Metabolism and Your Weight Loss

"It's my metabolism!" that’s why I cannot lose weight easily.

Sound familiar? If you're carrying some extra pounds (and having a hard time losing them), it's tempting to put the blame on a sluggish metabolism.

But is your metabolism really the reason it's often so hard to lose weight?

And, more important, is there anything you can do about it?

The good news is, there are things you can do to help boost your body's calorie-burning power.

What Is Metabolism?

Metabolism is the process by which your body makes and uses energy or calories for everything from absorbing nutrients to running a marathon.

Your metabolism, experts say, involves a complex network of hormones and enzymes that not only convert food into fuel but also affect how efficiently you burn that fuel.

In many countries outside of the US and UK, food energy is measured by the kilojoule. 1 Calorie (technically kiloCalorie) = 4.184 kilojoules

Each of us have what is called a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) – It is the energy that you burn at complete rest.

If you need to lose weight you will need to have calorie intake less than your RMR.

Also you need to remember that women need minimum of 1200Calories a day & men 1500Calories a day.

Of course, not everyone burns calories at the same rate.

What influences your metabolism?

• Your age (metabolism naturally slows about 5% per decade after age 40); - That’s why we find that when we get to middle age we tend to gain weight easily.
  After the age of 25, for every decade we lose 3.4-4.0kg’s of muscle – unless we do regular strength exercise.
• Your sex (men generally burn more calories at rest than women)
• Proportion of lean body mass (the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate tends to be). One pound of lean muscle burns around 30Calories a day.
• Heredity makes a difference.
  "Some people just burn calories at a slower rate than others," says Barrie Wolfe-Radbill, RD, a nutritionist specializing in weight loss at New York University Medical Center.
• Occasionally, a defect in the thyroid gland can slow metabolism, though this problem is relatively rare.
• And here's a fact that may surprise you: the more weight you carry, the faster your metabolism is likely running.
  "The simple fact is that the extra weight causes your body to work harder just to sustain itself at rest, so in most instances, the metabolism is always running a bit faster," says Molly Kimball, RD, sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Oscher's Clinic's Elmwood Fitness Center.
  That's one reason it's almost always easiest to lose weight at the start of a diet, and harder later on, Kimball says: "When you are very overweight your metabolism is already running so high that any small cut in calories will result in an immediate loss."

How to Increase Your Metabolism

Among the best ways is exercise.

This includes aerobic workouts to burn more calories in the short term, and Weight Training to build the muscles that will boost your metabolism in the long run.

While 30 minutes of aerobic exercise may burn more calories than 30 minutes of weight training, Calabrese says, "in the hours following the cessation of exercise, the weight training has a longer-lasting effect on boosting metabolism."

Having extra muscle also means you can eat more and gain less.

Eating and your Metabolism

1. Eat Breakfast – Recommended that you eat within 45min of waking.
2. Eat more often, and you'll lose more weight. Small, but frequent, meals help keep your metabolism in high gear, and that means you'll burn more calories overall.
3. The gap between the meals shouldn’t be more than 5-6hrs.
   If you then eat a huge meal -- at the same time your metabolism is functioning as if you're starving -- your body wants to hold on to every calorie.
   

Fat-Burning Foods!

Any food will increase your metabolism, mostly in the first hour after you eat

Protein generally requires about 25% more energy to digest.
A high-protein snack might rev metabolism a little more than a carb-heavy food with the same number of calories.

"Some studies have shown hot pepper and very spicy foods can increase metabolism by about 20% for about 30 minutes, but no one really knows if the extra burn lasts any longer than that, "
Green Tea – Dr David Heber mentions in his book LA Shape Diet that studies have shown that Green Tea can stimulate metabolism by about 80Calories a day.

Your best bet for keeping metabolism revved: Build muscles, snack on low-calorie, high-protein foods, and keep moving!