The term metabolism gets thrown around a lot. But, what exactly is it? Rather than you spending hours trying to figure it out on your own, I'm going to make it simple here. Our metabolisms are very complex, but there are a few main ways to break it down to better understand what the term really means. 

Metabolism is simply a sum of all the chemical processes that go on inside of us to sustain life. 

We can look at our metabolism (very simply) as our TDEE, or our total daily energy expenditure. When you hear the term "fast" and "slow" metabolism, that is really just a low or high TDEE. Our metabolisms are not static. They change and adapt based on current energy balance (calories in vs out), hormones, micronutrient availability, and more. Let's go over the 4 components of our TDEE (what makes up how many calories we burn in a day).

1. BMR: This stands for basal metabolic rate and accounts for the calories burned just to keep you alive (heart pumping, breathing, etc). This...

Let's talk about cortisol! I'm sure you have heard the term thrown around everywhere. But, do you really know what it is or what it does? Is it actually as bad as people say it is? Let's take a closer look.

What is it?

Cortisol is a hormone released by the adrenal glands that is best known for being one of the body's main stress (or fight-or-flight) hormones. It also has many other functions in the body though such as controlling our sleep/wake cycles, regulating blood sugar, and more. Cortisol receptors throughout the body will utilize cortisol in different ways. So, yes..cortisol is necessary and actually a GOOD thing for multiple reasons. I'll get into why it turns "bad" later in this article. 

We can think of cortisol and insulin as counterparts. Insulin tells our body that we have excess fuel available and that it needs to burn & store it. Cortisol on the other hand tells our body that we need more fuel and that 'things might be about to go bad'. 

How does it...