METABOLISM For most of us, metabolism brings to mind one thing: or weight and how many calories we can eat without gaining any more of it. It is that-and much more. Metabolism describes the complex processes that regulate how our cells use and store energy.
Imagine your hormones and your brain chatting about your diet. When your metabolism is running normally, messages get sent back and forth between your brain and your body that help determine how many calories you need. When these messages become scrambled, key hormones such as insulin go out of balance. That's when your metabolism goes into hibernation and appetite increases-either ofwhich will make your weight go up and your health suffer.
So how hot are you burning?
Even if all you do today is sit on the couch, your body is still using calories--how many is determined by your resting metabolic rate. Whether your RMR burn high or low "depends on your age, body composition and gender". Young people burn more than old people do, men more than women, lean folks more that flabby. But RMR, which you can rev by building muscle, is responsible for less than 75 % of your daily burn. The rest is up to you. If you've got an RMR of, say, 1,000 calories, you could teach your body to torch up to 700 more in a day, with exercise.
Figuring your RMR...
You can discover your RMR with a little easy math.
First, convert your weight into kilograms (divide your pounds by 2.2) and your height into centimeters (multiply inches by 2.54).
Now that you have those two figures...use the method below.
(10 x your weight) plus+ (6.25 x your height) minus-(5 x your age) minus- 161= YOUR calories burned at rest!
NEXT...multiply your RMR by the number below that best represents your activity level. Now you know the number of calories you need to consume per day to maintain your weight.
1.2 for sedentary(barely any or no exercise)
1.375 for lightly active (easy exercise 1-3 days a wk)
1.550 for moderately active(med. exercise 3-5 days a week)
1.725 for very active (hard exercise 6 or 7 days a wk)
1.9 for extremely active (very hard exercise and possible a physical job)
So.. RMR x activity level=calories you can eat per day without putting on pounds.
