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Mitochondria and Weight
Loss:
Understanding Mitochondrial
Decay and Its Effects on Your Metabolism
Year after year in the UK, the United States and in every other
industrialized nation, millions of people are tempted by, taken by, try out
and fail at various fad diets. They're not doing anything wrong; they just
want to lose some weight! However, fad diets repetitively deliver nothing
except wasted time, wasted money, and many times - outright discouragement.
If you want to understand not only how to lose those extra pounds, but how
to keep them off permanently - and in a holistically healthy fashion - then
you need to begin to understand how your body truly works.
You are an intricate conglomeration of cells - billions of them!
Every individual cell, in every individual cellular structure, no matter how
large or small, requires energy to perform its functions. This energy is
derived from the carbohydrates that you eat - specifically and primarily the
glucose content that can be found in and derived from the foods that you
ingest. A cell's mitochondria are tiny little power plants that do the
actual work in converting glucose, a sugar, into usable cellular energy.
In fact, when you're younger, each of your cells has more than 1000
mitochondria in them. And as we age, mitochondrial decay causes that number
to fall to less than half. That means that, because of the aging process,
each cell becomes less than half as efficient at deriving energy from the
foods that we take in. New research suggests that mitochondrial decay is the
primary cause of aging itself.
Efficient mitochondrial functioning is crucial for both weight loss and
proper weight management!
Most people believe that the aging process naturally involves a slowing of
the metabolic rate. However, while it's true that metabolism slows as we age
in most cases, it does not necessarily have to be that way! Our metabolic
rates are affected by a number of factors that can be controlled by us. The
sad fact is that most people, as they age, do not do enough to efficiently
control and maintain a sparked metabolism. Instead, they become less
physically active, are prone to eating surplus amounts of rich foods, and
generally fail to be attentive to their overall plan for health maintenance
and optimization. In short, they give up and become determined to age even
more!
Factors that affect metabolism:
-
The foods that we choose to eat;
-
The amount of physical activity that we engage in regularly;
-
The habits that we set for our lifestyles;
-
Our attitudes!
Mitochondrial decay is directly correlated with slower metabolism rates.
Slowed metabolic rates are directly correlated with unsuccessful weight
management efforts. If you want to lose weight, then you need to increase
metabolism. Metabolism is simply your body's processes of utilizing the
foods that we eat efficiently to maintain cellular structures and fuel life.
Let's bring it all together:
-
The mitochondria in our cells derives energy from the foods that we eat to
fuel our lives;
-
Through wear and tear, the number of mitochondria in each of our cells
diminishes as we age;
-
Decreased mitochondria, i.e. mitochondrial decay, causes our metabolic rates
to decrease;
-
This means that we're producing less energy but taking in the same amount of
food energy;
-
This excess food energy is stored as fat tissue;
-
This is not conducive to recognizing our weight loss and management goals;
The answer is to take good care of your mitochondria!
You take care of your mitochondria in the following manners:
-
Do not eat rich foods. Eat light foods that are easy for your body to break
down and assimilate. Whole foods are best by far.
-
Eat less foods overall. When you eat less, your mitochondria have less work
to do. With less work done, the life of your mitochondria is elongated.
-
Exercise more. Regular physical activity increases mitochondrial production
levels.
-
Flood your body with healthful nutrients, vitamins, minerals, water, healthy
fats and loads of antioxidants.
-
Be consistently attentive to other methods for increasing your metabolic
rate. For instance, take the steps instead of the escalator. Park in back of
a parking lot instead of waiting for that spot right up by the doors. Take
your dog an extra walk every day. Do whatever you can think of in order to
create an increased level of physical activity in your life.
By increasing the longevity of your cell's mitochondria, you increase your
own longevity. You are your cells! Your cells are you. If you wish to lose
weight, maintain a healthy weight level, prevent and/or reverse diseases,
optimize your health and live happier, then you have to embrace the concept
that you are nothing more than a conglomeration of cellular structures that
need proper fuels (the foods that you eat) and regular physical activity to
thrive.
Increase Metabolism Rate to Improve Effective
Weight Loss
You must seek approval from your doctor
before starting any new diet.
Please read our
Terms!
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