The worst thing you can do to lose weight is to starve yourself. Starving yourself teaches your fat cells to conserve energy (i.e. fat) more efficiently.
Then your body's fat-storing processes become very efficient at the expense of your body's calorie-burning efficiency.
Lowering your caloric intake too much will slow down your metabolism and
you will be defeating your whole purpose of dieting.
Losing fat just becomes more and more difficult. And even if you are
exercising regularly this can happen. Curbing your cravings is the first best thing to do to help you lose weight. And the best way to do that is to use the techniques for releasing. One of these is Emotional Freedom Technique. You’ll drop that feeling to munch on a goodie quick smart.
Showing posts with label metabolism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metabolism. Show all posts
Friday, October 26, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Metabolic jump starter
Here's a quick weight loss tip guaranteed to jump start your metabolism.
One of the easiest ways to increase your metabolism is
to perform 10-15 minutes workouts twice a day.
All you need to do is challenge your body a little by doing something to get yourself breathing hard. You don't necessarily have to sweat either.
Try running up and down your stairs a few times. Then do as many push-ups as you
can. Follow that with crunches for the abs and maybe some calisthenics (jumping jacks or skipping) then finish up with a few stretches.
Repeat in the evening.
While it's not a full workout, it will up your metabolism for a few hours, making you less likely to store fat and more likely to burn some. And it's better than doing nothing at all!
One of the easiest ways to increase your metabolism is
to perform 10-15 minutes workouts twice a day.
All you need to do is challenge your body a little by doing something to get yourself breathing hard. You don't necessarily have to sweat either.
Try running up and down your stairs a few times. Then do as many push-ups as you
can. Follow that with crunches for the abs and maybe some calisthenics (jumping jacks or skipping) then finish up with a few stretches.
Repeat in the evening.
While it's not a full workout, it will up your metabolism for a few hours, making you less likely to store fat and more likely to burn some. And it's better than doing nothing at all!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Metabolism and interval training
Depending on slow cardio exercise for significant fat loss is at the very least, inefficient.
With slow cardio exercise (like walking normally) it takes a long time for you to burn a lot of calories. Using only light cardio training for weight loss could even result in a reduced resting metabolism. Strength training doesn't suffer a reduced metabolic rate.
So what is the solution to burning fat in a faster, more efficient method?
The answer is to burn fewer calories in less exercise time, but with a more intense form of exercise.
Your body burns more calories after intense exercise (when you use intervals) than it does after you do slow cardio and your metabolism will stay high. This is sometimes called the afterburn effect.
How do you do intervals?
Well, you could sprint for 30 seconds and rest for 90 seconds and repeat that for 6 sets - using the bike, treadmill or running outside or even swimming, boxing, or skipping.Within that short time frame the intervals will cause your muscles to go crazy with activity. This crazy metabolism boost causes lots of calorie burning after exercise to get your body back to normal.
The result is you end up burning more fat and more calories in the post-exercise period as your body tries to get things under control.
Just remember though, you can wipe out an entire workout's work in less than a minute simply by eating rubbish food.
With slow cardio exercise (like walking normally) it takes a long time for you to burn a lot of calories. Using only light cardio training for weight loss could even result in a reduced resting metabolism. Strength training doesn't suffer a reduced metabolic rate.
So what is the solution to burning fat in a faster, more efficient method?
The answer is to burn fewer calories in less exercise time, but with a more intense form of exercise.
Your body burns more calories after intense exercise (when you use intervals) than it does after you do slow cardio and your metabolism will stay high. This is sometimes called the afterburn effect.
How do you do intervals?
Well, you could sprint for 30 seconds and rest for 90 seconds and repeat that for 6 sets - using the bike, treadmill or running outside or even swimming, boxing, or skipping.Within that short time frame the intervals will cause your muscles to go crazy with activity. This crazy metabolism boost causes lots of calorie burning after exercise to get your body back to normal.
The result is you end up burning more fat and more calories in the post-exercise period as your body tries to get things under control.
Just remember though, you can wipe out an entire workout's work in less than a minute simply by eating rubbish food.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Steady burn
Have you ever been around a campfire? You've got to keep it going so it's ready to cook over at certain times don't you.
So what do you have to do to keep it going so it's a steady fire?
Feed it, right?
Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day?
No you can't, because you'll have a raging blaze after stoking it up and then it dies down more and more until you stoke it up again.
Your metabolism is like this. It works best if it's fairly steady.
Once your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued "stoking" of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. If you starve it of fuel (crash diet), it dies down. So once you get your metabolic fire burning, you've got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down. This means frequent small meals rather than a couple of big feeds a day.
