Increase Metabolism For Long Term Weight Loss

Your metabolism is the process whereby your body converts the food you eat into energy and burns it to generate heat or store it as fat. The rate at which your body generates heat is your metabolic rate.

From a physiological perspective, your metabolism is the main determinant of weight loss or weight gain.

For most of human evolution we've been active, whether it be hunting for food, growing food crops, gathering food stuffs. It's only very recently in human history that that's all changed.

Our Lifestyles Are Making Us Fat...

The most exercise that many of us get is the walk to the car, the school gates, the office, the trawl around the supermarket or mall.

Our jobs are largely sedentary - sitting at a desk, a computer, behind a counter.

Our leisure pursuits tend to mirror this. Guess what surveys tell us most people's number one leisure activity is? Yep, watching TV.

This trend towards inactivity in all aspects of our lives, fuelled by an increasing dependence on labour saving devices like the car and coupled with high carb, high fat, high calorie diets has resulted in an obesity epidemic of startling proportions.

60% of Americans and Europeans are overweight, nearly 1 in 3 are clinically obese.

Our lifestyles have evolved at a startling rate. The problem is our bodies and their survival mechanisms haven't caught up.

Our bodies have evolved to conserve energy. They're designed to store fat as protection against starvation, which has been all too frequent during most of human evolution.

We've evolved an efficient fat storing metabolism as a response to an environment in which food has been scarce.

It takes thousands of years for evolution to catch up with changes in our lifestyles and we're not going to become prolific fat burners overnight!

So, how to increase metabolism to help us to lose weight and keep it off in these times of plenty?

Quite a challenge with a fast food outlet on every corner and hundreds of calories more than we need on every plate!

Strategies to Increase Metabolism...

One pound of lean tissue burns around 14 calories a day at rest. So a person with 150 lbs of lean tissue will burn around 2,100 calories a day at rest.

This is known as your Resting Metabolic Rate.

The more lean tissue you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Simple.

The second key factor that determines your metabolism is the amount of activity you do each day. Someone who sits at a desk all day and watches TV and sleeps all night won't burn a lot of activity calories each day.

Someone with a physically active job, someone who exercises or plays a lot of sport will burn a lot of activity calories.

For example, when I was in my late 20s I was a keen weight trainer. I still am but I'm not as obsessive now!

I'm 5'7", weighed 175 lbs and was heavy weight training 4-5 times a week and running 5 miles a day 3-4 times a week. I had a physically active job and played the drums in a rock group.

I had my respiratory quotient measured, a way of determining your metabolic rate. I required approximately 5,500-6,000 calories a day to fuel my exercise, daily activity and maintain my body weight.

The combination of muscle and exercise is a potent one when your goal is to increase metabolism.

So, the most effective ways to increase metabolism are to:

You can also influence your metabolism positively and negatively through your diet and certain supplements may also help.

Eating too little and a cycle of yo-yo dieting can depress your metabolism. A balanced diet rich in nutrients and containing adequate protein can boost your metabolism.

Check out the section on this site about foods that promote weight loss to find out more about how the foods you eat can increase metabolism.

Also take a look at our pages on healthy weight loss supplements for info on natural products that you can add to your diet. They may help to enhance your weight loss and exercise regime and increase metabolism.

Increase Metabolism Through Exercise...

Regular, vigorous exercise done consistently week after week.

We stress the importance of regular exercise because studies have shown that exercise is not as effective as diet for weight loss.

Now, that's not because exercise isn't effective for weight loss, it's because people don't exercise hard enough, frequently enough, they don't do the right types of exercise.

In short, exercise works if you do!

Now, I hear you cry, "I'm a busy person with a busy life, how am I going to find the time to exercise!"

Gosh, wish we had a buck, a pound, a euro for every time we heard that!

Here's a little task we get our clients to do. We ask them to keep a diary of what they do each day for a whole week.

In addition to what they ate we ask them to record things like:

At the end of the week we go through their diary with them. It makes interesting reading!

Most people, busy people in particular like doing nothing. The busier and more stressed out they are the more they like doing nothing.

It's a sharp contrast to their busy-ness, an antidote, a stress reliever.

Analysing people's schedules as recorded in their diaries identifies two things in particular:

Now let's qualify that.

We like nothing better than sitting around as a family doing nothing much at all, listening to the kids chatter away, just enjoying each others company.

That qualifies as doing something, something valuable.

What we're really talking about is TV time, aimless internet surfing time, rushing around accomplishing very little at all time.

Some of our clients who are very busy people spend around two hours a night and the whole weekend on these time wasting activities.

Let's be frank, if you can find a couple of hours to watch a soap or two and a film you've got time to exercise!

Will watching TV help you to lose weight, cause you to lose weight? Of course not!

Are you serious about losing weight? Yes? Well turn the odd session of TV time into exercise time.

If you're not willing to do that then sorry, you're effectively choosing to be fat and no one can help you.

Here's what I do.

I work 9-11 hours a day in my highly stressed day job. I commute for over an hour each day. I cook dinner and we sit down and eat it as a family. We run a business that takes a couple of hours a night and each weekend.

One day a week I get up early and go to the gym on the way to work. I work out for an hour, shower and change and grab some breakfast.

One day a week I go to the gym on the way home from work, which may necessitate leaving a little early to avoid the queue on the Stairmasters!

On a Saturday or Sunday I go to the gym, often we all go and the kids swim while we train.

That's all accomplished in a couple of hours of TV time three times a week!

I make time, make it a habit and make it happen. So can you if you want to.

So, sermon over. The objectives of your exercise routine to increase metabolism are to:

Don't worry, you don't need to run a marathon or train as if you're competing in a triathlon to increase metabolism. You won't need to spend hours a day in the gym and end up looking like Arnold Shwarzenegger.

We're talking about doing some moderate aerobic activity and some strength training ...in the gym, at the office, at home, whatever suits you the best.

So, follow the two links above and explore the two essential components to any exercise program if you want to increase metabolism and get in shape!

Probably the easiest fat burning exercise to increase metabolism and build into a busy schedule is walking, so why not make a daily brisk walk a habit?

Or go one step further and start running for weight loss?

To burn a ton of calories, burn fat and build muscle why not try rowing for weight loss?

Getting on a bike and cycling is a highly effective fat burner and muscle builder, so why not check out our bicycling plan for weight loss?

As your body fat comes down you're going to want a six-pack and a tight waist to show off, so take a look at our choice for the best abdominal exercise.

If your lower abs are a problem, perhaps protruding after a baby or just plain difficult to flatten, then try the best lower abdominal exercise.

If you need some additional support and motivation to increase metabolism you may benefit from an online personal trainer. A great way to get a personalised exercise program that will fit around you and your busy schedule.

For more information on getting in shape why not try The Fitness Motivator? This site provides information and inspiration to help those with busy lives achieve their fitness goals. It includes guidance and tips on nutrition, exercise, walking, running, and much, much more.

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