Those who are losing weight should be familiar with the concept of "basal metabolism". Because raising it really allows you to lie down and also increase energy expenditure.
Therefore, many friends are trying various ways to improve basal metabolism, such as building muscles, drinking hot water, drinking coffee, eating chili, etc.
Why does increasing basal metabolism also increase energy expenditure while lying down? Which method really improves basal metabolism? What are the common sense and misconceptions about basal metabolism? This article will talk about the system.
1. Why is high basal metabolism helpful for weight loss?
Our daily energy expenditure consists of three parts, namely basal metabolism, physical activity, and the thermic effect of food. [1]
Basal metabolism refers to the energy required to maintain the most basic life activities of the human body, such as heartbeat and breathing, which accounts for 60%~70% of daily energy consumption, which is the majority of energy consumption.
Physical activity accounts for about 15%~30% of daily energy consumption, compared with basal metabolism, this proportion is much lower, the key is to be tired and tired, many people are super busy and can't find time to exercise.
The food thermal effect refers to the increased energy expenditure due to eating, and the food thermal effect of daily mixed meals only accounts for about 10% of energy intake, and adjusting the diet structure has little impact on it.
After this analysis, you will find that if you can increase the basal metabolism of most of the energy consumption, you can really increase energy consumption without changing your diet or exercising desperately.
Second, What is your basal metabolism?
Clinically, indirect calorimetry can accurately measure your basal metabolism.
How to measure it?
The night before the measurement, you need to eat light and easily digestible food, but also reduce the mental burden, sleep well for more than 8 hours, do not do physical and mental labor after getting up in the morning, do not wash, do not eat breakfast, lie flat on the examination bed to start the measurement, the room temperature at the time of measurement is generally about 20 degrees Celsius.
As for the basal metabolism shown on our body fat scale, it is estimated based on height, weight, age and other data, using formulas, which means that it is really inaccurate.
However, if you weigh for a long time at a fixed time and in a fixed state, such as after getting up in the morning and going to the toilet, in the same room, without water under your feet, then you can accurately judge whether the basal metabolism has increased or decreased through the comparison before and after.
3. How to improve basal metabolism?
Basal metabolism is related to age, gender, endocrine, stress state, and body composition.
1. With age, the basal metabolism will decrease, and we can't grow against age, so don't count on this.
2. Men have a higher basal metabolism than women, and it is too exaggerated to do sex reassignment surgery to lose weight, and this cannot be counted on.
3. Hyperthyroidism can improve basal metabolism, but this is a pathology, so you can't hit it with the idea.
4. Stressful states such as high stress and bad mood will increase basal metabolism, but stress and bad mood can also make people eat too much.
5. Increasing muscle ratio can improve basal metabolism.
This is because the body's lean body tissue (including muscles, heart, liver and kidneys) is metabolically active tissue, and its energy consumption accounts for 70%~80% of basal metabolic energy consumption.
Seeing this sentence, do you particularly want to build muscle to improve basal metabolism?
Muscle building can indeed improve basal metabolism, but the effect is often exaggerated.
Because in lean tissue, organs such as the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are the main force of energy consumption, and muscles consume only a little energy.
4. How much metabolic consumption can be increased by muscle building?
One pound of muscle burns only 6 kilocalories a day, and Michael Colgan, an advisor to many U.S. Olympians, believes that after hard training, you can gain up to 8 pounds of muscle per year.
If 8 pounds of muscle can be maintained, the increased energy expenditure per day is 48 kilocalories.
Compared with athletes who train hard, the amount of muscle gain is much less, so the basal metabolism of muscle building is also more limited.
It can be seen that you can't expect too much to increase basal metabolism by building muscles, but building muscle itself consumes energy and can make you look tighter, so you have to practice it.
In addition to building muscle, everyone is also looking forward to eating and drinking something to improve basal metabolism, let's see if there is a reliable one.
5. What water to drink to improve basal metabolism?
Some people say, "Drinking hot water will increase body temperature, and body temperature will rise, and metabolism will increase."
In fact, an increase in body temperature will indeed increase metabolism, such as when you are sick and have a fever, but drinking hot water has almost no effect on the body temperature of healthy people, so the impact on basal metabolism is also minimal, so what about drinking cold water?
A study published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism experimented with drinking ambient distilled water, ambient saline, and ice water at 3°C.
The results showed that drinking distilled water at room temperature or saline could not increase metabolism. However, drinking low-temperature 3°C ice water can increase metabolism by 4.5% and last for 60 minutes. The reason is that humans are homeothermic animals, and when they drink cold water, the body will consume more calories in order to raise the water temperature to match the body temperature.
For example, the basal metabolism of women is about 1200~1300kcal, drinking cold water can increase the metabolic rate by 4.5%, and it can consume 54kcal~58.5kcal more, which is actually not high.
Therefore, if you are losing weight, if you want to increase this calorie consumption, you can drink cold water. But if drinking cold water causes gastrointestinal upset, don't try it.