And what you feed it too is important. You can't throw some crumpled newspaper on the fire, it's too quickly burning. For your body this is akin to eating the high GI foods.
You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out. For your body this means quality nutritious food.
To get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning cannot be achieved by sporadic, infrequent training, missing workouts or missing meals.
So what do you have to do to keep it going so it's a steady fire?
Feed it, right?
Can you achieve this by feeding the fire once or twice per day?
No you can't, because you'll have a raging blaze after stoking it up and then it dies down more and more until you stoke it up again.
Your metabolism is like this. It works best if it's fairly steady.
Once your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes continued "stoking" of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. If you starve it of fuel (crash diet), it dies down. So once you get your metabolic fire burning, you've got to keep feeding it fuel or the fire will die down. This means frequent small meals rather than a couple of big feeds a day.
And what you feed it too is important. You can't throw some crumpled newspaper on the fire, it's too quickly burning. For your body this is akin to eating the high GI foods.
You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out. For your body this means quality nutritious food.
To get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning cannot be achieved by sporadic, infrequent training, missing workouts or missing meals.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Consistency is the key
If you keep starting and stopping with your exercise program, or skip meals and workouts often, you won’t even get off the ground to increasing your metabolism.
Nothing will undermine the re-building of your metabolism like inconsistency in applying the proper nutrition and training principles every day.
What are those principles?
1. Meal Frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day. To do this you’ll need to eat about every 3 hours.
2. Adequate Calorie Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women) Have a substantial breakfast, a substantial meal after workouts and reduce the meal sizes as the day progresses.
3. Weight Training: Basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups such as squats, dead-lifts, overhead presses, and all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises like curls, shrugs and, calf raises, etc.
4. Cardio Training: Get the intensity up if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity, particularly interval training, is more metabolism-stimulating.
5. Food Types: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs). Ensure you have protein with every meal.Maximize the low GI and complex carbohydrates and minimize the refined foods.Get plenty of water and stick to low fat (NOT no fat) foods.
Consistency means making it a habit. Before long weight control will be much easier.
Nothing will undermine the re-building of your metabolism like inconsistency in applying the proper nutrition and training principles every day.
What are those principles?
1. Meal Frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day. To do this you’ll need to eat about every 3 hours.
2. Adequate Calorie Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss: 2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for women) Have a substantial breakfast, a substantial meal after workouts and reduce the meal sizes as the day progresses.
3. Weight Training: Basic exercises that include the largest muscle groups such as squats, dead-lifts, overhead presses, and all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises will have a much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises like curls, shrugs and, calf raises, etc.
4. Cardio Training: Get the intensity up if you really want to get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but higher intensity, particularly interval training, is more metabolism-stimulating.
5. Food Types: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other fibrous carbs). Ensure you have protein with every meal.Maximize the low GI and complex carbohydrates and minimize the refined foods.Get plenty of water and stick to low fat (NOT no fat) foods.
Consistency means making it a habit. Before long weight control will be much easier.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Weights build muscle and metabolism
Weight training is really important in repairing a suppressed metabolism. Lifting weights is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have. Progressively overloading your muscles is the stimulus to begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, and muscle tissue is the heart of your metabolic furnace.
Men generally have no problem with weight training, but many women say they don't want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. The fact is, if you don’t lift weights you can expect a very, very long metabolism building journey.
Once you start exercising, especially if you do both high intensity cardio and weights, you’ll get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate but the results are not going to be overnight.
So in addition to exercising your muscle you must also exercise your patience.
Men generally have no problem with weight training, but many women say they don't want to lift weights as part of their fat loss programs. The fact is, if you don’t lift weights you can expect a very, very long metabolism building journey.
Once you start exercising, especially if you do both high intensity cardio and weights, you’ll get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate but the results are not going to be overnight.
So in addition to exercising your muscle you must also exercise your patience.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Crash diets crash the metabolism
Most diet programs claiming to help you quickly drop excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets. Furthermore they rarely advise enough exercise and almost never any weight training.
The result of following starvation diets or dropping weight too rapidly in is metabolic damage; in other words your metabolism slows right down. This makes it very difficult, after the initial impact of the crash diet, to achieve any further fat loss at all.
The bottom line is: you can’t starve the fat off with crash diets.
The good news is, any damage to the metabolism can be repaired. You just need the right combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism stimulating nutrition.
Applied consistently over time anyone can increase their metabolism.
It may take a bit longer if you've lost a lot of lean body mass from severe starvation dieting in the past, but it is not hopeless.
The result of following starvation diets or dropping weight too rapidly in is metabolic damage; in other words your metabolism slows right down. This makes it very difficult, after the initial impact of the crash diet, to achieve any further fat loss at all.
