Diabetes, Weight Loss, and Your Metabolism

Many people with type 2 diabetes have weight loss as part of their diabetes management plan.

Whether needing to lose five or 50, there is no easy way to shed accumulated pounds. We often blame our “slow metabolism” for stubborn body fat, but losing weight requires focusing on the one aspect of calorie burning we have control over.

Metabolism and Calories

Three factors determine how many calories our body uses per day: our basal metabolic rate, thermogenesis, and physical activity.

Basal Metabolic Rate. The body’s process of converting what we eat and drink into usable fuel is metabolism. This natural, complex function combines the calories in our food with oxygen to create the energy required for activity.

Much of the body’s activity continues even as we rest such as cell growth and repair, breathing, hormone adjustments, and blood circulation. Our basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories our body requires to perform these basic functions.

Our own unique basal metabolic rate is influenced by body size, and composition, our sex, and our age:

• Larger individuals and those with more muscle burn more calories–even while resting.
• Men, because they usually have more muscle and less body fat than women, tend to burn more calories.
• As men and women age, muscle mass typically decreases, and fat accumulates, so fewer calories are used.

The body’s BMR is generally consistent from day to day, and responsible for roughly 70 percent of the calories we burn in 24 hours.

Thermogenesis, or Food Processing. We expend from 100 to 800 calories a day breaking down, absorbing, moving, and storing the food we consume. The fuel requirement for thermogenesis is fairly consistent and difficult to change.

Physical Activity. The most variable of the factors that determine calories used per day is physical activity. This includes all our movements such as walking, folding the laundry, chewing gum, swimming, playing fetch with the dog, or turning the pages of a book.

Within Our Control

Physical activity is emphasized for weight loss because it is the one calorie burning variable under our control. Enjoying regular aerobic exercise, strength training, and maintaining a generally active lifestyle are the only magic wands available for burning more calories, naturally.

Another weight loss factor is, no surprise here, the amount and type of food we give our metabolism to process. If what we consume is not used to maintain basic body functions, digest food, or to fuel physical activity, it will get stored as fat.

Source: Mayo Clinic
Photo credit: Alan Cleaver