Please explain metabolism and how it relates to heart rate

Google and Websters are a wonderful thing:

Metabolism: The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.

More muscle mass: requires more energy to sustain: increases metabolism.

Running itself increases metabolism during the activity, BUT also AFTER the activity for some time. Running and working out in general damages muscle tissue and in general moves the body's processes away from homeostasis. Over the course of the day the body needs to repair tissue and return the body to homeostasis. Because people who workout are always screwing with the system the body must have a high metabolism to keep up with it.

Now, there are people who naturally have a high or low metabolism due partly to the natural lack or abundance of muscle tissue or other reasons.

Heart rate relates to metabolism when it departs from resting value. Increased heartrate means increased workload and that requires a higher metabolism. So when you're working out and your heart rate increase calories are burned at a faster rate and metabolism is increased.

As a general rule of thumb you can calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), which is the # of calories your body needs just for daily living (if you sat in bed all day) by multiplying your weight times 10. This is a VERY BASIC way of calculating BMR. If you want to know a more detailed forumula look it up. You can usually assume another 500 calories for daily activities. So...lets take me...140 lbs...1400 BMR, 1900 total if I did no exercise at all. So, you can see how easy it would be for someone who didn't exercise to gain weight. Add 1000-2000 (10-20 miles) to the 1900 for my daily running and you have 2900-3900 calories a day.

Now, if you take in more calories than you burn you'll gain weight. If you expend more calories than you take in you'll lose weight. Many people can't seem to grasp this simple concept. You can exercise and eat well all you want and not lose weight unless you create a calorie deficit. You could eat nothing but twinkies all day and lose weight if you want you take in is less than what you expend. This is why Atkins worked for some...it's a low calorie diet in disguise.

Alan

good explanation. Though I did some experiments with runners and RMR which suggested your RMR may be higher than you predicted. Most of the runners I tested were near 2000kcal, this with no running the day before. I also normalized the data for lean muscle mass to take into account muscle being a more metabolically active tissue, and this still showed an increase in RMR. This suggests metabolic properties of the muscle were also increased in runners. BTW, it doesn't really relate too much to heart rate, they are just two different things that respond to the stimulus similarly (ie. running).

Well what about me? I never work out. I eat well over 2000 calories a day. I'm 5'10" and 140lbs and can't gain any weight no matter what I do. Neither fat nor muscles sticks to me. At night I turn into a fireball and get so hot nobody wants to touch me let alone be in a room near me cuz I give off so much heat. How can I gain muscle or any weight at all with out eating until I feel sick?!?!

Taylor31792 wrote:

Well what about me? I never work out. I eat well over 2000 calories a day. I'm 5'10" and 140lbs and can't gain any weight no matter what I do. Neither fat nor muscles sticks to me. At night I turn into a fireball and get so hot nobody wants to touch me let alone be in a room near me cuz I give off so much heat. How can I gain muscle or any weight at all with out eating until I feel sick?!?!

I will have to think about that Colleen.

Taylor31792 wrote:

Well what about me? I never work out. I eat well over 2000 calories a day. I'm 5'10" and 140lbs and can't gain any weight no matter what I do. Neither fat nor muscles sticks to me. At night I turn into a fireball and get so hot nobody wants to touch me let alone be in a room near me cuz I give off so much heat. How can I gain muscle or any weight at all with out eating until I feel sick?!?!

Maybe you have hyperthyroidism

Have a thyroid test. You may be hyper.

Your personal resting heart rate doesn't correlate to metabolism.

Someone once explained it like this. Some people have big diesel hearts. They beat slow, but pump a lot of blood. Some people have little Kawasaki hearts. They beat faster to pump an equal amount of blood.

Over many years of endurance exercise, the heart will grow larger. For example, before I became a runner, my resting heart rate was 76. Today, my resting heart rate is 50 and I've measured it as low as 43.

fisky wrote:

Your personal resting heart rate doesn't correlate to metabolism.

Someone once explained it like this. Some people have big diesel hearts. They beat slow, but pump a lot of blood. Some people have little Kawasaki hearts. They beat faster to pump an equal amount of blood.

Over many years of endurance exercise, the heart will grow larger. For example, before I became a runner, my resting heart rate was 76. Today, my resting heart rate is 50 and I've measured it as low as 43.

Same here, I was very sportingly active from a young age to about 28. Since then I have been largely sedentary, but still have a heart rate a tickle that at rest is around 52-54 and does get a little lower if my knees and back aren't hurting and I could do some basic training. For context, this is at an age of 47.

No idea if I have a fast or slow metabolism!

oops - sorry for grammar fails above.

The night sweating is a sign of permanently (e.g. because of hyperthyroidism) or temporarily (e.g. eating a good amount above what your body is used to e.g. after a period of undeating that lead to decreases metabolism or a cheat-day) increased metabolism.

source : own experience with anorexia recovery (aka metabolism increase back to normal or temporarily above) and too high dose of thyroid medication leading or hyper instead of hypo

Now if you factor stroke volume into the mix there might be something, but looking at HR alone is fairly meaningless.