6. Can drinking coffee improve basal metabolism?
Limited effect.
Indeed, studies have shown that caffeine in coffee can help improve basal metabolism, but the effect is limited. [2]
Therefore, there is no need to drink a lot of coffee to improve metabolism, because drinking too much may make your heart beat faster, palpitations, dizziness, and drinking after 3 pm may also affect sleep.
The Starbucks large cup (473 ml) American contains 225 mg of caffeine, so the American large cup is controlled within 1.5 cups a day.
However, for people who need to exercise during weight loss, proper coffee can give you energy and improve exercise endurance, which can burn more calories, which is also very helpful for weight loss.
7. Can eating spicy food improve basal metabolism?
It has a little effect, but it will gain weight if you eat it incorrectly.
One study showed that eating some chili peppers can make you consume 10kcal more per meal; Another study showed that eating spicy food can make you consume 50 kcal more per day. [3、4]
It can be seen that eating spicy food does help improve metabolism and can help lose weight. But eating spicy food can promote appetite and make you eat more, but you will gain weight. The key is that spicy dishes are generally accompanied by high-fat and high-calorie dishes, such as spicy chicken, chopped pepper fish head, boiled meat slices, spicy hot pot, etc.
Surveys show that the overweight rate of adults aged 20-69 in Sichuan was as high as 30% in 2010 [5], and the overweight rate of adults in 2012 was only 30.1%.
Therefore, even if eating spicy food can increase metabolism, it does not mean that you can lose weight, you have to take it easy.
To sum up, in fact, there is nothing to eat that is very helpful in improving basal metabolism, but it is important to note that some practices can lower basal metabolism.
8. How to avoid a decrease in basal metabolism?
It is difficult to improve basal metabolism, but you can avoid the decrease in basal metabolism, how to do it?
Don't lose weight quickly [6, 7]
The faster you lose weight, the faster your basal metabolism will drop.
In the eighth season of the American reality show "Super Weight Loss King", 14 contestants lost 58.3±24.9 kg of body weight in seven and a half months, and their basal metabolism decreased by an average of 600 kilocalories.
Such a reduction in basal metabolism means that you have to lose at least 600 kcal per day through diet and exercise to maintain your weight.
But it is not easy to continue to do so, because rapid weight loss is likely to cause hormonal disorders and make people crave to eat, so 13 of the 14 contestants have gained weight again, and 4 of them are fatter than they are currently participating in the festival.
Some friends may say that they are losing weight quickly and their basal metabolism is reduced, so what should I do?
In fact, we all have a small weight base, and we can lose one or two pounds at most to lose weight quickly, and the basal metabolism will not be reduced too much, so we don't have to worry too much.
9. Is it enough to lose weight and eat enough basal metabolism?
No way.
Taking young manual workers as an example, the daily energy need is 1800 kcal, and the basal metabolism is calculated according to 70% of the energy, which is only 1260 kcal, which is a deficit of 540 kcal compared with 1800 kcal.
Generally, we recommend that female friends eat at least 1,400 calories a day, or you don't need to pay attention to how many calories you consume every day, as long as you are more reasonable than before, and your eating habits are healthier, you can be full and thin.
How to judge whether your combination is reasonable and whether your eating habits are healthy, read the article: Lose fat that does not rebound once, just cultivate these 24 habits
10. Middle-aged fat is mainly due to the decrease in the base generation?
As we age, muscle loss fat increases, muscle is a diligent guy, consumes a lot of energy, fat is a lazy guy, consumes less energy, so the basal metabolism decreases year by year.
However, we cannot exaggerate the decrease in basal metabolism caused by age, which only decreases by about 2% every 10 years after the age of 30, and decreases even more after the age of 50.
If your basal metabolism before the age of 30 is 1300 kcal, then the basal metabolism at the age of 40 is about 1274 kcal, which is reduced by 26 kcal.
11. Is it too difficult to lose weight if hypothyroidism reduces basal metabolism?
Hypothyroidism refers to hypothyroidism, which causes a decrease in basal metabolism.
Therefore, hypothyroidism is usually related to weight gain, which generally makes people gain 5~10 pounds, that is, 4.5~9 pounds, of which patients with severe hypothyroidism tend to gain more weight.
However, this is different from the fat of ordinary people, who are mainly fat and hypothyroidism are mainly caused by water and salt retention in the body.
It should be emphasized that if thyroid hormones are controlled within the normal range through treatment, the symptoms related to hypothyroidism have improved or even disappeared, that is, the weight has not been lost, then it must still eat more and move less.
So don't blame the fat on hypothyroidism, control the condition well, keep your mouth shut and open your legs.
Brief summary:
There is no need to worry about what your basal metabolism is, and there is no need to find ways to improve your basal metabolism, but don't lose weight very quickly, after all, compared with losing three or four pounds a month, losing more than 8 pounds a month will lose more muscle and reduce basal metabolism a lot.
