Slow Metabolism? 8 Proven Ways to Boost It & Lose Weight | Joanna Soh
INCREASING metabolic rates have been an interest of many, especially among weightconscious individuals. Understanding metabolism is crucial in guiding us to obtain an optimal metabolic rate.
‘Metabole’ is a Greek word for ‘change’. In the context of the human body, metabolism means the conversion of energy intake – consumed food into energy and waste products. Increasing the rate of conversion is believed to increase the rate of burning off body fat. Is this true?
Consultant family medicine and lifestyle medicine physician at MSU Medical Centre Dr Faridah Mohd Zin explains, “Our body consumes energy through four pathways: basal metabolism, food thermogenesis, nonexercise activities thermogenesis (NEAT) and exercise activities thermogenesis (EAT).
“More than half of the body’s metabolism is consumed as basal metabolism i.e., for the function of vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, brain and many others (about 60%). The thermic effect of food has the lowest contribution which involves the energy needed to change the food we eat into substances that are “edible” by our cells such as glucose (about 10%). Increasing the metabolic rate would mean increasing the energy-burning rate of the body, which theoretically could be increased by optimising the NEAT, EAT, thermic effect of food and the body’s metabolism.”
NEAT relates to the energy consumed while performing daily activities. Optimising daily activities such as cooking while standing or pacing around the room while on the phone have shown to increase metabolic rate. Since these activities are done every day, enhancing the energy burnt through this pathway could be regarded as an opportunity that should not be missed. Moreover, NEAT is found to be associated with an improvement in overall health and helps in body fat reduction.
EAT relates to the body’s energy consumption through structured exercise, which primarily includes cardiovascular, strengthening, flexibility and balance exercises. Furthermore, each type should have specific criteria in terms of frequency, intensity, time and types to achieve the different exercise objectives. For example, in maintaining fitness, a total of 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week is recommended, while a longer duration is needed for body weight reduction.
Food thermogenesis contributes the least to body energy consumption. High lean protein and whole foods use more energy compared to other types of food and processed foods. Although consuming them would induce a higher metabolic rate, the contribution made to the increase of daily body metabolism is the lowest.
The major factors contributing to basal metabolic rate include sex, height, age, ethnicity, body composition and genetic factors. Body fat and muscle mass are the only factors that can be intentionally changed.
Total body fat is composed of essential and storage fat. Storage fat is mainly deposited under the skin as subcutaneous fat, or around body organs as visceral fat. The latter has been shown to have a strong correlation with cardiovascular diseases including heart attack and stroke. Energy consumption of more than required would be stored in the body as fat. Hence, a negative balance between energy intake and consumption is essential to force our body to use stored fat as a source of energy, leading to weight reduction. As the origin of stored fat comes from food, an alteration of an individual’s food intake is crucial to achieve the desired level of body fat.
Increasing muscle mass would increase the body’s ability to use up energy. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends regular resistance training exercises to build and maintain muscle. Men and women should participate in muscle strengthening activities that work the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders and arms) at least two times each week. Examples of muscle strengthening activities include lifting weights, using resistance bands, and doing push-ups and some forms of yoga. Even daily activities such as gardening, playing with your kids and carrying the groceries can strengthen muscles.
Although resistance training is an important part of a complete exercise regimen, consuming the appropriate amount and type of protein to maintain and build muscle is just as important. On top of that, a healthy balanced diet is crucial to ensure adequate macro and micronutrients are supplied for a healthy body.
Body metabolism happens continuously, allowing ongoing opportunities to maximise its effect. Body fat is a way our body stores unused energy. Hence, optimising the body’s metabolism while eating less than our body’s daily energy requirement will certainly force our body to burn energy from the stored body fat. Thus, consistency in creating this negative balance in energy will gradually get rid of unwanted body composition, namely the stored fat.
Though it takes a long time to develop a brand in foreign markets,
Chinese companies are good at research and development, meaning products
can quickly be technology-driven and meet local needs
- Fang Han,
From the world's top short video application TikTok to the biggest fast-fashion app Shein and emerging music-video app StarMaker, a rising number of mobile apps developed by Chinese companies are influencing people's daily lives across the globe.
A new report published by market consultancy iResearch showed that the overseas revenue of China's entertainment apps grew 204 per cent year-on-year in 2021.
In addition, a report from US search giant Google said that the downloads of apps made by Chinese developers among the world's top 1,000 applications nearly doubled over the past decade, from 8 per cent to 14 per cent.
