Before you can begin to boost your metabolism, it makes sense to explain exactly what metabolism is, and how it works - but do not worry, you only need to know the basics!

Some people think that the metabolism is a sort of organ, or a body part, that influences digestion. Actually, the metabolism is not any particular body part. It is the process by which the body converts food into energy.

Hence, you have likely heard of the phrase metabolic process used synonymously with the term metabolism, because they both mean the same thing.

The Medical Mumbo Jumbo

Again, do not worry - this is not a complicated medical text (which should be great news to most of you!), and so we do not need to spend an unnecessary amount of time and space focusing on the layered complexity of the human body and its extraordinary intelligence.

Without diving deeply into medical details (which are not relevant for our general understanding purposes) it is however helpful to briefly look at the biological mechanisms behind metabolism.

Metabolism, is the process of transforming food (e.g. nutrients) into fuel (e.g. energy). The body uses this 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 no metabolism - that is, if you had no metabolic process that was converting food into energy - then you would not be able to move.

In fact, long before you realized that you could not move a finger or lift your foot, your internal processes would have stopped; because 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.

So do keep this in mind the next time you hear someone say that they have a slow metabolism. While they may struggle with unwanted weight gain due to metabolic factors, they certainly have a functioning metabolism. If they did not, they would not even be able to speak (because that, too, requires energy that comes from, you guessed it: metabolism!).

It is also worthwhile noting that, while we conveniently refer to the metabolic process as if it were a single function, it is really a catch-all term for countless functions that are taking place inside the body. Every second of every minute of every day of your life - even, of course, when you sleep - numerous chemical conversions are taking place through metabolism, or metabolic functioning, anabolism (building cells) and catabolism (breaking down cells), being two of those functions.

To sum up, metabolism can therefore reasonably be referred to as a harmonizing process that manages to achieve two critical bodily functions that, in a sense, seem to be at odds with each other.

So now you understand what metabolism is, and the two vital functions it controls (anabolism and catabolism), the link between metabolism and weight loss becomes clear. If your metabolism's greater function becomes anabolism, then unless you are doing something to add lean muscle mass, the cells your body builds will be what you and I know as fat. But when you adopt a lifestyle and diet that promotes catabolism as your metabolism's greater function, the resultant breaking down of cells in your body will translate into consistent weight loss.

And that is it - that is about as much as you need to know about what metabolism is in order to start boosting yours, and when you do, you will find out that it is not just a healthy way to lose weight, but one of the most incredibly easy ways to lose weight too!