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.
Are you interested in more fitness info? Check out my free report:
“10 FITNESS HACKS YOU NEED TO KNOW”
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