Today everyone knows the word "metabolism". It is often used by doctors, fitness instructors, athletes and people who are constantly fighting overweight. All processes of our life depend on metabolism, and it is important to be able to regulate it.
Problem
Today, more and more often one can hear arguments about the diseases of civilization, and not the last place among them is occupied by metabolic disorders, obesity.
According to the data at the beginning of the XXI century, the three "leaders" here include residents of the United States, Italy and Malta. Moreover, the first two countries have been firmly holding their positions for several decades. Thus, about 60% of adults and 13% of children are overweight among Americans.
But not everything is so gloomy. In recent years, a healthy lifestyle has become more popular in European countries, such as the United States, and what is gratifying, in Russia. Sport is again becoming a popular pastime. True, this applies to a greater extent to large cities, megalopolises.
Public medical programs, Internet portals make information on how to eat properly, what physical activity is necessary for the human body more accessible and popular. This is certainly encouraging and encouraging.
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But why are the problems associated with being overweight becoming more and more urgent? In general, the answers to this and similar questions have long been known. But only a few want to accept them.
Speed and efficiency
Let's try to figure out what's the matter.
Of course, one of the most important concepts that should be touched upon is metabolism, or metabolism, in our body. Every person, of any age and gender, consists of approximately the same set of chemical elements, approximately the same chemical reactions occur in the body.
What's the difference? Without going into specific scientific reasoning, one of the answers is definitely one of the answers - speed. It is the speed and efficiency of metabolism that determines how much energy substrates the body needs - proteins, fats, carbohydrates, how they will be absorbed.
So, actively growing and gaining weight, a newborn requires nutrition every 2-3 hours. A child at the age of 3-4 years will be quite satisfied with 5-6 meals a day, while an adult can comfortably remain without food for up to 6-8 hours.
Where does the energy go?
If the child's body spends a significant portion of its energy on its own growth, then what does the adult spend it on? He does not spend it, but stores it. So, the first reason for overweight is the discrepancy between the amount of consumed and used energy and food.
The second big problem is the stereotype of food, the way of eating. This is expressed even in folklore in the form of all sorts of jokes, sayings: "to not finish eating means to leave health"; for children - “you will not get up from the table until you have eaten everything”, “if you do not eat everything, there will be no strength” and so on.
Having common sense in childhood, during the growth of a person, such an approach becomes a scourge for the adult population. In general terms, everything or almost everything that the average healthy child eats in excess of what is necessary is compensated for by the high metabolic rate and growth processes. For a person aged 35-40 years and older, another path is more likely - the formation of adipose tissue.
Basic exchange
To maintain life, a person needs less and less calories with age - the so-called basic, or basic, metabolism decreases. The basic metabolism of a young man is on average about 1 kcal per 1 kg of body weight in 1 hour.
Basal metabolic rate depends on age, height, body weight, gender and many other factors. Basal metabolism as a generalized indicator of the intensity of redox processes depends on the state of internal organs and various external influences on the body.
It can change with insufficient and excess nutrition, increasing or decreasing the intensity of physical activity. Moreover, it is important to note that its value can be very easily obtained by any person without special education - there are a lot of calculators on the network that allow you to do this with sufficient accuracy.
So, the main exchange for a girl of 20 years old, with a height of 170 cm and a weight of 50 kg, will be about 1400 kcal. That is how much she needs so that, being in complete rest during the day, she does not lose weight and does not increase her weight.
You can easily calculate the required amount of energy with, for example, a sedentary lifestyle - another + 15% of the basal metabolism, i.e. about 1650 kcal. For comparison, with the same dimensions, but at the age of 60, these figures will already be about 1100 and 1300 kcal, respectively.
Multiplicity
And now the most interesting thing: according to the Ministry of Health, it is true, the United States, and not Russia, for 2003, the average American who is not obese, but is overweight, consumes 2-2.5 times more calories per day! For obese people, this figure is 3-4 times or more! In principle, the root of this problem is common for the United States, Italy and Russia.
Of course, the frequency of food intake is also an important factor. It's no secret that the most optimal regimen is 5-6 meals a day. In this case, all the digestive glands receive the optimal load, the food taken in an adequate way has time to be absorbed.
And, what should be noted separately, such an approach to "crushing" the daily diet allows to some extent "accelerate" metabolism, which, ultimately, will be a protective factor in the fight against obesity and its direct and indirect consequences in the form of arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart attack, stroke, premature death.
About sports, you are minus the cake
Of course, it is also necessary to say about the role of physical activity. Regular dosed exercise helps to optimize and maintain the basal metabolism, and, most importantly, allows you to compensate for the excess energy received from food at any age.
Of the most harmoniously influencing the body's sports, it is worth highlighting swimming, light running, walking, cycling and a number of other predominantly aerobic exercises, with a high level of oxygen consumption by muscle tissue.
Summarizing all of the above, we can draw a simple but important conclusion. With average health, a great desire to preserve it and minimal curiosity about yourself and the world around you, it is quite possible to live a full, rich and long life. Almost everyone can do it.