METABOLISM – WHY ARE WE GETTING FAT?

What is Basic Metabolism?

Basal Metabolism is a set of chemical processes that represents our body’s needs to live, i.e. how many calories the body needs to run our organs, maintain a temperature of 36.6°C and serve the necessary biological functions of our cells.

Is Metabolism in humans changing?

Metabolism is a constant and does NOT change in healthy humans during adult life from 20-70 years of age.

Exceptions are children and adolescents who, due to their growth, have an increased metabolic rate at times. Also excluded are pregnant women (2nd & 3rd trimester of pregnancy) and nursing mothers in the 1st trimester of breastfeeding.

Chronic sufferers, especially cancer patients, face high energy demands due to their disease and treatment.

In patients with MS, metabolism is reduced due to neurogenic muscle atrophy.

To change the basal metabolism in an adult, the organs must be altered (reduced in a breast/kidney/uterus resection etc.) or when a productive tissue is increased (muscle hyperplasia in fit athletes).

It will also increase or decrease when a body function is altered e.g. living in a very cold environment where the body has to expend a lot of energy to maintain a constant body temperature of 36.6°C.

How to keep body weight stable?

In order to maintain a stable weight, a person needs to receive from his food the calories to cover his basic needs (basic metabolism) + the calories needed for work, exercise, entertainment, daily activities.

For example, if a bank employee with a basal metabolism of 2000 kcal has a mildly sedentary lifestyle, he will need another 400kcal to cover his daily activities, so a total of 2,400kcal/day. But if the same person is a builder he will need 2,000 calories for his daily work needs, so a total of 4,000kcal/day to keep his weight stable.
When calorie consumption is greater than the total daily caloric needs what is left over is stored as fat.

How does body weight increase?

The weight increases when:

Muscle mass increases. An increase in muscle tissue of one kilogram is equivalent to four kilograms on the scale due to the high water content of muscle. It is often observed in weight training, taking anabolic drugs, etc.

Fat increases. When calorie consumption is greater than the total daily caloric needs what is left over is stored as fat. In the previous examples if the banker instead of 2,400kcal consumes 3,000kcal /day he will have an excess caloric =600kcal.

Because one kilogram of fat contains 9,000kcal, the banker in our example will gain one kilogram of fat in 15 days (600kcal x 15 days = 9,000kcal).

It also increases fat & muscle mass. This is common in people who exercise but eat more than they consume with exercise or (more often) in women who come off a restrictive oligo-calorie diet and return to normal calories.

If the banker in the example instead of 2,400 eats 3,000kcal because he started a gym 30′ x 4 days a week, he will need about 300kcal (from the extra 600kcal he eats extra now) and the other 300kcal will be left over, so in 30 days he will have gained two kilos of which one kilo of fat (30 x 300kcal) & 0.25 kilos in muscle tissue (on the scale it will be one kilo of muscle due to its water content).

Muscle mass increases & fat decreases. This is always the goal in any weight loss effort! For this to happen, however, the diet must definitely exceed the basic needs in calories on the one hand and on the other hand these calories must be lean. If the banker in the previous example took 2,700kcal (2,400 to live on and 300kcal of protein and starches-not fat) instead of 3,000kcal, he would increase his muscle tissue by one kilogram in one month. If he wanted to lose fat at the same time he would drop from 2,400 to 2,100 forcing the body to meet its caloric needs from his fat. So at the end of the month the banker would have more muscle tissue and less fat, but because muscle is heavier tissue the scale would show weight gain!

No diet can NOT provide fewer calories than the basal metabolism.

Fat increases & muscle mass decreases. It is the most common condition we encounter in the average Greek woman today at a rate of >95%!!

Following diets below the basic metabolic needs instead of slimming down, they get fat! The body, fearing possible death due to food deprivation through the enzymes that control thyroid hormones, consumes its muscles to live while storing fat to protect itself!

The banker in our example needs at least 2000kcal a day just to stay alive, if he decides to cut 500kcal to lose weight and eat 1500kcal at the end of the month he will find himself -2.5kg of weight but this will come from losing 1kg of clean muscle tissue (-3.5kg on the scales) and gaining 1kg of fat.

The difference between the increase in fat and the decrease in muscle is the -2.5 pounds you will see on the scale.

So how should body weight be reduced?

Whatever alteration is attempted against a person, remember that there are inviolable limits.

No diet can NOT provide fewer calories than the basal metabolism.

Because it will cause muscle loss, not fat loss. Remember that muscle loss = disability.

The right steps to lose the extra fat alone are:

Α. Measurement of Basal Metabolism with a pulmonary machine (it takes only 10 minutes and is completely painless – the machine must have a CO2 analyzer – otherwise the measurement is unreliable).

Β. Measurement of muscle and fat with a caliper (must be >4 frequency or the measurement is unreliable).

Γ. A simple and workable diet that takes into account any medical history (iron deficiency / diabetes / hypercholesterolemia / hypothyroidism / polycystic ovaries, etc.) and any medication the patient may be taking.

Δ. Monthly recheck with empedisometry so that it is checked what is lost each time (fat and not muscle!!!!).

Ε. New diet every month – never less calories than the previous one! Always above the basal metabolism reading (step A).