 |
We need our metabolism to stay alive because it provides vital energy to every cell of our body. The metabolism has the job of adjusting to the activity level of what our body is doing... |
We need our metabolism to stay alive because it provides vital energy to every cell of our body. The metabolism has the job of adjusting to the activity level of what our body is doing at each moment so that we have the energy needed to do whatever task it is that we are doing. Our lowest metabolic rate is when we are resting, such as at night when we are sleeping. Even when we are resting our body is hard at work maintaining our heartbeat, providing energy to our brain and energy to our muscles, which always require energy even when they are not moving because they have to remodel or maintain muscle tissue.
People who have more muscle mass have higher metabolisms and people with less or very little muscle mass have slower metabolisms.
Individuals who do not exercise lose approximately 5 pounds of muscle mass every decade that they remain inactive. This leads to a reduction of approximately 2 to 4% of resting metabolic rate per decade. The best way to build muscle mass is through resistance exercises.
When we use less energy per day due to less muscle mass we store more fat. That can lead to on average of a 15-pound weight gain due to fat gain over a decade!
Regular strength training will maintain muscle mass and thus your metabolism throughout the midlife years.
Even carefully controlled diet programs can result in some muscle loss due to caloric reduction and affects the metabolic rate.
The best way to lose weight is to combine a sensible eating plan with strength training. Just 20 minutes of strength training and 20 minutes of aerobic exercise two or three days a week can give amazing results. Adding muscle while you are trying to lose weight is the best way to go about being healthy fit and trim.
Your body has a built-in survival mechanism that protects you from famine. This protective mechanism stores body fat in lean times when the body does not take in many calories. This mechanism kicks in when ever you go on a diet that has you eating less than 1200 calories. Your metabolism decreases in order to conserve energy, and then it burns energy from muscle tissue. This is how individuals who go on crash or starvation diets ruin their metabolisms and slow them down to the point that they gain weight instead of losing it.
Exercise requires that our bodies make more energy, so the metabolism increases in order to supply that extra energy.
Strength training increases metabolism in 3 ways:
* The Workout
* The post-training oxygen consumption
* The added lean muscle mass
Adding new muscle when you strength train increases your metabolism by stimulating the development of muscle mass. The greater the muscle mass the greater the post exercise oxygen consumption.