Metabolism Information
Test Your Metabolism
IQ!
by Joe Wilkes
From the Million Dollar Body Club - Join Today and Workout to
Win!
 FALSE: Your metabolism slows drastically because
of age. People's metabolism does tend to slow a bit as they age, about
5% per decade, but the biggest change isn't because we're getting older, it's
because we're becoming more sedentary. As we age, many of us enter a vicious
cycle of decreasing our activity, which causes us to gain weight, which causes
our metabolism to slow, which causes us to have less energy, which causes us to
be more inactive, which causes us to gain more weight, etc. The reason you
didn't gain weight as easily when you were younger is probably because you were
more active. If you can maintain a comparable level of activity into your
golden years, you can keep your metabolism as high as it ever was, or
higher.
 TRUE: Your metabolism is genetically fast or
slow. But this doesn't let us off the hook. Sure, a lot of us were
dealt some bad cards genetically, but our genetic predisposition is only a
fraction of what influences our metabolism. Behavior, in terms of what you eat
and how active you are, is many times more important then the metabolism you
were born with.
- FALSE: Heavier people have a slower
metabolism. The good news for heavy people is it takes a lot more
energy to haul that carcass around, so heavy people will actually have a much
faster metabolic rate to produce the energy they need for day-to-day
activities. The bad news is that in order to lose weight and maintain long-term
weight loss, they will have to make greater and longer-lasting changes in diet
and exercise to keep the weight off (see Steve Edwards' article on
"reprogramming" your body above).
 TRUE: Men metabolize alcohol better than
women. This has nothing to do with the fact that men may be bigger or
have a higher tolerance because of their vast experiences at keggers. It's
because men produce an enzyme in their stomach that women do not. This enzyme
is responsible for metabolizing alcohol more quickly, so only about half as
much alcohol enters the bloodstream of a man as a woman. So in that famous
scene from The Thin Man when Nora Charles asks the bartender how many
drinks her husband Nick's had and requests he line up an equal number for her,
she's actually setting herself up to get twice as drunk as Nick. As
tolerance grows, both genders will metabolize alcohol faster, so the ladies
could conceivably catch up, but they start at a huge disadvantage.
 TRUE: Eating certain foods can speed up your
metabolism. But eating any food will speed up your metabolism at least
in the short term. Some studies have shown that some food and drink such as hot
pepper, green tea, and caffeine can give you an extra short-term
calorie-burning boost, but for a long-term change to your metabolism, overall
improvements in diet or exercise are necessary.
|
