Articles
5 Ways to Boost (Speed-up) Your Metabolism
By: Tim Drown MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, ATC, LAT
Do you want a faster metabolism? Do you want to boost your metabolism so
that you can burn more fat and lose weight? Who doesn't.
This is one of the top questions I get from my clients who are looking to reduce their weight.
According to top fitness professional Phil Kaplan, in order to transform your body you
need to understand how critical metabolism is to long-term fat reduction.
In fact he says "we are the creators of our metabolism not a victim of it."
Before I tell you the 5 ways consider these two counter-intuitive concepts to understand.
First Counter-intuitive key:
Starvation through calorie deprivation (dieting) only impacts metabolism
negatively. It slows it down, resulting in the burning of fewer calories.
Second Counter-intuitive key:
Long boring cardio training can hinder lean body development (muscle) and sabotage
fat lose. As you become more fit doing cardio you burn few calories while performing the same
activity. (This occurs because your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to transport oxygen during exercise)
In order to burn more calories you need to increase the intensity and/or do it for a long length of time.
Remember restricting calories (dieting) while performing only cardiovascular exercise will result in
a loss of muscle (lean body mass) and your metabolism will slow down even further.
Simply put our bodies thrive, grow, and prosper as a direct result of the amount
and quality of nutrients that we put into it. The trick to boosting your metabolism
lies in putting the right combination of nutrients "through the food burning
machine" with the right frequency.
Three things work together to control metabolism:
1. the amount of lean muscle tissue that you have (muscle)
2. the rate at which you convert nutrients from food into energy (law of thermodynamics)
3. the state of your hormonal environment (which can work for or against you)
Your metabolic rate is basically how many calories you burn each day. You can figure it
by adding together your Resting Metabolic Rate and the calories you need to do your work
and the calories that you spend exercising, playing sports, or doing other active
recreational pursuits.
While it is true that metabolism decreases with age, it does not mean we have
to get fatter and fatter with each passing year.
To help you develop a Can-Do mindset, I am sharing 5
scientifically proven metabolic boosters that, when used together, can make
your body become a WORLD CLASS FAT BURNING MACHINE. The first 3 involve
supportive eating and the last 2 are proven 21st century fitness programming
strategies. When all 5 are implement you boost your metabolism and get the
firm, shapely, strong body you want and deserve.
To Boost your Metabolism;
1. Eat Breakfast
Plan on eating a lean protein, a starchy and fiberous carbohydrates, and a piece of fruit.
Eating breakfast helps keep both your blood sugar and appetite in check.
In addition research has clearly demonstrated that it is associated with
successful weight loss.
2. Eat 5-6 meals per day every 3-4 hours.
Eating this frequently boosts your metabolism, helps control blood sugar and
may even help control cholesterol. The mix of lean proteins and complex
carbohydrates results in a significant number of calories being burned
during digestion. All metabolic processes require energy and in order to
produce energy, something has to be burned. When we eat, our digestive system
begins working and that work also has a caloric cost in much the same way as when
you lift your arm over your head calories have been burned to fuel the
muscle contraction.
3a. Take Glucaffect to manage your blood sugar so more fat can be released.
In a 8-week research study participants lowered their fasting blood sugar
level and lost upwards of 16 pounds. (Glucaffect enables the body to release
the hormone glucagon so more fat is released from cells that can then be
used for fuel).
3b. Drink Provantage (a post workout recovery shake) so your body can
recover, repair, and grow lean body mass.
Nutrient Timing Research from the University of Texas has demonstrated that drinking the right
protein/carbohydrate shake speeds recovery and helps the body add lean body
mass. (The more lean body mass a person has the greater number of calories are burned
throughout the day)
4. Do Functional Strength Training rather then training only individual body parts
More muscle on the body equals more calories burned when in a resting state and
when performing any activity since more muscle fibers are recruited and required during
each and every activity, The goal of strength training is to add lean body mass (muscle) and
Functional strength (strength that is used in the real world).
According to exercise physiologist and nutritionist 1 pound of muscle burns 50 calories
a day. If you add 10 pounds of muscle that equals 500 more calories burned each day. Over the
course of a week that would equal a 1 pound loss.
In addition harder more intense exercise is better for your metabolism. Therefore doing total body functional
training exercises that forces your nervous, muscular, and energy system (cardiovascular) to work together
is preferred over a machine based isolated, individual body-part approach.
Bands,Stability Balls, Medicine Balls, Body Weight, Dumbbells, Jump ropes, ladders, and Vests enable
exercisers to take advantage of gravity, the human body, and the ground to get a total body integrated workout.
Since these 3 constants are present in the real world, training this way not only builds a lean body but one that is
capably of moving effectively and efficiently in every day real world situations.
5. Use an interval training based principle when doing cardio activity.
Research has demonstrated that interval training causes a greater increase in
post-exercise metabolism then regular cardio workouts based on endurance training.
A recent study from Australia found that a shorter interval program led to more
weight loss than a twice-as-long aerobic training program. This current study supports a 1994
study that came to the same conclusion.
The bottom line is that intervals work. When you combine Interval Training with functional strength training
and supportive eating (eating more frequent thermic meals) you body’s metabolism is faster, you shed pounds and inches,
and you gain caloric burning muscle.
Now that you are aware of these 5 metabolism boosters implement them and you will get that lean fit, strong,
healthy body you want and deserve.
To learn how to incorporate these Metabolism Boosters in an integrated comprehensive
plan schedule a private consult.
