According to this new study, the period of massive metabolic efficiency lasts much longer than would be expected
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousMetabolism depends on age, but not in the way we think: the period of maximum efficiency lasts much longer than would be expected, according to this new study.
Many of us remember a time in life when they could eat whatever they wanted without worrying about gaining weight. Now a new study suggests that the human metabolism, or the speed at which our body is able to burn calories from food, reaches its maximum efficiency much sooner than one would expect - but fortunately it begins its inevitable decline later than one might think.
Several previous studies have already measured how much energy the body 'burns' in carrying out vital functions - breathing, digesting, pumping blood into organs and muscles - and it has emerged that these functions burn 50% to 70% of the calories consumed each day. The activities we dedicate ourselves to - the more intense ones, like running or swimming, but also the more 'sedentary' ones, like reading, thinking or using the cell phone - burn additional calories.
Four researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center analyzed the average calories burned by more than 6.600 people from 29 different countries during various stages of their lives to see how metabolism changes its effectiveness over time. The age of the participants ranged from one week to 95 years. To count the total energy consumed during the day, the researchers carried out a particular test on the urine of the volunteers called Doubly labeled water: the volunteer drinks water in which hydrogen and oxygen in the molecules have been replaced with the their 'heavy' form; subsequently the speed with which these are expelled from the organism is measured.
Some think that metabolism is at its most effective at burning calories in teenagers and young people, but infants have been found to have the most efficient metabolism: one-year-olds, in fact, burn calories 50% faster than adults - and not because they triple their weight in the first year of life.
Certainly babies grow fast, and this has a major effect on their metabolism, however their energy expenditure tends to be higher than would be expected given their small body size. This finding would explain why children who don't get enough food early in life are less likely to survive and grow as healthy adults.
Surprisingly, the growth spurt that occurs during adolescence does not generate an increase in daily calorie needs, according to the results of the urinalysis of the younger participants. Furthermore, the metabolism is more effective between the ages of 20 and 50 (and the caloric requirement does not increase in case of pregnancy).
The results suggest that our metabolism only begins to decline after age 60 and that the slowdown is gradual - only 0,7% per year. The cause of this lower calorie requirement lies in the loss of muscle mass that occurs with advancing age, as muscles burn more calories than fat.
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Fonte: Louisiana State University
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