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Increase Your Metabolism And Lose Weight

May 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

It’s very frustrating to be overweight and to eat less than other members of your family, and much less than some of your friends, only to find that you’re nevertheless still gaining weight. If this is happening to you, the first step is to have a thyroid test.

Assuming that your doctor gives you the all-clear, you can take some simple steps which will help you to increase your metabolism. With an increased metabolism, you will be able to eat well, and still lose weight - and you won’t be hungry, nor will you crave fatty foods or sweets.

Exercise And Build Muscle To Burn More Calories

Exercise, and particularly weight-bearing exercise, is important because the more muscles you have, the more calories you will burn - muscles are eight times more metabolically active than fat. So if you increase your muscle mass, you will burn calories 24 hours a day.

If you don’t want to go to a gym, there’s a lot you can do at home to increase your muscle mass. Walking will build muscle, as will lifting weights. Even a few minutes a day lifting weights will build your muscles substantially over time. Don’t worry that you will build too much muscle: this is impossible unless you lift for hours a day, rather than minutes.

Take time to stretch before lifting weights, and afterwards, so you don’t injure your tendons, the fibers which connect muscle to bone.

Eat Regularly To Stoke The Fires Of Metabolism

When you want to lose weight, it seems logical that you should eat less. Unfortunately, when you start eating less, your body slows its metabolism. So eat regularly, at least three or four small, protein-rich meals a day. Ideally, try to eat six snack-sized meals a day: this increases your metabolism when you combine it with regular exercise.

Try this new routine: exercise daily, as well as lifting weights for a few minutes. Eat several small meals a day as well. You’ll be shocked that you will actually be eating more than you usually do, as you lose weight. You’ll never feel that you’re on any kind of diet - it’s your increased metabolism that is helping you to lose weight.

Your Thyroid And your Metabolism

May 1st, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Metabolism is often the number one target in any weight loss or gain plan as, it is responsible for processing the digested food and converting it into energy so that the body can function normally. Thyroid is a glad that is situated right above the Adam’s apple in the throat and it produces hormones that are directly responsible of the proper function of our body’s metabolism.

The Direct Connection Of Thyroid Metabolism

When we face any kind of malfunctions with the thyroid glad you are very likely to have problems with your metabolism, which in turn will affect your weight gain and loss. Thyroid and metabolism are directly connected and if you have gained weight because of your thyroid glad, loosing it can be a lot more difficult then just increasing your metabolism rate.

How To Treat Thyroid Metabolism Problems

Thyroid metabolism problem must be treated only under the supervision of a qualified doctor, as the hormones need to be regulated in order to be able to deal with the metabolism rate and eventually control weight gain or loss. The two main forms of thyroid disorders are: hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism and unfortunately both these disorders affect directly one’s weight gain or loss.

Treating thyroid metabolism requires specific treatments that may take a considerable amount of time and may have nothing to do with the amount of food you eat and how much you exercise but just regulating the hormones that are released by the thyroid glad in order to increase and regulate your metabolism in order to work again it its normal levels.

Helpful Tips

Learn to understand your body and realize when it is not responding to simple things like loosing weight with added exercise or activity and controlled balanced diet; finding out the thyroid metabolism problem in time may help you prevent excessive weight gain or loss.

If you are having sudden weight gain and none of the diets or exercises has worked, you may want to consult a doctor to find out if your weight problem is not a direct result from a thyroid metabolism problem. Thyroid metabolism weight gain can be very frustrating, as most times there is nothing that you can do to stop gaining weight but follow the treatment and let it run its course. Balanced diet and exercise always help, as well as the support of family and friends.

How To Keep A Metabolism Journal

April 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Keeping a metabolism journal is an excellent way to help you keep track of both your calorie in-take and your level of physical activity. For many people, keeping such a journal serves as an effective motivational tool and it also helps one better determine how certain eating habits either lead to lower metabolism, or result in excessive calorie in-take. A metabolism journal helps one visualize the combined effects of exercise and calorie consumption, making it possible to manage the number of calories consumed and burned each day.

Tips On How To Start Your Metabolism Journal

Before you start writing in your journal, use an online metabolism calculator to determine how many calories your body burns each day. This calculator will ask you to confirm your age, gender, height, weight and level of physical activity. Once you have an estimate, mark this number at the top of the first page in the notebook to be used for your metabolism journal. In order to lose weight, your goal should be to consume approximately 500 calories less than the amount your body burns in a single day.

Once you have figured out how many calories you burn each day, divide each page in your journal into two columns. On the left-hand side, record your daily calories in-take by actually writing down all your meals and snack and the approximate number of calories in each. All food products sold in North America must be accompanied by nutritional information, usually found on the back label, which also lists the number of calories per serving. At the end of each day, calculate your total calorie in-take and record the grand total at the bottom of the left-hand column.

On the second column, list all your physical activities for that day, along with the amount of time you spent on each. These do not only include hours spent lifting heavy weights at the gym, but absolutely all physical activity, including walking, jogging, mowing the law, shoveling snow and climbing stairs. You should list all activities, including those that seem mundane. There are a number of internet resources that will provide you with charts as to how many calories you can burn doing each activity and will often even include the number of calories most people burn while reading, performing house chores, writing essays and performing mental tasks. Record the total amount at the bottom of the column.

