing muscle. This too can be detrimental to you and your weight loss efforts because muscle burns many more times the calories as opposed to fat. So you also need to exercise in addition to adopting a good eating plan (as opposed to a temporary "diet") if you want to lose weight. The more you can build muscle and tone your body, the more calories you'll burn, even when you are doing absolutely nothing.

Taking steps to increase your metabolism, doesn't have to be difficult or painful. To learn more about metabolism definition and about how to increase your metabolism to get those pounds quickly falling off of you, get my free mini-course, "Free Weight Loss Tips!

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