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Unless you are one of the lucky ones who can eat whatever they want and never gain a pound, then you know that weight loss is one of life's most difficult battles. For most people,... |
Unless you are one of the lucky ones who can eat whatever they want and never gain a pound, then you know that weight loss is one of life’s most difficult battles. For most people, especially as they get a little older, it can seem like their body just won’t give up the fat. One reason this may be the case is because of a metabolism that is not up to its optimum functioning level. If your metabolism is weak, you can forget all about losing weight. Unless that metabolism is on your side, you’ll be lucky to maintain your weight, and you may very well end up gaining. The good news, however, is that there are certain things you can do to make sure your metabolism is doing its job so you can drop those extra pounds. When you combine these tips for diet and exercise, your metabolism will fire into gear like it never has before, and you’ll see the results on the scale.
First, consider the dieting strategy. You’ve heard people say that you need to spend money to make money, right? Well, as it turns out, you have to eat food to lose weight. That kind of goes against the grain of typical diet thinking, doesn’t it? Most people believe that they have to restrict their calories to the point where they are on the verge of collapse before weight loss can happen. The truth of the matter is that when you cut your calories too much, you severely impact the ability of your metabolism to do its job. You need to get at least 12 calories per pound of weight to make your metabolism fire on all cylinders, and if you are a very active person, you may need more than that. Whatever you do, don’t go below 1,000 calories. You may as well sit down and eat the whole bag of chips because you’re doing as much good for your diet by starving yourself.
Of course, you can’t eat just anything. For real diet success, load up on fiber filled complex carbs and lean proteins. These foods require a lot of energy on the part of your body to burn up, so you’ll be burning calories for longer with these foods in your system. Forget about refined sugars or processed foods. These give your metabolism an initial spike, but then it crashes, leaving you hungry. Not wanting to be fooled again, your metabolism will hold on to your next meal as fat to try and prevent the crash, even if it’s healthy.
To your healthy diet, you need to add movement. For the sake of your metabolism, you don’t need hours on end on the treadmill. What your metabolism really likes is weight training. Weight training build up lean muscles, which burn more calories when you’re at rest than the fat you’re carrying around now. Replace that fat with muscle, and your body becomes a calorie burning machine.
Put these diet and exercise tips together to reach those weight loss goals you’ve been trying to get. You may be surprised how quickly you can get there with the right plan.