We always wonder how we gain weight even with a bite of a cheese burger and your friend you finished a full size chicken pizza and didn't gain even a gram of weight. Well, the answer lies in our metabolism.

Metabolism means your body’s conversion of what you eat and drink into either energy or stored fat. Our metabolism changes as we grow older, studies reveal that after 30 it tends to slow down which makes weight loss a herculean task then.

But the good news is we can still try to boost our metabolism at whatever age we are at!

How do we burn calories?

Each ones calorie requirement for weight maintenance differs from the other. Metabolism depends on three factors, these are exactly the ones we can alter and play with to boost our metabolism.

Resting metabolic rate

We are burning calories even when we are standing in a bus, watching TV, sitting in front of the computer and even while sleeping; the reason is that our body needs energy to carry out these functions. The number of calories the body uses while resting is called resting metabolic rate, which accounts to 65-75 % of calories we use every day.

It is seen that men burn more calories than women, obese or fat people burn more calories than slimmer ones – even though they remain heavier, and younger people burn more calories than oldies. Our body’s resting metabolic rate declines by 10% after the age of 30. The reason behind this is as we age more muscle is replaced with fat, which leads to age – related decline.

Physical activity

Our body in motion burns about 15 to 30 % of your daily calories. This physical activity can be in the form of exercise like running, in the gym, skipping, they can also be general day to day activities like cooking, walking up the stairs, fighting with your siblings or even fidgeting in a crowded train.

Processing of food

Finally the rest of the 5 to 10 % of our calories is burned while digesting, absorbing, transporting and storing what we eat. The energy required for this process is referred to as the thermic effect of food.

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