Basics of Metabolism

Learn what metabolism is and ways in which you can leverage yours!

Today’s discussion will be all about the topic of metabolism – not only will we consider what it is, but I will also provide you with a few tools you can add to your toolkit to leverage your own metabolism. First, let’s define what metabolism is. In short, metabolism simply refers to the process of breaking down the food we eat into a usable energy form that the body can utilize for the MILLIONS of processes it undergoes daily. This usable energy form is referred to as Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in the scientific literature but that’s not at all important. What is important to know, however, is that the way in which we measure this process of energy accumulation is by tracking calories. Simply put: the amount of energy that is contained within a consumable item can be thought of as the number of calories – a much easier to quantify metric (which I’m sure many of you are familiar with).

Whooah energy… great, right? Everybody wants more energy, so it sounds like I’m saying more calories is a good thing? Not so fast. While it’s indeed true we need a certain amount of energy (ATP) to survive, too much of a good thing… you get the rest. This extra energy we consume – think of it as a surplus – is stored away for a rainy day but unfortunately for many, this rainy day never comes. What do I mean by that? To be quite blunt, most of the excess energy we consume is stored as fat and while this was crucial for our ancestors when food was scarce and they were hunkering down in the winter using this excess fat for warmth and energy, times have changed. Enough of the science background, let’s dive into some tools. (Feel free to leave questions in the comments if you want to discuss more about the storage and usage of energy!)