Industry experts said this demonstrated Chinese companies' strong innovative capabilities, but they also face challenges amid rising geopolitical tensions.
"Chinese companies are playing a bigger role in global mobile app innovation, thanks to the rapid development of the digital economy. The momentum of digital consumption and 5G commercialisation promoted the continuous innovation and iterative upgrading of digital technologies, thus driving the huge innovative vitality of app developers," said Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
"The Chinese government has also been making great efforts in driving digital innovation and encouraging companies to deeply integrate digital technologies with the real economy," Wang added.
Wang also said that such efforts have led to the development of a group of industry leaders that are able to leverage their innovative ability to contribute to global industrial development.
The iResearch report noted that Chinese gaming apps continued to be the major revenue driver of the nation's apps overseas, but social networking apps have also displayed growth momentum over the past year.
The United States, Japan and South Korea were the main overseas sources of income for Chinese apps.
Notably, downloads of Chinese apps also increased in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia last year, among which the African market was the most prominent, with a total growth rate of 18.9 per cent year-on-year. StarMaker, a karaoke video app enabling users to create and share music videos, quickly went viral in 102 countries and regions, where it has become one of the best-selling music apps.
"The global market is promising for Chinese companies.
'Though it takes a long time to develop a brand in foreign markets, Chinese companies are good at research and development, meaning products can quickly be technology-driven and meet local needs," said Fang Han, CEO of Kunlun, the developer of StarMaker.
"After success in one market, we are also able to quickly spread this to other countries," Fang said, adding that the company has a dominant position in markets in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Small developers from China are also warming up the global mobile app market. US tech company Apple Inc said that more than 5 million third-party developers in its iOS app ecosystem are from China, up from 4.4 million a year ago, and they have increasingly become a major force in the global app economy.
However, Huang Leping, head of technology, media and telecommunications at Huatai Securities, said that many challenges remain for Chinese companies in going global, especially as many countries have tightened up their data protection policies.
"In the past, companies have been able to build a set of algorithms in China and offer services in foreign markets, where the data can be interconnected.
'But in the future, companies may need to build supporting facilities in various countries to do that, which will greatly increase their operating costs and risks," Huang said.- China Daily/Ann
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 20, 2022. Photo: AFP
The general debate of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 77) is currently under way. This is the first entire in-person meeting at the UN headquarters since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting is being held when the world is severely divided. It hence should be an opportunity for all parties to strengthen communication, bridge divergences, and join hands to cope with global challenges, while being cautious of certain countries' attempt to turn the general assembly into a tool to create division, and escalate conflicts and confrontation.
In his opening remarks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that progress made on coping with challenges is being held hostage to geopolitical tensions. "Our world is in peril - and paralyzed … No cooperation. No dialogue. No collective problem solving. But the reality is that we live in a world where the logic of cooperation and dialogue is the only path forward," he stressed. Guterres' warning is both a description of the status quo and a concern about the current situation of the UN. However, to what extent can such warning be translated into actions by some key countries remains a big question to be answered.
Several media reports mentioned that this week's UNGA 77 general debate will be dominated by the struggle between the US and its allies on the one side, and Russia on the other, over the Ukraine crisis. The US and its allies are committed to launching a campaign to "isolate Russia." In addition to carry on strong condemnations against Russia, they are ganging up to pressure neutral countries. It is reported that the Russian side will discuss not to allow the US and the West to launch a hybrid war in Ukraine. Many developing countries and aid groups worry that the diplomatic conflict over Ukraine will undermine a key opportunity to address famine, the climate crisis and other issues of concern.
Amid the interwoven changes and chaos of the world, the UN is also undergoing a test about profound differences. Will it let itself be kidnapped by some forces and turned into a tool for targeting specific countries, and promoting group politics and the so-called alliances of values? Or will it hold on to promoting democracy in international relations, adhering to comprehensive concepts of development and security, and uniting the vast number of countries to solve common problems via genuine multilateralism? The history of the development of the UN indicates that these two forces have always had a tug-of-war. Whether the forces of solidarity and cooperation that focus on the future of mankind can overcome the forces of division and confrontation that rest on geopolitical logic will affect UN's role and hundreds of millions of people around the world in the future.
