Can I Also Become Someone Who “Can Eat Like A Horse But Gain No Weight”?

Have you noticed that there is always a small group of people “very different” from the rest of us? They eat everything, from sweets, ice cream, chocolate, to potato chips…, they love everything. They also eat a lot; the amount of food is twice that of ours. They often even eat snacks after meals. 

However, the most annoying thing is that they are not fat, not fat, not fat. 

You feel a lot of pressure whenever you head out to eat with them, so you’re able to only comfort yourself by saying, “There must be something wrong with him…, yes, that must be it…” 

Actually, everyone has the chance to become a skinny person who can eat like a horse but gain no weight. 

Of course, this refers to those who are healthy, and excludes those with malabsorption, gastrointestinal disorders, hyperthyroidism, and severe malnutrition. 

What is Related with Body Size? 

First, let’s take a look. So, besides diet and activities, what is related with body size? 

First of all, genes are what people are born with. So what do we do if our parents don’t give us this weapon? You still have a chance. Yes, there’s still a second chance to transform, through what? Through metabolism. 

As we get older, especially when we get closer to becoming 30, we seem to gain weight much more easily. On the one hand, the reason is we exercise less, and on the other hand, an important reason is as we age, our basal metabolic rate gradually decreases. 

A term is mentioned here that you may be unfamiliar with: “basal metabolic rate.” Let’s take a look at what basal metabolic rate is. 

What is Basal Metablic Rate (BMR)? 

During our daily activities, the energy metabolism changes of the human body are quite obvious. When we’re as swift as the wind, the energy metabolism is in a high state, and when we’re as steady as a rock, the energy metabolism is in a low state, especially when we’re sleeping. 

Studies have found that when we are awake, yet doing nothing and in a quiet state with no thoughts running in our minds, it is easier to measure energy consumption and can better reflect the current state of the body. Using per square meters of the body surface area per hour to represent energy consumption rate is the basal metabolic rate (BMR). 

For people with high BMR, they consume more energy than those with lower BMR when they do activities of the same intensity and same amount of time. 

Therefore, those who are often confused as to why they are prone to gain weight, even when they’re not eating anything, it’s because they’re the group with low BMR. 

This is a disadvantage factor for maintaining a normal body shape, because even if you successfully lose weight, you will also need to maintain a very small appetite in the future to keep being successful, or else there will only be a rebound. Also, most of those with low BMR will get stuck in a bottleneck period without any further breakthroughs. 

In addition to being affected by diseases, BMR level are also related to other factors, such as age, gender, and race. 

With the increase of age, the metabolic rate generally shows a downward trend, where the metabolic rate of women is lower than that of men of the same age. The BMR among normal people of the same sex, weight, and age group, is very close, among which around 90% of them have a metabolic rate that has no more than a 15% difference than the average value. 

Therefore, clinically, this percentage is used as the boundary of normal value. Exceeding this boundary will be considered as having abnormal basal metabolism. 

We can now enter our gender, age, height, and weight online, and then get a BMR, which is BMR’s normal value. Maybe, yours is actually lower than this value or higher than this value. It’s because BMR is also affected by other factors, such as body surface area, ambient temperature, and ethnicity, etc. 

Because it is not a fixed value and is affected by many factors, we are able to control it and “artificially” increase our BMR. 

How Can We Increase Our BMR? 

There are three main ways for the body to consume calories: 1) diet; 2) amount of activity; and 3) BMR. 

The BMR plays a very important role in this. If you want to lose weight, it is more practical to increase the BMR than to work hard controlling your diet. We want to emphasize here that long-term dieting will instead reduce the BMR, it is not worth it. 

American medical doctor Craig Williams is engaged in research including the effect of exercise on insulin resistance, lipid metabolism disorders, etc. He has published several articles in Diabetes Care. We will be citing nine methods he proposed on increasing the BMR. 

01 Sufficient Sleep 

During sleep, there will be a decrease of 10%-15% in metabolic rate, so those who sleep in often may gain weight much more easily. 

Sleeping too little each day also affects metabolism. When people sleep, it is also when the organs of the body gets to rest and detox. If they don’t get enough rest, then the metabolic capacity will weaken. 

To ensure that the organs have better metabolism, we must sleep during the period from 11 PM each night to 5 AM the next day. 

02 Clever Usage of Five Flavor Seasonings 

The use of spices, vinegar, as well as spicy condiments such as chili peppers and ginger can stimulate the sympathetic nerves, which can especially cause the body fat to burn. 

The addition of vinegar has the effect of reducing the use of salt and can lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure. This has the function of suppressing the rise of blood sugar. 

03 Must Intake Enough Calories 

For people without special habits in exercising, take the current weight in kilograms and multiply it by 22, and that is the amount of calories needed per day. 

If the intake of calories through the diet is reduced, the body will mistakenly think that you are starving and need to balance the energy, so the basal metabolism used to maintain breathing and heartbeat will automatically decrease, which will instead affect the normal function of the body. 

Malnutrition will emerge here and the metabolic rate will decrease by 20%~30%. Therefore, those who wish to use only two apples to satisfy their hunger will not only feel drowsy, tired, and sleepy throughout the day, it’s also hard for them to see the effect of weight loss. 

04 Supplement Sufficient Protein 

Make sure that 10%~20% of your daily calorie needed comes from protein. This can increase your metabolism and consume 150~200 more calories per day. 

The main component of protein is amino acids. Compared with fats and carbohydrates, amino acids are more difficult to digest and break down in the human body. The main organs of the body need to consume more energy to digest and absorb them. 

We eat starch, carbohydrates, and fat foods just to meet the needs of the body. This does not increase BMR. However, protein is different. After eating protein, it warms the body and raises the body’s temperature, which then increases the metabolic rate. 

05 Guaranteed Daily Breakfast 

When we’re in a deep sleep, our metabolism slows down. When we start eating again, our metabolism speed would then start recovering and speed up. 

If you miss breakfast, your body will have to wait until lunch before it starts burning calories and before the metabolism starts to speed up. If you are in the process of losing weight, you must not skip breakfast. 

06 Try to Eat Mostly Hot Meals 

Hot meals can stimulate and activate the metabolic system in the body, as well as enhance and maintain the body’s BMR. 

At the same time, choose foods that you need to chew more, and you can feel full without having to eat too much. 

07 Stimulate Thyroid Hormones 

If the body has low thyroid function, the metabolic rate can be as low as 50% of the normal metabolic rate. On the contrary, those with hyperthyroidism consume energy excessively, so although they have good appetite, they’re never fat. 

Of course, it’s not necessary to keep the thyroid function in a hyperactive state, but if the thyroid function is reduced, weight loss often becomes difficult as well. 

08 Maintain the Secretion of Sex Hormones 

The secretion of sex hormones affects the body’s basal metabolism, and the secretion of sex hormones decreases with age, which is one of the reasons why many people become fat after entering midlife. 

Maintaining a regular sex life can increase the secretion of sex hormones, as well as enhance the body’s BMR. 

09 Increase Body Muscle Mass 

Exercise is the only way to help the body to wake up; the higher the proportion of muscles in the body, the higher the BMR, and, on the contrary, the higher the proportion of fat, the lower the BMR. 

Therefore, we need to strive to increase our body’s muscle mass, and exercise is the healthiest way to do that. 

Let’s work hard together and become the group with high metabolism. Let’s become the next person who “can eat like a horse but gain no weight”!