Change Your Metabolism

When talking fat loss, we hear the word metabolism get thrown around. You might hear that certain foods or supplements boost your metabolism or that as you age your metabolism will slow down. There are a lot of claims out there that probably can't be back up very well, but one thing is for sure. Your metabolism play a vital role with weight loss.

I read a great article by Dr. Len Kavitz (no not the singer) that really did a great job summing up metabolism. Here are some pieces from that article.

First we need to look at what is your metabolism. Your metabolism is basically the sum of all the chemical reactions in your body. It requires energy for these reactions to take place. This energy comes from calories. So if you have a higher metabolism you burn more calories. This is why it is so important for weight loss. When we look at how many calories you burn during the day, about 60% comes from you Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). The rest comes from the thermic effect of exercise and spontaneous activity (30%), and the thermic effect of food metabolism (10%). So you can see your metabolic rate plays the biggest role in burning calories. So it is simple... To lose more weight keep your RMR high. Below are some things to consider to keep that metabolism burning:

Diets will slow down your metabolism. By decrease what you eat you are actually slowing down your metabolism. This is very hard for people to understand. If you diet without exercising your can reduce your metabolic rate by 20%. Yes you lose weight initially, but you will not continue to lose weight at the same rate. Exercise has been shown to preserve muscle which will prevent your metabolism from slowing. This is why you SHOULD NOT diet without exercise.

If you are performing cardio and strength training exercise you can see your metabolism increase by about 250-300 calories per day. This will add up quickly if you are trying to lose weight. So again DO NOT diet without exercise. I promise you will not hit your weight goal.

There are certain foods that may help increase metabolism but the increase is slight. The most common ingredients that may assist with fat burning include green tea, caffeine, and capsaicins (found in hot peppers). Research shows that these may increase metabolism up to about 4-5%. This is about 50-100 calories per day, depending on where you RMR is. So yes they can help but these are not huge numbers that will just melt fat away. Most research is really needed to show the effectiveness of these aids but they are generally safe.

So here is the bottom line with your metabolism. Severe diets without exercise will slow down your metabolism, cardio and strength exercise and increase it, and some supplements may help a little bit.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler
San Diego Premier Training
My Workout Creator