A: Many factors influence metabolism making it unique to the individual. Some common factors that affect metabolism are age, weight, body composition, gender and hormone levels. Let’s take for example two individuals who are the same weight and height and determine what would happen if they followed the same weight management plan. Typically, they would experience very different outcomes. This is mainly due to body composition. The more lean muscle mass the higher the resting metabolic rate is. Back to the example, if one individual had 23 percent body fat while the other had 33 percent body fat the individual with the lower percent of body fat could actually consume more calories in comparison to the other person.

E-mail nutrition questions to the Semper Fit dietitian at bowmant@usmc-mccs.org.