A:  It is the process by which the body converts food into energy.

The body uses energy to conduct a vast array of essential functions.

In fact, your ability to read this page literally is driven by your

metabolism. If you had metabolic process that was converting food into energy then you wouldnot be able to move.

 The basic building blocks of life - circulating blood, transforming

oxygen into carbon dioxide, expelling potentially lethal wastes

through the kidneys and so on all of these depend on metabolism.

  Every second of every minute of every day of your life even when you are asleep numerous chemical conversions are taking place through metabolism, or metabolic functioning.

Metabolism perfoms two critical bodily functions that are opposite to each other in terms of their functions and results  - anabolism that uses energy to create cells, and catabolism that breaks down cells to create energy.

Q: What are calories?

Calories are simply units of measure. They are not actually things in

and of themselves; they are labels for other things, just like how an

inch really isn't anything, but it measures the distance between two

points. Calories measure energy.

The body gets energy from the food we eat be it Good or Bad or plain Ugly!

When the body receives energy it does two things to that energy: it either metabolizes it via anabolism, or it metabolizes it via catabolism.

Q: What has anabolism and catabolism got to do with weight loss?

Catabolism:

It is the process in which the body breaks energy so that the body can do what it's supposed to do.

For example, as you aerobically exercise, your body temperature rises as your heart beat increases and remains with a certain range. As this happens, your body requires more oxygen; and as such, your

breathing increase requiring additional energy.

Basically, energy is used uo during physical excercise, the rate will vary with the level of activity.

Anabolism:

This process eanbles the creaion of new cells. It could be to replace dead or dysfunctional cells following an injury. Another example of an anabolic process is the creation of new cells from excess energy. When there is an excess of energy intake, and the body can't use this energy to deal with any needs at the time, it will be forced to create cells with that extra energy. And those extra cells becomes added weight!

Q: When are extra calories transformed into muscle?

A: Extra calories are transformed into muscle through excercise. People with

strong muscle tone burn calories without actually doing anything;

their metabolism burns it for them. This is the primary reason why exercising and building lean muscleis part of an overall program to boost your metabolism; because the more lean muscle you have, the more places excess calories can go to get used up before they are turned into fat.

Fact about fat