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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

Many people may have such friends who can eat whatever they want and eat whenever they want, but they don't get fat and still stay slim. If you ask the so-called "weight loss expert", eight out of ten will tell you that "they have a fast metabolism" and that although they eat more, they are not fat. Is that true?

/ photos by Amy Arthur (Amy Arthur)

Editor | Zhao Jiaming

To answer this question, first of all, we have to figure out where all the energy we eat goes.

How do we distribute our energy intake? We need energy for three meals a day, and sometimes for snacks and drinks. The process by which our bodies convert these foods and drinks into the energy needed for life to function is metabolism. Scientists often measure the rate of metabolism, that is, the metabolic rate, by how much energy the body consumes in a day. The more energy the body consumes in a day, the higher the metabolic rate. When we talk about "fast metabolism", we mean high metabolic rate.

So where's all the energy we get from food? Most of this energy is used to keep us alive. This is very energy-consuming: it takes energy to produce heat in winter to ward off the cold, to fight invading pathogens, to boost blood circulation, and even to exhale and inhale as you do all the time.

These are the basic functions that sustain life, and the energy needed to complete them is called the "basal metabolic rate". The basal metabolic rate accounts for 60% to 80% of the total energy we consume every day. For most people, physical activity accounts for 15% to 30% of daily energy consumption, and a small part of the energy is used for energy, that is, the digestion process.

Most of the energy consumed by the human body every day is used to maintain the basic life activities, that is, the basal metabolic rate. As a result, many people believe that basal metabolic rate is a key factor in weight loss. In the basal metabolic rate, muscle cells consume the highest proportion of energy. Compared with other cells, muscle cells are more active and need more energy to contract and relax, as well as to repair daily injuries. It can be said that the more muscles a person has, the higher the basal metabolic rate.

This creates a contradiction. Our friends who don't get fat also tend to have fewer muscles, so their basal metabolic rate is lower and their metabolism is generally slower. Then why don't they get fat?

Why doesn't someone get fat? It may be because of heredity, genes have a certain effect on the basal metabolic rate, or it may be because they exercise more. In addition, their lack of weight or even loss may be related to an uneven diet, or they may not eat too much, but their energy intake is not high.

Does this mean that these people who eat dry and not fat may not be healthy? In fact, this is not the case, appearance is not the ideal criterion to judge whether it is healthy or not. Some people who look thin may actually have a high muscle mass and a low body fat rate, such as athletes and professional dancers, whose basal metabolic rate is usually high.

But these are not "ordinary people". Are the "ordinary thin people" in our lives healthy? The answer is still yes.

In 2022, a team led by John Roger Spickman (John Roger Speakma), chief scientist of the Energy Metabolism Research Center of the Institute of Medicine, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, published a paper in the journal Cell Metabolism (Cell Metabolism), pointing out that thin people consume lower total energy per day and lower levels of physical activity than people of normal weight, meaning their metabolism is slower. But they have better cardiopulmonary function and lower body fat rate, and they are very healthy. Now, the team plans to study the genetic differences between normal weight and "healthy thin people" to figure out the genetic mechanism behind it.

All in all, no matter what it is, the next time a friend tells you that he is not fat because of his fast metabolism, you can teach him a lesson.

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