The bottom line is: you can’t starve the fat off with crash diets.
The good news is, any damage to the metabolism can be repaired. You just need the right combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism stimulating nutrition.
Applied consistently over time anyone can increase their metabolism.
It may take a bit longer if you've lost a lot of lean body mass from severe starvation dieting in the past, but it is not hopeless.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Truth about food documentary
In a documentary shown on BBC2 in the UK they did a study on metabolism to see if some overweight people really do have a slow metabolism. The results were startling!
The documentary called “The truth about food” found 2 women who were best friends but had very different body types. One of the chosen women Becky, was very slim and even a little underweight. The other lady named Jo was shorter in height and 22 pounds overweight.
They had known each other for years and they both believed that Becky, who seemed to eat much more than Jo, was slim because she had a faster metabolism. Jo, who had tried to lose weight on numerous occasions in the past, believed she was overweight because she had a slow metabolism.
Both fasted for 24 hours before having their metabolic rate accurately measured in the lab using a ventilation hood. They also drank a bottle of special water which has a non-radioactive isotope marker added to it. This water is well known in science and can accurately measure the total amount of calories someone consumes as well as the total number of calories burned off over the following week. The scientists didn’t reveal the truth about the water because they didn’t want the women to be influenced and adjust their normal food intake in any way. This made it much more accurate in relation to their normal everyday food consumption.
While both had very similar activity levels, the study showed Jo actually had a higher metabolic rate than the slimmer Becky!
Jo’s higher metabolism was basically due to the extra weight which she was carrying. This is logical because moving more weight requires more effort. However, it shows that Jo’s weight problem wasn’t caused by a slow metabolism.
The study also revealed that Jo was in fact consuming about 50 percent more calories than Becky!
Becky was underweight simply because she was consuming fewer calories than she needed.
The documentary concluded that a slow metabolism is NOT to blame for excess weight gain. It was also suggested that overweight people tend to have a higher metabolism than those who are slim and underweight.
I maintain that while metabolism is NOT to blame for excess weight gain the faster your metabolism, fat or thin, the better off you are.
They also implied that people will for the most part gain weight because in some way they have eaten more energy than their body requires.
It seems the fact remains; if we consume more calories than our body requires then we will put weight on. The trick is to find new ways to eat so you consume fewer total calories than your body requires.
To learn more about this documentary then visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/
The documentary called “The truth about food” found 2 women who were best friends but had very different body types. One of the chosen women Becky, was very slim and even a little underweight. The other lady named Jo was shorter in height and 22 pounds overweight.
They had known each other for years and they both believed that Becky, who seemed to eat much more than Jo, was slim because she had a faster metabolism. Jo, who had tried to lose weight on numerous occasions in the past, believed she was overweight because she had a slow metabolism.
Both fasted for 24 hours before having their metabolic rate accurately measured in the lab using a ventilation hood. They also drank a bottle of special water which has a non-radioactive isotope marker added to it. This water is well known in science and can accurately measure the total amount of calories someone consumes as well as the total number of calories burned off over the following week. The scientists didn’t reveal the truth about the water because they didn’t want the women to be influenced and adjust their normal food intake in any way. This made it much more accurate in relation to their normal everyday food consumption.
While both had very similar activity levels, the study showed Jo actually had a higher metabolic rate than the slimmer Becky!
Jo’s higher metabolism was basically due to the extra weight which she was carrying. This is logical because moving more weight requires more effort. However, it shows that Jo’s weight problem wasn’t caused by a slow metabolism.
The study also revealed that Jo was in fact consuming about 50 percent more calories than Becky!
Becky was underweight simply because she was consuming fewer calories than she needed.
The documentary concluded that a slow metabolism is NOT to blame for excess weight gain. It was also suggested that overweight people tend to have a higher metabolism than those who are slim and underweight.
I maintain that while metabolism is NOT to blame for excess weight gain the faster your metabolism, fat or thin, the better off you are.
They also implied that people will for the most part gain weight because in some way they have eaten more energy than their body requires.
It seems the fact remains; if we consume more calories than our body requires then we will put weight on. The trick is to find new ways to eat so you consume fewer total calories than your body requires.
To learn more about this documentary then visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/
Saturday, May 5, 2007
The Low Calorie Follies
Another things to consider when it comes to counting the calories you ingest in order to lost weight is the Input-Output ratio of your energy. By this I mean your calorie intake should be based on your calorie output rather than RDA suggestions. If you want to lose weight you've simply got to burn more energy (through activity) than you consume.
Remember that calorie starvation is counter-productive.
