Anabolic
‘Anabolic’ means ‘building up’: metabolic processes that use small building blocks to form larger molecules or tissues, and which consume energy in the process. The opposite term is ‘catabolic’.
Auch bekannt als: anabole Stoffwechsellage, Anabolismus, aufbauender Stoffwechsel
Anabolic means ‘anabolic’. This refers to all metabolic processes that use energy to assemble larger molecules or entire tissues from smaller building blocks: amino acids become muscle protein, glucose becomes glycogen, and fatty acids become stored fat. The word describes the direction of a process, not its benefit.
The counterpart is catabolic, i.e. catabolic. Both processes always occur simultaneously; the body is constantly building and breaking down. What matters is which direction predominates over a period of time. This is precisely what the term ‘anabolic metabolic state’ refers to. This term should not be confused with anabolic steroids: these are named after this mode of action, but ‘anabolic’ refers to the process itself and not to the group of substances.
In this knowledge base, the term is mainly encountered in the context of muscle building, where the Muscle protein synthesis is the anabolic component of the balance, in which Hypertrophy as a result over a period of weeks, and in the case of hormones such as Insulin, which transport nutrients into the cells. Whether, on balance, muscle is built up depends on the Calorie balance and on Protein requirements, not on a single process.
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