Hey, everybody, welcome to the Get Fit Guys' quick and dirty tips to get moving and shape up.

My name is Brock Armstrong and I am the Get Fit Guy.

You've probably heard the word metabolism, especially as it relates to things like weight loss and weight gain.

But what is your metabolism? What does it do? And do

you have any control over it? Well, today I'm going to explain all of that. Scientifically speaking,

metabolism is a term that describes all the chemical reactions involved in, well, being a living

organism. And while it's true that metabolism is

linked to your body weight, a slow metabolism is rarely the root cause of excessive weight gain.

While there are health conditions that do slow the metabolism, such as Cushing's Syndrome

or an underactive thyroid gland, also called

hypothyroidism, these cases are quite rare. So, while it may be tempting to blame your metabolism

for your weight gain, it's a natural process and your body has many mechanisms that regulate it

to meet your individual needs. Most often,

when we talk about metabolism, we are actually talking about what is known as our

basal metabolic rate, or BMR. And our BMR is better defined as the average amount of calories we expend while simply living our best lives.

The most accurate way to find your basal metabolic rate is to have it measured in a lab,

but you can also calculate an approximation of your metabolic rate using an online calculator that I'll link to in the show notes for this episode, or you can use the Harris Benedict equation.

And I'm not going to try and describe this equation in this podcast. You're going to have to go over to quick and dirty tips.com slash get fit guy and look for episode

424, all about metabolism. Now, once you've figured out that crazy equation, you have your

approximate BMR. And from there, you can find your total metabolic rate. But as I will explain shortly, your total metabolism

or your metabolic rate is actually a combination of your BMR and other myriad metabolic processes.

So let's look at what actually affects your metabolism.

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