Hello student,

Metabolism is defined as the total amount of the biochemical reactions involved in maintaining the living conditions of the cells in an organism. All living organisms require energy for different essential processes and for producing new organic substances.

Metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical reactions taking place in the cells of the living organisms. This involves both breaking and making of biomolecules. Catabolism and anabolism are two types of metabolism. Catabolism (breaking of bonds) involves the breaking of biomolecules while anabolism (making of bonds) is the building of new compounds required by the cells.

The food which we eat happens to be useless until and unless it undergoes metabolic changes. During metabolism, biomolecules present in the food get utilized to extract the energy from the cell. In addition, conversion and formation of the biomolecules take place. In other words, the transformation of one compound results in the formation of another molecule. For example, the proteins we obtained from the food are metabolized into amino acids, which are later utilized to synthesize another protein required by the cell.

Hope this helps.