Take
Control of Your Metabolism: Quick Tips for Increased
Muscle Tone, Faster Fat Burning, and Energy Levels
Like a 9 Year Old!
by
Jesse Cannone CFT, CPRS, CSPN
So many people are talking about how slow their
metabolism is and why they need to start taking the
latest diet supplement scam yet they don’t even
understand how the human metabolism works. So before
I even go into how to speed yours up, I want to
first go over some of the basics.
What
is metabolism?
There
are many scientific ways for me to put to you and I
could make it seem really confusing like most of the
so-called experts do, but I won’t. I’m going to
give you my extremely simple and easy to understand
definition...
metabolism
is the rate at which your body burns calories to
sustain life
I
should also note that your body, yes yours, burns
calories 24 hours a day, everyday – regardless of
whether or not you workout or not. Remember that,
your body needs energy all the time, even while
you’re a sleep and that is why skipping meals is
the absolute worst thing you can do if your goal is
to lose weight (body fat).
Before
we go any further let’s talk about what affects
metabolism...
What
affects metabolism?
What
do you think has the biggest impact on your
metabolism? Activity levels? Your Thyroid? Age?
WRONG!
WRONG! and WRONG! Activity levels, Thyroid function,
and age do affect metabolism but not nearly as much
as...
any
idea? It’s
muscle tissue! The more muscle you have the more
calories you burn regardless of how active you are,
how old you are, etc. It’s live tissue and it’s
there working for you and burning calories 24 hours
a day – each and every day!
Here’s
a list of some of the factors affecting metabolism
in order of biggest impact to least:
Why
does it slow down?
How
many times have you heard someone say, “as soon as
you hit 30 your metabolism slows down”? Maybe
you’ve said it. I know I hear it all the time and
I got tired of hearing it so I did a little research
and found that the metabolism does NOT slow down
significantly due to aging but DOES due to a lack of
muscle. And, you don’t lose muscle quickly due to
aging either but due to a decrease or lack of
physical stress.
So,
the major cause of a slowing metabolism is three
fold...
1.
you lose muscle due to the lack of physical stress
2.
your body cannibalizes muscle when it needs energy
but you won’t supply any because you are
“dieting” and skipping meals
3.
your activity levels tend to decrease as you get
older
So
now we know the problem... what’s the solution?
Address those 3 issues! I’ve found with years of
experience in helping hundreds of people, that
increasing your metabolism and getting rid of that
excess body fat can often times be quite easy! Yet
you’ll hear of all these experts telling you how
hard it is and why you need to buy their new diet
program, supplement, or fitness contraption.
It’s
not that hard, it doesn’t have to be confusing,
and you don’t need any of that crap! All you need
is an understanding of how your body works and the
willingness to make some small changes.
Here’s
my basic formula for jump starting your metabolism:
Step
1 - Stop the storage of new fat
It
doesn't make any sense to start an exercise program
if you just end up adding new fat later that day.
This is a problem that is very common among people
who start an exercise in an attempt to lose weight.
See
the problem is this...
We
don’t get fat due to a lack of exercise – we get
fat because we supply the body with more calories
than it needs at a given time. So the solution has
nothing to do with exercise – it’s all about
your eating! And I’m not saying you have to eat
low-fat, super clean and healthy diet consisting of
salad and tofu only. You can still eat the foods you
like IF you can give the body just the amount it
needs.
The
key is to give the body the energy it needs, but
just that amount not a bunch extra because extra is
extra is extra, it doesn’t matter what it’s
from. Salad can be stored as fat, celery can be
stored as fat – if it results in extra it can be
stored as fat. I should also note that not all extra
energy is stored in the fat cells and I will touch
on that later.
So
forget about trying to burn off any fat unless you
can first stop storing new fat! Again, you do that
by matching your eating to your activity level.
This means small, balanced meals or snacks every 2-3
hours and the amount of calories in each feeding
should depend on how active you are at that time of
day.
Step
2 – Attack the existing fat
This
requires a combination approach consisting of stable
blood sugar/energy levels, and progressive
cardiovascular/aerobic exercise and strength
training.
We
already talked about how important stable blood
sugar and energy levels are and how to match you
eating to your activity level so now I’d like to
cover the exercise part of the equation.
In
order for the exercise to even be worth your time
you must be sure it’s progressive. Just because
you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times
a week, that doesn’t mean your body has to burn
off that unwanted body fat! You have to force the
body makes changes and improvements and the ONLY way
to do that is to consistently provide a stimulus or
stress that is greater than what the body is used
to.
Here
are some general guidelines on how you can make your
exercise progressive and productive:
Strength
training
