The metabolic rate is, the rate at which your body processes calories to produce the energy it needs to function. If you are jogging then there needs to be a lot more energy processed than if you are sitting at your computer.

If you eat food then you need energy to break down and process that food. Just keeping your heart beating and pumping blood through your body takes energy. To be able to measure our metabolic rate we take a measure of the energy required by the body when it is at rest.

In a fairly obvious step that rate has been called the ?Resting Metabolic Rate? or RMR. There is a formula to measure the RMR that is based on the height, weight and age of a person.

The formula is just an approximation as it makes no allowance for someone 6 feet tall and a body builder with lots of muscles and another person, weighing the same amount, who is 6 feet tall with very low muscle tone and a very big beer stomach.

It is only a guide but it is useful to give a guide of how many calories. (In the e-reports that accompany our free e-book on Metabolism this is reviewed in depth. The medical methods of testing that give an accurate assessment, rather than an approximation, of RMR are also explained).

The RMR equation gives an indication of how many calories you use every day. If you add to this an approximation of the calories you burn with your daily activity.

This gives the ?calories burnt? part of your daily weight equation.

Next you need to look at the calories you eat.

That gives an equation like this

Calories Burnt in the day - Calories Eaten = Positive or negative energy total for the day.

If you eat less calories than you burn then it is logical that the difference is a shortfall of energy and most people assume that the body makes up this shortfall by burning calories. Logically that burning of calories is shown as weight loss.

One pound of fat is generally accepted to represent about 3,500 calories. One Kilo of fat is then around 7,500/8,000 calories.

If you can burn 500 calories from stored fat then in about a week you should lose about one pound or half a kilo.

People assume that if you have an energy shortfall of 1,000 calories a day then you will ?burn off? 2 pounds (approx 1 kilo) of fat a week.

Here is where we strike the problem.

The body is very complex. If you have an energy deficiency of 1,000 calories of more then your body will protect you from what is sees as a very dangerous situation. It will slow your metabolism to match the calories that it is receiving each day.

Your body will slow down to match what you are eating and weight loss will slow and then stop. If fact it gets worse. When the metabolism is slow like this your body is searching for fat to store to get you through the trouble it believes you are having.

If you break diet with a binge, which is a normal thing, then your body will convert any spare energy it can get hold of straight into body fat.

Here is where we strike the problem.

The body is very complex. If you have an energy deficiency of 1,000 calories of more then your body will protect you from what is sees as a very dangerous situation. It will slow your metabolism to match the calories that it is receiving each day.

Your body will slow down to match what you are eating and weight loss will slow and then stop. If fact it gets worse. When the metabolism is slow like this your body is searching for fat to store to get you through the trouble it believes you are having.

If you break diet with a binge, which is a normal thing, then your body will convert any spare energy it can get hold of straight into body fat.

The only way to reduce calories significantly, while still keeping metabolism high, is to give the body everything it needs to feed it properly.

That means all the protein, the carbohydrates, the vitamins, the minerals, the essential oils, the botanical factors and the water.

If your body is getting all these things in a form that it can absorb and use at a cellular level then it will build new cells that are strong and health and you will stay well.

In that case your metabolism will stay high and your overall health will stay high or, if you had been a bit run down then you will often see an improvement in personal energy and general wellness as your body builds up healthier cells and your metabolism becomes more efficient.

The only way I know how to do this is with a balanced nutrition program.

You can go a long way with the right food choices, and by paying a lot of attention to how the food is prepared, but to really get everything your body needs on a daily basis though, it is worth while looking closely at the nutrition supplements that are available these days.