how soon does metabolism respond to rest or exercise (days? hours?)? also is it anything beyond energy burn rate?
In: Biology
Metabolism is essentially your body transforming nutrients. It can be divided into catabolism which is the breaking down of substances (gluten into simple sugars for example), and anabolism which is forming new substances (like combining amino acids to make proteins). Commonly metabolism is used as a way of describing your body burning resources to release energy. Higher metabolism means more energy available to your body mostly in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), but faster depletion of resources.
When you exercise, your metabolism increases pretty much instantly. Each contraction of your muscles uses up ATP, and there’s only so much available in a cell at any given time. So your cells instantly try to replace the used ATP by burning sugars, and using up oxygen. That oxygen needs to come from your lungs and be transported to your muscles, which is what causes your heart to beat faster and respiration rate to go up.
When you’re resting, your metabolism goes down as you don’t use up so much energy. Your body then puts the free sugar and fat in your blood into storage for later use. That’s why people with high metabolisms tend to be skinnier than those with low metabolism!
Your basal metabolism is the “background noise” of your body, sort of like what a car engine combusts when in neutral. It covers the most basic functions of your body that keep you alive. To that you add every bit of energy you use up by moving, exercising, focusing etc.
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