Low calorie diets put the body into starvation mode. The metabolism slows down. To lose weight you need it to speed up (as it does through exercise) and preferably stay elevated. Restricting calories has the opposite effect. What's worse, the body catabolizes its own muscle tissue in its natural response to starvation. This means it cannibalizes muscle tissue while keeping the fat till last, making the low metabolism problem even worse.
Then when you quit the low calorie diet because you lost a bit of weight (probably mostly water and lean tissue rather than fat), or just plain gave up, with a low metabolism the fat gets stored at an even faster rate.
This is why yo-yo dieters just get fatter and fatter. So while it's important to consume slightly less than you expend as energy it's doublely important NOT to starve yourself.
Remember that calorie starvation is counter-productive.
Low calorie diets put the body into starvation mode. The metabolism slows down. To lose weight you need it to speed up (as it does through exercise) and preferably stay elevated. Restricting calories has the opposite effect. What's worse, the body catabolizes its own muscle tissue in its natural response to starvation. This means it cannibalizes muscle tissue while keeping the fat till last, making the low metabolism problem even worse.
Then when you quit the low calorie diet because you lost a bit of weight (probably mostly water and lean tissue rather than fat), or just plain gave up, with a low metabolism the fat gets stored at an even faster rate.
This is why yo-yo dieters just get fatter and fatter. So while it's important to consume slightly less than you expend as energy it's doublely important NOT to starve yourself.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Intervals
When it comes to exercise I know most people are not to keen on cardio exercise. That’s the type that get your heart rate up. Cardio workouts are important because they can, if done correctly, increase your metabolism for 4-24 hours or more after the exercise!
This means you are not as likely to store excess calories as body fat because they are more likely to be burnt up because of your elevated metabolism. Plus, you are also more likely to burn off some excess body fat that you already have.
It’s not good enough to just go for a brisk walk every day however. The best form of cardio exercise workouts are short, hard cardio workouts. The best for increasing your metabolism are intervals.
, body
An example interval workout that can be done with just about any activity, walking, bicycling, swimming, stair climbing, etc., might go like this:
Warm up at easy pace 2-5 minutes then perform 30 seconds of hard work (almost as hard as possible). Then ease off and perform 1 minute of moderate work (recovery time and catch your breath).
Repeat this process 6-10 times. Cool down at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes. While it is intense, you sweat and breathe hard, it goes by pretty quickly and you feel great afterwards. Try it 2-3 times a week.
This means you are not as likely to store excess calories as body fat because they are more likely to be burnt up because of your elevated metabolism. Plus, you are also more likely to burn off some excess body fat that you already have.
It’s not good enough to just go for a brisk walk every day however. The best form of cardio exercise workouts are short, hard cardio workouts. The best for increasing your metabolism are intervals.
, body
An example interval workout that can be done with just about any activity, walking, bicycling, swimming, stair climbing, etc., might go like this:
Warm up at easy pace 2-5 minutes then perform 30 seconds of hard work (almost as hard as possible). Then ease off and perform 1 minute of moderate work (recovery time and catch your breath).
Repeat this process 6-10 times. Cool down at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes. While it is intense, you sweat and breathe hard, it goes by pretty quickly and you feel great afterwards. Try it 2-3 times a week.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Add weights to lose weight
My heart goes out to really obese people when it comes to exercise. Their size and mobility make it extra difficult to do most exercise. They’ve got a lot of weight to just move around and the poor old heart and lungs have a hard time coping with normal activity.
Still, the harsh reality is that you can’t use this as an excuse. Do that and you’ll get fatter still.
You’ve got to get that metabolism stoked up and one great strategy to do that is to engage in some exercise. Now because of the obesity, cardio work may be limited but you can and should still do things (like water aerobics for instance) which improve your cardio-vascular fitness.
You won’t be raising your metabolism with high intensity interval exercise for a while (which is excellent for raising metabolism), so the best exercise you can do to raise it is weight bearing exercise. Be sensible, start light and gradually increase the intensity.
Some great people I know in my weight support group start with food cans and shopping bags. Build up from that. It'll do you good. I know you can so go for it.
Still, the harsh reality is that you can’t use this as an excuse. Do that and you’ll get fatter still.
You’ve got to get that metabolism stoked up and one great strategy to do that is to engage in some exercise. Now because of the obesity, cardio work may be limited but you can and should still do things (like water aerobics for instance) which improve your cardio-vascular fitness.
You won’t be raising your metabolism with high intensity interval exercise for a while (which is excellent for raising metabolism), so the best exercise you can do to raise it is weight bearing exercise. Be sensible, start light and gradually increase the intensity.
Some great people I know in my weight support group start with food cans and shopping bags. Build up from that. It'll do you good. I know you can so go for it.
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