Are you guilty of blaming your ‘slow’ metabolism for not losing weight?

As illustrated in the picture, the core of our metabolism is resting energy expenditure, which is referred to basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the amount of energy your body expends when entirely sedentary and fasted and is the amount of energy required to sustain your body’s main functions. Your BMR equates to approx 60-70 % of your TDEE.

What is your metabolism ?

Your Metabolism is the sum of various components that together make up your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

The majority think metabolism is just your resting metabolic rate (RMR), but its so much more than that.

Metabolism = Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Example TDEE – 2500 Calories (You burn this amount everyday)

1500 calories (60% RMR)
1000 calories (40% everything else)

Total Daily Energy Expenditure consists of 4 key components, including

RMR – resting metabolic rate – up to 60% of your TDEE

What makes up RMR?- Bone mass, Organ Mass, Fat Mass and Muscle mass

NEAT – Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis 20% of TDEE

This is all the movement you do that is not planned exercise e.g. moving your hands, walking to the shops, cleaning.

EAT – Exercise Activity Thermogenesis – 5 – 10% of TDEE

e.g. football, spin class, lifting weights, cardio

TEF – Thermic effect of food – 10% of TDEE

The amount of calories your body uses to break down and digest food

example – If you consume 2000 calories, 10% of that is lost through your body efforts to digest the food, so your actually consuming 1800 calories

These 4 together make up what is know as your metabolism

Out of the 4 factors i mentioned above, the one you can influence the most is NEAT. Find ways to be on your feet more. This is why i am a big advocate of tracking your steps and keeping on about hitting 10,000 steps a day.

I advise getting a steps tracker to ensure your burning calories, that you creating a large energy output. However it’s important to bare in mind controlling your calorie intake- no point of increasing NEAT if you are not eating less.