Metabolic Rate is the rate at which the body burns up calories. If your body consumes 2500 calories a day, and burns 2500 calories a day you will stay at the same weight. Whereas, if you consuming 2500 calories daily but burning only 2000 you will gain weight.
In today's busy world, it's hard to get in all the exercise we need so it is important to make our bodies work for us. We can influence our metabolic rates
Try these three suggestions to speed up your caloric burning rate:
1) Build Muscle
Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. Muscle is metabolically active and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you are not moving. Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you will look and feel better.
2) Aerobic Exercise
As well as the actual amount of calories burned during aerobic exercise, studies have shown that sustained, high-intensity exercise makes you burn more calories for several hours afterwards.
3) Eat Low Calorie Snacks Often
There is evidence to suggest that eating small, regular meals will keep your metabolism going faster. (This is why when you're starting a diet you may find yourself eating more than usual). There are two reasons why meal frequency increases your metabolism. Firstly, levels of thyroid hormones begin to drop within hours of eating a meal, and metabolism slows. Secondly, it may be that the thermogenic effect of eating several small meals is slightly higher than eating the same amount of calories all at once.
1 comment:
Dr. Posner,
This is a follow up question to yesterday's blog.
Isn't muscle technically more dense than fat? If so, doesn't muscle weigh more than fat?
Therefore, in your opinion, if a person engages in weight training and builds more muscle, won't it take longer overall for that person to lose absolute weight?
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