There is one thing that cannot be denied: Although the UN General Assembly general debates have been filled with lots of conflicts and confrontations, the UN remains the core of global governance nowadays and is in a key position to address a range of challenges, and the UN Security Council remains the core of the global system of collective security. It is for this very reason that the international community generally places high hopes on the UN system as a prioritized platform for pursuing a better vision of the world. Under such circumstances, how the UN can build consensus and promote unity requires courage and wisdom, and moreover, new ideas.
In this process, it's significant whether the major powers choose dialogue and cooperation, or division and confrontation. It's learned from the lessons of World War I and II that the rule of "great power unanimity" has become the main operating rule of the UN mechanism. Especially in the current situation where the Russia-Ukraine conflict is escalating and humanitarian disaster is imminent, major powers should take the initiative to safeguard UN's authority and leave an "emergency channel" for diplomatic settlement of disputes through UN mechanisms, rather than instrumentalizing and ideologizing the organization and using geopolitical interests to kidnap it, making the complicated problem even more difficult to solve. This is a moral obligation, and a responsibility as well.
In the statements that have been made during the meeting, representatives of many countries have mentioned "solidarity," showing that the problem has been noticed. However, there are divergences on the path to solve them. At the moment, we need to practice authentic multilateralism and work together to uphold the principles of the UN Charter. We suggest that the representatives of the participating countries carefully read the "Position Paper of the People's Republic of China For the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly," which gives a "Chinese proposal" for the current period of turbulent changes, a proposal for building common security and achieving common development.
There lies the desire to pursue an integrated and common view of security, instead of a unilateral view of security dominated by a single power, behind the strong calls at this session from developing countries to focus on famine and climate crisis while preventing the Russia-Ukraine conflict from monopolizing all the attention. We believe that the measure of whether a session of the UNGA is worthwhile should be whether the world is more fractured or less fractured afterward, and if there is more cooperation or less after the session. There could also be identification of responsibility for this.
Ahum, you are wrong about which country is the world’s big bully. It is not China, but the US.
The
US is constantly meddling in the affairs of other countries, creating
political instability in countries that refuse to be their pet-dog, and
even fabricate lies as an excuse to start wars or invade countries.
They even hack their allies, I personally witnessed such a hack as an employee of a European telecom/internet provider. At
the same time, US telecom/internet equipment manufacturers refuse
access to their source code and firmware to do serious security
inspections, while Huawei gives full acc
The
so called genocide on Uighurs (Xijiang)? Or by the media well overblown
dispute over Tibetan territory? Or Arunachal Pradesh (India)? These
disputes go back to the 6 and 7th century (if not further).
Western
world pokes nose to something that started during the reign of well
successful and mighty Tang Dynasty. The so called eastern Turks invaded
China from the east and were pushed back over the border. That happened
several times until the two rival sides signed economic and trade
treaties which allowed Turks to stay at Chinese borders, however,
Chinese never disclaimed the possession of th
Umm….
Surely that's the US you're thinking of? Been bullying threatening and
trying to subvert an island neighbour these last sixty years? You have
heard of Cuba, haven't you?
first
, China isn't the world bully , and have beaten socalled UN army at
Korea in 1950–1953 . Second , China always get the majority ballots even
defamed endlessly by all west medias . last , China have the power to
veto all unfavorable , by war or others like US .
Stop
what exactly? Trading with its neighboring countries? Giving up their
legit claim on their territory? Why don’t you change the subject from
China to any other country to see who will agree that.
I
can't believe how many young people from the new generation of people
raised in the USA actually believe this propaganda perpetuated by the
government that USA is good and everyone else who is a potential threat
to USA is bad. People these days have a very incorrect and missinformed
view of the world. America is not doing peacekeeping, they are just
ordering other countries about how should they live, whom should they do
business with and so on and so forth. America is acting like a bully,
not like a helping hand.
I'm
not going to touch on which countries are or aren't “world bullies” and
state a very simple fact that I don't see in any other answer;
China can veto any UN resolution so would just veto any resolution used to apply pressure to them.
All
5 permanent Security Council members can do this so the UN can't do
anything against China, France, Russia, the UK or the USA because all
these 5 counties can just say no.
“Why
can't the UN pressure China to stop behaving like a world bully and
stop threatening the neighbors with force?” It is because of the nature
of UN who is not a world’s government. The UN’s outcome is just
resolutions which ‘encourages/recommends’, and not forces its members to
do something.
And
even if UN were a powerful world govt then China is is one of most
powerful figure of this govt so there would never been any UN’s
decision/order to stop bad China’s behavior.
