Tag Archives: Metabolism

metabolism boosting

Metabolism Boosting Secrets For Staying Lean

Metabolism boosting made simple.

“How do I increase my metabolism?” is a question that comes from a lot from people looking to lose weight.

They want to know all about metabolism boosters, metabolism secrets and diets that can increase metabolism.

Can you really boost your metabolism? Does your metabolism really decrease as you age?

Is this lower metabolism something you’ll just have to learn to live with, whether it’s age related or not?

The bad news is that you metabolism does decrease as you age. The good news is that it’s something you can counteract.

You see, starting around age 25 to 30, most people lose 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle every decade. And lean muscle is more metabolically active.

Metabolism boosting

So all you need to do to boost your metabolism or keep it from slowing down is to focus on a workout program that preserves the lean muscle you have or adds a few pounds of lean muscle to give your metabolism a boost.

Let’s take a look at the four components of your metabolism.

* Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

Your resting metabolic rate makes up most of your daily calorie expenditure and includes everything your body needs to do to survive, such as thinking, repairing tissue and anything else it needs to do.

* Thermogenesis – simply the calorie burning from the act of eating.

Your body burns calories when you chew, swallow and digest the food you eat.

* Genetic Thermogenesis – the calories you burn based on your genetic makeup.

* Physical Activity – these are the calories you burn from physical activity via exercise such as biking, playing tennis, weight training and cardio.

If you want to boost your metabolism you need to focus on these different aspects of metabolism.

Your resting metabolic rate can be increased by adding lean muscle.

Will 5 to 10 pounds of added muscle dramatically increase your resting metabolic rate?

No, but it will increase it and every little bit helps.

In addition, if you add 5 to 10 pounds of muscle, as opposed to losing that much muscle mass each decade, the difference will be quite dramatic over time.

There’s another huge positive metabolism boosting advantage to weight training or high intensity interval training and that’s the post-workout metabolism increase.

After an intense resistance training session (or high intensity interval training session), your metabolism will stay elevated for up to 39 hours AFTER the workout!

There is a lot of debate on just how big the metabolic boost is when it comes to post-exercise calorie burning but most studies agree that it happens and it’s important.

With an intense resistance training session you also burn calories during the workout.

Another way to boost your metabolism is by increasing your protein intake.

Your body requires more energy (i.e. calories) to process protein than it does carbohydrates.

Your lifestyle will determine how much exercise you need for the metabolism boost you need to start burning fat.

If you sit at a computer all day you’re going to need more exercise than someone who does construction work all day.

That’s just the way it is.

Here’s a sample metabolism boosting exercise program.

Monday – High Intensity Interval Training

Tuesday – Weight Training Session

Wednesday – Active recovery cardio training

Thursday – Weight Training Session

Friday – High Intensity Interval Training

Saturday – Weight Training Session

Sunday – Rest

Active recovery cardio is low intensity longer duration cardio that you see most people do in the gym.

You can also do something simple like taking a long walk outside. This type of session should last 45 – 60 minutes.

Put all these pieces together into a cohesive plan and you’ll attack a slowing metabolism from all different angles.

You’ll not only prevent your metabolism from decreasing as you get older but you’ll increase it, leading to greater fat loss, more muscle and a healthier, sexier, more energetic you.


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Understanding Your Metabolism

Our metabolic rate determines the rate at which we ‘burn up’ our food, and by increasing this rate, we can lose weight more quickly, easily, and safely.Understanding Your Metabolism

When we diet, by decreasing our calorie intake too drastically, we cause our metabolism to slow down, making it progressively more difficult for us to lose weight. Most diets fail, yet we continue to try one after another, always hoping that each new regime will provide the ‘magic’ solution. If this sounds like your problem, there may be a simple answer. Let’s look at why most diets fail, and how strength training, combined with a healthy food intake can speed up your metabolism, making it easy for you to lose weight.

Understanding your Metabolism

By drastically cutting our food intake, our body’s natural instinct is to switch to a ‘starvation response.’ The fewer calories we consume, the more our bodies become efficient at using these calories – leading to slower weight loss. This was once a useful mechanism for our ancestors when food supplies were less predictable, but this ’vicious circle’ can make life almost impossible for the modern dieter.

When the body is persistently kept short of calories, it breaks down muscle tissue to use as fuel. Our body, using water from our tissue cells, quickly washes this away causing an instant reduction in weight through water loss. However, this weight loss will be short lived, and will quickly be regained when we take in water and the muscle we have lost will slow down our metabolism in the long term.

The reason for this is that each pound of muscle requires a certain number of calories each day just to maintain it. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you’re doing nothing, even sleeping! If you lose muscle, then your daily calorie requirement becomes less. For example, imagine a dieter loses 10 pounds of muscle (along with maybe 20 lbs. of fat) on a strict diet. Now suppose that each pound of muscle had been burning 50 calories a day. Together, those 10 pounds of muscle had been burning 500 calories a day. With this muscle tissue gone, the dieter must now consume 500 less calories a day in order to maintain that weight-loss!

However, of course people do not stick to their diets for ever and when they return to their old eating habits, the weight that they have lost, invariably comes piling back on. Unfortunately, whilst they lost both muscle and fat during the diet, all the weight they regained was fat. So, even though they may weigh the same as they did when they started, they now have a lot more fat and a lot less muscle than they did before the diet. Therefore, their metabolism is slower and their calorie requirements are less. Even if they return to their pre-diet eating habits, they still require 500 fewer calories a day due to the muscle loss. That’s one reason dieters are prone to regaining all of the lost weight, and conversely sometimes even gain weight afterwards.

A good solution is an active lifestyle that includes aerobic exercise, a good weight-training program, and a healthy diet containing fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain cereals and plenty of lean protein. It is a good idea to eat ‘little and often’ – keeping your metabolism in high gear by eating 4 to 6 small meals a day, rather than one or two larger ones. No food is forbidden, but sweets and high fat junk food are eaten less often, and in smaller quantities. A healthy diet is a realistic and permanent way of eating – not a diet that you suffer through for a week or two and then give up!

The goal is to consume as many calories as you can, while still losing body fat and maintaining or adding lean muscle at the same time. If your calories are already below normal, don’t restrict them further. Instead, maintain your current amount and instead try to become stronger and more active, so you can gradually increase your calories to a normal healthy level. If your calorie intake is already in a healthy range, decrease it only slightly, if necessary. A small reduction of about 250 calories a day, or 10-15 percent less than usual, is more likely to protect your lean muscle, and less likely to trigger a go-slow in your metabolism.

If you follow this type of routine, it’s possible to gain about one pound of muscle per week and lose about one pound of fat per week. The end result is that the number on the scale might not move much at all, it may even go up. Your clothes will feel looser, and you’ll feel great. Yet the numbers on the scale won’t move!! It’s at this point that a lot of people give up the weight training because they don’t understand what’s happening.

The truth is that when you’re strength training it’s possible to get smaller and heavier at the same time, as muscle is a much denser tissue than fat. The fat takes up more space on your body. At this point, it’s best to ignore the bathroom scales and rely on the way you look and the way your clothes fit.

The conventional way of dieting can lead to a weak, tired body, exhausted by the constant cycle of starvation and weight gain, unable to enjoy food. However, by following these easy steps above, you can easily reach your goal – the slim, strong, healthy body of a naturally lean person who can enjoy their food without guilt, for life!

PS: Click here to hear my story on how I recently lost 40 lbs.