Why Is A Metabolism Journal Effective?

At the end of each day, the recordings in your metabolism journal should be able to tell you how many calories you took in and approximately how many you burned in single day. You may notice that you are, in fact, burning more calories than previously determined by a metabolism calculator as you begin to change your eating habits and increase your physical activity. A metabolism journal can be a very effective diet tool as it helps keep you accountable for what you consume and for your lifestyle. Recording your calorie in-take also helps you better realize what you are consuming and how this is affecting your health. Above all, keeping a metabolism journal makes you much more conscious of what you eat and often leads people to lead healthier lifestyles.

How To Improve Your Cellular Metabolism

April 2nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Understanding cellular metabolism is a key factor in staying healthy, as well as staying fit and slim.

Our body is made of millions of cells that undergo a variety of procedures everyday in order to enable us to perform routine activities and that is known as cellular metabolism. The cellular metabolism is in charge of one main thing and that is how to take the daily food and convert it into energy for the body by separating what are vitamins and minerals from fat and waste.

The Age Factor in metabolism

Our body’s cellular metabolism slows down with age, which, unfortunately, promotes weight gain and, with it, many other diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack and clogged arteries, to name only a few. To combat the age factor and keep your cellular metabolism high, you need to ensure two things and they are: eat right and exercise.

In order to be able to apply the right exercise and diet plan that will work for your type of cellular metabolism, you need to see your doctor as only he or she will be able to advise you on your present state of health, the food items that will best suit your needs as well as the exercises that will have the best impact.

Women’s cellular metabolism starts to slow down approximately at the age of 30 and men at about the age of 40; unfortunately, at that age, you already have well formed habits of eating, sleeping and exercising, which may be hard to change but an effort must be made if you want to keep your shapely figure but, more importantly, your good health.

Incorporate A Healthy Lifestyle - boost your metabolism

Many of us find excuses on why we cannot get to the right types of food or why we cannot exercise, however, once you are faced with a fatal disease, you may be required to drop everything you are doing and focus on your health. Instead of waiting for drastic measures, try and incorporate healthy ways of living into your life by eating right and exercising.

Educating yourself so you understand your body’s needs is yet another step that you should take as soon as possible. Each one of us has a unique body and cellular metabolism that answers to very different approaches that we need to find out and practice accordingly. Health is, after all, of prime importance. If you let it decline, it may well cost all the money you have to get it back, therefore, don’t wait until the last minute to adopt healthy ways of living your life, but practice them everyday and also teach your children how to pay attention and listen to their bodies in order to always keep healthy.

Understanding cellular metabolism helps you to maintain good health. If you’ve let your health slip, then it can help you to regain good health in a trim, fit body.

Discovering your Metabolism Rate – What Is It?

March 22nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

You’ve heard about your “metabolism”, and that it’s not that great if you have a low metabolism, so you’re wondering - what is your metabolism rate, and why should you be trying to get yours higher?

Metabolism is a process that takes place inside our body which converts the foods we eat into energy. Metabolism rate is the speed that process takes. People who have a high metabolism rate are less susceptible to weight gain and coronary artery disease. People with a lower rate can take steps to raise their rate to a healthier level.

The foods we eat are broken down into various components which then enter the bloodstream to provide us with energy. The rate these foods are broken down determines whether these foods are used as energy or stored as fat. High fat levels in our bloodstream can lead to serious health problems, even leading up to death.

Increasing Your Metabolism Rate - How to do it

One way to increase your metabolism rate is to get regular exercise. Muscle burns more energy than fat. While increased activity will increase your metabolism rate during activity it will also increase your rate when resting.

Many times metabolism rates are directly related to our genetic makeup. There are also certain medical conditions which can affect rates such as an over-active or under-active thyroid.

Eating healthy foods and staying with a regular exercise program are the best ways to maintain a healthy metabolism rate. Getting 30 minutes of exercise a day for four to five days a week is recommended. Good examples of aerobic exercise are walking, jogging, dancing, or riding a bike. Studies show that your metabolism rate continues to stay at an elevated level for several hours after an exercise session. Lifting weights can be incorporated into your program for building muscle mass. Muscle mass will increase your rate while being active or at rest.

Controlling your weight is an important aspect to your health. Eating a variety of foods is important so you can be sure you get the right balance of nutrients and vitamins. Experiment with the amount of calorie intake you can burn each day without putting on weight. Increasing your level of activity can allow you to eat more food while inactivity will result in stored body fat.

Of course there are those people whose metabolism rate is too high and they feel the need to gain weight. Gaining weight for the purpose of looking better is usually not recommended. If you are one of the lucky people who has this problem it would be healthier for you to try to build muscle mass instead of gaining fat. Muscle weighs more than fat and is much healthier than storing fats in the body.

In conclusion, your although your basal metabolism is determined by your genes, you can raise your metabolism by your lifestyle. Essentially, all it takes to boost your metabolism is to eat healthy foods - don’t starve yourself if you’re trying to lose weight - and a bit of exercise.

Copyright © 2007 Top Metabolism

Credits: 30 Day Slimmer | Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund