5 Misunderstandings about Metabolic Rate That Will Destined You to Never Lose Weight

Eating less and exercising more is the basic concept of weight loss. However, many people often complain that they already eat very little and work out, but why can’t they lose weight? Family medicine physician Huang Yanhao said: "In the past ten years, the most common thing I have heard from patients in the weight loss clinic is that their weight is increasing because their metabolic rate is too low."

Eating less and exercising more is the basic concept of weight loss. However, many people often complain that they already eat very little and work out hard, but why don’t they see any results?

Most of the reasons are not problems with the basal metabolic rate, but incorrect diet and lack of exercise. It is undeniable that the basal metabolic rate has a huge impact on weight control. It is equivalent to a furnace in the body, consuming calories all the time. People who want to lose weight should first have a correct understanding of the basal metabolic rate so that they can effectively improve their body's ability to burn calories and stay away from the problem of gaining weight easily and gaining weight again.

What is Basal Metabolic Rate and How to Measure It

Basal metabolic rate refers to the amount of calories our body consumes in a day when we are stationary. Since our brain also consumes calories when we are awake, to be more precise, the calories consumed after a day of sleep would be closer to the basal metabolic rate. How do you measure your basal metabolic rate? In addition to helping measure weight and body fat percentage, some better scales can also measure the basal metabolic rate. The method is to first measure the amount of body fat and muscle, and then estimate how much energy can be consumed.

However, each person's cell activity is different, so this number should be used for reference only and should not be fully trusted. The truly accurate basal metabolic rate can only be determined by using special instruments to collect the amount of exhaled carbon dioxide, but this method is mostly used only in academic research.

There is no need to obsess over the basal metabolic rate number because it is meaningless. What we need to understand most is how to avoid a drop in metabolic rate and what we can do to increase it.

Lack of exercise and insufficient muscle mass are also one of the reasons for the decrease in basal metabolic rate.

The concept of metabolic rate is totally wrong. Metabolism and excretion are not clearly distinguished.

1. Can taking a hot spring bath increase your basal metabolic rate?

Sweating caused by external heat is a kind of surface heat. By excreting sweat, the body temperature is balanced to avoid heat stroke or heat exhaustion. This is not metabolism, but excretion (discharge of water through the skin). This is what taking a hot spring bath means. Simply put, taking a hot spring bath may help the body "excrete" toxins and impurities, but it has no effect on increasing the "basal metabolic rate".

2. Can drinking more water increase your basal metabolic rate?

Water plays a very important role when losing weight (especially when using a doctor's prescription to lose weight), but the function of water is to provide a sense of satiety and assist in the metabolism of drugs, not that water itself will increase the basal metabolic rate. Therefore, drinking more water without medication can only provide a sense of fullness, and the metabolic rate will not increase. The increase in urine output is like sweating, which is just a form of excretion.

The culprit for the decline in basal metabolic rate

1. Age:

A person's basal metabolic rate reaches its peak at the age of 25, and then decreases by 2 to 5% every decade. The influence of age is the last factor to be discussed because no one can change it. In the weight loss clinic, people who are trying to lose weight often need to be reminded: "You need to adjust your mindset first. Holding on to the mindset of "I never gained weight even if I ate this way before" will not help your current weight loss plan!" It's always sad to compare yourself to when you were younger, isn't it?

2. Sleep:

Many people think that seven hours of sleep is enough and it doesn’t matter when you sleep. This is a very wrong concept when it comes to weight control. During sleep, the secretion of growth hormone increases, even in adults, and growth hormone is one of the keys to maintaining the basal metabolic rate. The main secretion time of growth hormone is from 11 pm to 1 am. If you fall asleep after this period, the secretion of growth hormone will decrease, which will indirectly affect the basal metabolic rate. You should avoid staying up late when losing weight, because staying up late can easily lead to late-night snacks and edema the next day. Unless it is necessary for work, you should maintain adequate sleep length and the correct bedtime to avoid a decrease in metabolic rate.

3. Hormonal influence:

There are many endocrine and basic metabolic related conditions in the body, and hypothyroidism is often seen in outpatient clinics. This disease often occurs after thyroid surgery, autoimmune attack, stress or viral infection. Diseases usually affect body weight very quickly. In the outpatient clinic, I have come across patients who gained 25 kilograms in three months but had nowhere to turn for help. Hypothyroidism is just one of many endocrine disorders that can affect metabolic rate. If you experience unexplained rapid weight gain, please do not hesitate to see a doctor immediately!

4. Excessive dieting:

In medical research, the body has the instinct of self-protection. When our calorie intake decreases, the body's instinct is to shut down less necessary functions so that the only calories left can sustain life. For example, delayed or absent menstrual periods, or excessive hair loss are all possible conditions that may be caused by excessive dieting. Another thing that can happen when you diet too much is a decrease in your basal metabolic rate. If there are not so many calories to burn, then burn less to avoid insufficient calories. This is our body's OS. Most diets without the help of a nutritionist can only reduce about 3 to 5% of body weight, but it may not be fat, but may reduce muscle. The weight you regain in the future will far exceed the amount you lose by dieting.

5. Insufficient muscle mass:

One kilogram of muscle can consume about 80 calories, but one kilogram of fat can only consume 4 calories; one kilogram of muscle is about half the volume of one kilogram of fat. Muscles with half the volume can consume 20 times more calories, which is a good deal no matter how you think about it. Many office workers are unwilling to exercise even on their days off. It is even more common to hear women hold the wrong idea that they are afraid to exercise because they are worried that they will become too strong if they have too many muscles. In fact, just by reading the reports describing the hard process of male celebrities building muscles, you can tell that it is not easy for boys to really build very obvious muscles, let alone girls? Don't think that the beautiful legs and 11-shaped abdominal muscles of those Korean girl groups can be achieved by just starving themselves. A certain amount of muscle training will produce results.

In addition to methods of increasing the basal metabolic rate by yourself, there are also some medical prescriptions that passively increase the metabolic rate. However, this type of prescription should not be purchased and used at a general pharmacy. It must be evaluated and guided by a professional physician to be a safe and correct method. Dr. Lin Po-hung from the Taiwan Obesity Medicine Association also suggested that although basal metabolic rate is important for weight loss, most people gain weight by eating more and exercising less. Therefore, even if prescriptions to increase metabolic rate can help control weight, if the fundamental problem is not corrected, there is still a possibility of gaining weight again in the future.