Ana + Cata = Meta

Every where you go, you will hear people talking about their metabolism, I have a high metabolism, I am increasing my metabolism, metabolism this, metabolism that. But what exactly is metabolism? If we can understand what metabolism is and how it affects our body, we can train and eat in a manner that effects the metabolism exactly like we want to it be.

In very simple terms – it is a set of chemical reactions to keep us alive. It is broken down into two major parts – Anabolism and Catabolism. When food/nutrients go into our body, two things happen. They get used as energy or they get stored for future use (if the food intake is more than required).

Anabolism is the series of reactions that helps create new molecules. Now these molecules can be anything, can be fat, can be muscle, can be bones etc. Catabolism on the other hand breaks down molecules for energy. Both anabolism and catabolism are taking place all the time. However, depending on our age, sex, time of day, food and physical activity one may be more dominant than the other. So at any given point, your body will be in either an anabolic state or catabolism state. For example, if you take a meal, you body will be an anabolic state and if you are starving yourself, then you will be in a catabolic state.

If we can control our metabolism to the extent that we build muscle during the anabolic state and lose fat during the catabolic state, then we can achieve the Burn fat ‘n’ Build muscle goal.

There are a lot more details on how we can control our metabolism and use it to our advantage e.g. there are a number of hormones that we need to control to direct our metabolism towards one source of energy and keep it away from others. Read the ‘No sweat burning method’ article which outlines what you can do to manipulate your metabolism in giving you what you want. If you are interested in fitness, then understanding metabolism should be the first thing you understand in detail.