Your metabolism/metabolic rate is your superstar when it comes to your body and how it handles weight loss and your body composition. Unfortunately, like every superstar as they get older they need more help from the complementary players.
Every one involved in any kind of weight loss or even just a fitness program, has to put an emphasis on metabolism, increasing it, controlling it, and using it to help reduce weight.
One pound of resting muscle burns around 10 calories per day versus fat which burns only around 2 calories everyday. So for every pound of muscle your get 4-5 times as much calorie burn compared to fat.
Let’s back up a little, what is metabolism.
Really we need to know the difference between metabolism and metabolic rate.
Metabolism: Basically is the vital set of biochemical reactions taking place that sustain life, metabolic processes are essential to maintaining, growth and development and extraction of energy. Metabolism is very similar from organism to organism.
Metabolic Rate: Frequency of metabolism, the rate that metabolism takes place, rate of earning and spending energy. Very individualistic, very individual specific characteristic that indicates the efficiency of that individual’s body. Metabolic rate is subject to change due to diet, regular exercise, lifestyle, size, body composition, activity level, disease and medication/drugs.
So for the sake of this conversation and most conversations dealing with exercise and metabolism we really are referring to our metabolic rate because this what we can influence. As mentioned before the more lean body mass we have the higher the metabolism, this is one of the most critical components of weight loss from what I have studied, observed and applied over the last 30 years.
It is simple. if you have lets say 100 (100 may be alot ) lbs of muscle, and each lb is burning 10cals a day then you are burning over 1000 cals/day. Put that with the calories that the rest of your body burns, fat, bone, internal organs etc. this amount is significant. By contrast a 180 lb person only burns around 265 calories in high impact aerobics and up to 450-460 calories on an elliptical machine if done vigorously-which alot of people don”t. So if you are looking at how to burn the most calories focus on your metabolism/metabolic rate. Don’t get fitness and weight loss mixed up. Most people don’t have the time or the patience to burn enough calories through exercise, so focus on the big calorie burn which is your metabolic rate. Lose your weight in the kitchen, and get fit in the gym, sounds simple but it is actually simply sound!
So what, so you know that your metabolic rate is the biggest bang for your buck what do you do? You know that your metabolic rate is your superstar, everything else are your complementary players. You need both to win. Your superstar has to be a superstar, it has to be for you to succeed. So give that superstar every chance to succeed, give it the best complementary players possible. Ok, how can you do this? Simple, focus on every complementary player you can, eating to help increase your metabolism, weight training to increase your lean body mass and increase your daily calorie burn, stay as active as you can during the day, do aerobic exercise to not just burn calories but to help keep your body healthy and efficient and obviously help maintain good cardio-vascular fitness.
Don’t count on exercise to burn all your calories to lose weight, focus on your metabolic rate and that huge calorie burn that it provides. You don’t have to beat yourself up and commit to this huge aerobic exercise anchor, or extremely intense class that actually makes you so hungry you can’t stop your self from putting the calories back in that you worked so hard to take off. Keep a balance, put time into a very good weight training program that will fit your fitness level, age, time alotment. Vital Armour lives by the the motto “lose weight in the kitchen… get fit in the gym”. Focusing on fitness and eating appropriately and making your metabolism your superstar has a lot of fringe benefits, and one of the most important is the motivation to stay with it. The muscle tone and aesthetics of the proper weight training not only help build your metabolic rate but maybe more importantly keep you motivated because you feel better and look better. How good is your Superstar?
Take a look at a link that might help you out.
10 Burning Facts about your Metabolism