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It's hard to find anyone out there who isn't interested in dropping a few pounds, but weight loss remains a long, hard road for most. Despite the popularity of fad diet crazes, like eschewing all... |
It’s hard to find anyone out there who isn’t interested in dropping a few pounds, but weight loss remains a long, hard road for most. Despite the popularity of fad diet crazes, like eschewing all carbs or eating only raw foods, most doctors and nutrition experts agree that no matter what you’re eating, losing weight comes down to a simple equation of calories in and calories out. In other words, burn more calories than you eat, and the pounds will drop off.
That makes sense, right? But, do you really understand what it means to “burn” calories? Exercising is part of the equation, but when doctors turn about burning calories, they’re referring to your metabolism. Your metabolism is the engine of your body – it takes all of the calories you consume and either turns them into the energy required to conduct all voluntary and involuntary processes in your body or stores them as fat to be burned at another time. If your metabolism is working at a fast pace, you’ll burn more calories, store fewer calories as fat, and lose weight. Therefore, it goes without saying that upping the speed on your metabolism can increase your odds of weight loss success.
First, the bad news about metabolism: at least 75% of your metabolism is outside of your control. It’s tied up with your hormonal systems and nervous systems, and you can’t change it. The good news is that there are things you can to do make a big change to the other 25% of your metabolism, and that can add up to a bigger difference than you may thing in terms of weight loss.
Exercise is your metabolism’s best friend. When you start exercising, all of your body’s systems start demanding more energy, and your metabolism is happy to oblige. When you stop exercising, it takes a while for your metabolism to get the message that it’s time to stand down. It keeps burning up calories at your exercise rate long after you’ve kicked off the shoes and plunked down in front of the TV. You want to keep your body functioning at this pace for as long as possible when you’re dieting.
The other thing your metabolism needs is food! When you’re on a diet, it’s easy to think that skipping meals or restricting your caloric intake drastically will translate into quick weight loss. Initially, you may drop some water weight and feel like you’ve lost inches. As you’re dropping that water, your metabolism is slowing and slowing and slowing, until it’s doing the bare minimum, because you’re not giving it food to process. When you do eat, your metabolism makes the decision to store most of your calories as fat because it doesn’t trust you to refuel at regular intervals. You end up with a double whammy of slowed metabolism and increased fat storage. If you want that metabolism working, you have to give it something to do!
Essentially, a fast metabolism is the product of a healthy lifestyle, and a healthy lifestyle increases your chances of maintaining a healthy weight. It doesn’t pay to fight your body when you’re trying to lose weight – turn your metabolism into your weight loss ally.