Speed Up Your Metabolism: The Role of Chemical ReactionsMetabolism is primarily a series of chemical reactions. Metabolism, chemical reactions and natural weight loss are allied studies. More specifically, your metabolism's processes are under the umbrella of the field of "Biochemistry". By understanding this fundamental principle you can unlock all the mysteries and contradictions swarming around the subject of weight loss and fat loss. Natural Weight Loss revolves around understanding biochemisty and its reactions that make you speed up your metabolism.
Metabolism, no matter what life form, is a chemical process. That is to say, it is a process wherein certain chemicals are combined with others and when they are combined a new substance created. This is what a chemcial reaction is. Some very obvious examples of this are metal and water. When they are combined, ferrous oxide is created. We usually call this rust. There are innumerable chemical reactions that occur when two or more chemicals are combined. Even in the body there are thousands of chemical reactions that have been discovered and more being discovered everyday. Another very commonly known chemical reaction is when Gasoline and Oxygen are combined, they create fire. In this chemical reaction, however, a third ingredient is needed. And that is a spark (which is simply an electrical current that travels through air at a certain velocity and amplitude). This spark initiates a chain reaction where gasoline and oxygen create carbon monoxide. That is the stuff that comes out of the exhaust pipe. That is also what I will call a waste product. In this particular chemical reaction, the creation of energy is so swift that fire is created in the process. In this whole process, gasoline and oxygen combine, a chemical reaction is initiated and the two chemicals are converted to a gas. Whenever, matter is transformed from one state to a less dense state, energy is released. With a car this energy is released in the form of an explosion that moves a piston that makes your car move. Another very commonly known chemical reaction is with plants. Plant cells get sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and in their cells, with the use of a catalyst called chlorophyll, break down the chemicals it gets and creates energy and also has a waste product called Oxygen. In the field of cytology and biology, the process of creating waste products I am describing here is called respiration. The study of these chemical reactions are in the field of biochemistry. Chemical reactions involves the combination of two or more chemicals, a catalyst, a specific environment where that reaction is occurring, the breakdown of the chemicals into simpler forms, a release of energy, a recombination of the simpler chemicals to complex forms, and an end product and a waste product.
The fact that it is chemical is a key concept as you will see. These reason this is so important for you to know is because most of what we hear and read about metabolism, weight loss and health, is based on viewing your metabolism as a MACHINE! The presupposition is that your metabolism is a MECHANICAL PROCESS. Every heard of the term "BURN CALORIES" or "BURN FAT"? This misunderstanding is causing more confusion about your metabolism and than anything else. If you treat your metabolism as a machine, you will get improper results that work sometimes and not others, but if you treat your metabolism as a biochemical process you will ALWAYS get results. Do you know what your body is made of? "Most of the human body is made up of water, H2O, with cells consisting of 65-90% water by weight. Therefore, it isn't surprising that most of a human body's mass is oxygen. Carbon, the basic unit for organic molecules, comes in second. 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.
Reference: H. A. Harper, V. W. Rodwell, P. A. Mayes, Review of Physiological Chemistry, 16th ed., Lange Medical Publications, Los Altos, California 1977. Do you recognize any of these? Oxygen, we know very well, of course. But when you look at all of them, does it remind you of anything you learned in school? They are all ELEMENTS in the "Periodic Table" otherwise called the "Periodic Table of Elements".
What are elements and what does any of this have to do with your weight loss?
To understand your body, your metabolism, your fat loss, your weight loss and your health, you simply cannot avoid some kind of understanding of what your body is made of. When you look at the list above, you can see that there is a tremendous amount of simplicity in what makes up most of your body. Only 6 elements make up 99% of your body! These elements are what your metabolism is trying to break food down into in order to build cells. They are also what yoru metabolism is using to create new cells! How these elements combine, in what ratios, in what manner and from what source will determine how effectively your metabolism can keep moving your body towards its peak condition. Think about this: The same 6 elements comprise 99% of the body of an overweight person and an healthy, fit and lean person. So the question becomes, "What makes the difference? Why is one person's body organizing its elements one way that makes them fat and another person does it in a way that makes them slim and fit?" The good news is that the reasons are the same for all bodies. The principles of metabolism and health can be known by you and you can begin to exert more and more control over how your body reacts to its internal and external environment. When you learn about your metabolism's chemistry, you gain control of your metabolism.
In the next lesson, I will be going over nutrition and weight loss. I will be cutting through a lot of complexity in this subject.
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