“Eat like me, Train like me, Look like me”

I remember being a teenager and young adult googling the ‘Victoria’s Secret Model Workout and Diet’. Thinking that if I trained and ate like them I would look like them. This diet would somehow make my legs grow another 6 inches and my boobs grow a cup size (or two).

There are beautiful people and bodies everywhere we look. On social media, on TV, in our neighborhoods, in our homes, and in our mirrors.

It’s hard not to compare our bodies with others we see around us. Whether it’s cultural, societal, or part of human nature I don’t know; but it seems to happen to almost all of us. We think that if we ate, trained, and lived like he, she, or they we can look like them. I have had people come to see me for nutrition and health coaching with a photo of some famous model, athlete, or influencer saying they “want to look exactly like” this person.

I still fall victim to this thinking. My sister-in-law is an ex-gymnast. She has more muscle mass, a totally different foundation than I do, and visible abs. Yet I still think that if she can eat the cookies and cookie dough then I can too and that it will affect our bodies in the same way.

It doesn’t.

I have to remind myself that everybody is a different body. Genetics, metabolism, foundations, and structure means that we get to have bodies that are unique and all our own, it also means that what works for someone else won’t work for us in the same way.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t basics in exercise, nutrition, and intentional recovery practices that won’t help us. There are, these foundations help us get to the best versions of ourselves. I will talk about those later in this “Influencer Myth” series.

In this post, I want to focus mainly on metabolism and TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

What is Metabolism?

When we think of metabolism we tend to think of this autonomous thing that either works for us or actively works against us.

When people talk about metabolism a lot of the time it’s talked about in terms of how much someone can eat and still maintain their ideal body weight/ body composition. When it comes to this what people are really talking about is their TDEE (Total Body Energy Expenditure) the amount of energy or calories that are used throughout the day. Or they are talking about their RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) the amount of energy that is needed in order to keep basic functions going while at rest (like sleeping) this includes breathing, hormone production, circulating blood, etc.

TDEE comes down to a few different factors, including RMR, that I will get into depth later. Along with ways to increase your overall TDEE.

I want to give you a quick description of what metabolism actually is. Having a deeper understanding of what metabolism is, has given me a better relationship with myself and my body.

Buckle in. It’s going to get a little nerdy and a little technical.

Metabolism is broadly defined as the sum of all chemical processes in a living organism that either produce or consume energy.

There are two types of metabolism: catabolic and anabolic metabolism.

Catabolic metabolism is the process of ‘breaking down’. Taking larger things and breaking them down into smaller things. Such as breaking digested food into energy-producing units.

Anabolic metabolism is the process of ‘building up’. Taking smaller units and building them into larger more complex structures. Such as the building of new muscle tissue by combining building blocks like amino acids, nutrients, and cells.

Both of these metabolic pathways require energy (calories).

---

What Makes Up My TDEE

We all have different lifestyles and lives. This changes our TDEE.

If two people follow the same exercise plan but one person lives in a country where it is easy to walk everywhere, has a toddler to chase and clean up after, and lives in a building with no elevator; while, another person works a job where they have to sit most of the day, lives in a place where they have to drive everywhere, and lives on a first floor then there will be dramatically different results even though the two people burned the same amount of energy in their workouts.

As we talked about earlier in this post TDEE is our Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

When it comes to energy expenditure and calories burned this is more important than just simply looking at your resting metabolism.

The TDEE is made up of a few different pieces. Those include RMR (resting metabolic rate), NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), TEF (Thermic Effect of Food), and Exercise. The good news is that with so many elements that make up the TDEE, there are ways to increase your energy expenditure.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

This is the amount of energy and calories you burn just to stay alive completely at rest. So if you laid in bed all day and didn’t move or think too hard this is the amount of energy your body uses to do things like breathing, circulating blood, synthesizing hormones, etc. Your RMR makes up about 70% of your TDEE.

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)

NEAT is all the movement we do that isn’t deliberate exercise. This can be walking to work, cleaning, running after kids, doing the dishes, dancing, twitching, etc. This aspect makes up about 15% of our TDEE. Even though it’s the easiest part of TDEE to explain, it makes one of the biggest differences when it comes to energy burned and how quickly we reach our goals.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

The Thermo Effect of Food is how much energy our body uses to break down our food. The body uses a certain amount of energy to absorb and break down each macronutrient (protein, carbohydrate, and fat). Proteins use about 20-30% of the energy they contain to break down. While carbohydrates and fats use significantly less. Carbohydrates use about 5-10%, fats use about 0-3% of the energy they contain to be broken down and digested. The more complicated the structure the more energy it takes to break down the structure to its base components.

What it All Means

We all use energy differently. Metabolism and how TDEE plays a massive role in our health, fitness, and body composition. This is why we can feel some diets and workout plans “just don’t work for us.”

Your metabolism isn’t broken, there isn’t anything wrong with you. People have different lives and foundations that cause different and individual rates that energy is used.

That’s why finding a personalized nutrition and exercise program that works best for you and giving your body the time it needs to make changes is how you will see long-lasting results.

It is also important to say that just because a plan works slower for you than it does for someone else doesn’t mean it’s not working. Comparing ourselves to other people is almost never helpful, even if it feels motivating that motivation eventually fades, turns negative, and inward.

In the next few posts, I will give you actional steps and talk about ways to boost each area of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

The next post will cover ways to increase your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).

If you are interested in one-on-one coaching click this link or check out the ‘Coaching and Packages’ page.