Metabolism-Boosting Secrets

From eDiets.com

(By Raphael Calzadilla)

People always tell me they want to get their metabolism revved in order to lose fat, yet many people who email me don’t even exercise. That’s a recipe for a non-revved metabolism.

When you try to lose body fat without exercising, much of your loss will be muscle tissue, and less will be from fat. For eye-popping results and a sleek body, your goal must be to shed as much fat as possible and build as much lean muscle as possible.

Nutrition and exercise are the answer.

There’s a fitness term called the “after burn." This refers to the calories that you burn 24 to 48 hours after your exercise session. What that means to you is a faster metabolism that burns fat at an accelerated rate.

Now the million dollar question -- how do we maximize this after burn and what method do we use?

Let’s take a look at the formula:

1. Cardiovascular Exercise

When you perform cardio, enzymes are produced that break down fat and enable the body to use fat as an energy resource. The average person has 100,000 calories worth of fat stored on his/her body -- roughly enough to run for 200 hours. For fat to be burned as energy, oxygen needs to be produced. People with a high cardio capacity are able to burn fat very easily because their bodies are efficient at delivering oxygen to muscle cells.

How do we then manipulate cardio to assist in a metabolic boost?

Duration -- This is the length of time of your exercise session. For example, after a 45-minute workout, your metabolism may stay high for over three hours. Now think of what that does if you’re exercising three to five days per week. That’s right, a metabolism that is consistently burning calories like an out-of-control fire.

Here’s where you need to be cautious. Just because 45 minutes is good and maybe one hour is good -- that does not mean you should exercise hours and hours a day. There is a point when one can do too much and start risking injury, burning valuable muscle instead of fat, creating more free radicals and simply becoming out of touch with reality. In general, 40 to 50 minutes of cardio four to five days per week will get the job done.

Intensity -- This simply relates to your level of effort. If your intensity is high, you’ll burn a significant number of calories. In fact, 25 minutes of an elevated intensity at 80 percent of target heart rate will burn more than 45 minutes of lackluster intensity at 45 percent target heart rate.

The beauty of intensity is that your metabolism stays elevated for long periods of time. Again, I must make the point that one needs to find the correct amount of intensity (70 to 85 percent of target heart rate) based on the individual’s fitness level. Jumping on a treadmill and running full speed after not exercising for a year is going to put you at risk for injury and even more damaging possibilities.

2. Strength Training

There are numerous studies that show that strength training produces a greater calorie post burn than cardiovascular exercise. In one study, 40 minutes of strength training produced a 36 percent increase in metabolism over 40 minutes of cycling.

Unless you strength train, you will lose about half a pound of muscle a year after the age of 20 and, worse than that, you’ll replace the muscle with a pound of fat a year. So over time, your body composition can change dramatically for the worst.

The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. In fact, one pound of muscle helps your body burn up to 18,000 calories in a year. Nothing can dramatically change your body the way strength training can. You should try to strength train three times a week with a day of rest in between. Two is good for beginners or for maintenance, but three will help you to progress and keep your metabolism fueled.

Consider some of the research findings related to strength training and metabolism by Ted Lambrinides, Ph.D.

“Additional muscle mass will alter metabolism in two ways. First, resting metabolic rate is increased when one gains muscle mass. While the energy expenditure per pound of lean body mass does not change, the addition of more muscle mass means a larger energy expenditure or higher metabolism at rest.

"Second, the more muscle mass one has, the greater the post exercise oxygen consumption. When strength trained individuals were compared to non-trained individuals, there was no difference in post exercise oxygen consumption per pound of muscle. However, since the strength training individuals have more muscle mass, they burn more calories during the post exercise period.

"Conclusion: Strength training increases energy expenditure during a training session. The high intensity or anaerobic nature of strength training indicates a high utilization of carbohydrates during a training session. *During the post-exercise recovery period, energy expenditure is elevated for a period ranging from two to fifteen hours."

So, if you want to burn even more fat -- perform both cardio and strength training. If you do both, you’ll multiply your fat burning results, trim off the inches, reshape your body and dramatically improve your strength and endurance.

3. Nutrition

Even if you strength train and perform cardio with a vengeance, it will not produce effective results without proper nutrition. Food can help stimulate the metabolism.

As I consistently write in most of my articles, you must be in a slight caloric deficit to lose body fat. You have to consume enough food to provide energy for your workouts, but they must be just low enough to produce a fat loss. Unused calories are turned to fat, regardless if they’re from protein, carbohydrate or fat.

As you can see, the formula for stoking your metabolism is: Strength training three to four days per week for 40 to 60 minutes, cardiovascular exercise four to five days per week for 40 to 50 minutes; and following your eDiets nutrition plan to the letter. That's the key to increasing your metabolism, losing fat -- and keeping it off.

Maintaining a faster metabolism and a healthier body weight is something you can accomplish. So start now!

As always, check with your doctor prior to beginning any exercise program.

*Melby, C., Scholl, C., Edwards, G., Bullough, R."Effect of acute resistance exercise on post exercise energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate." Journal of Applied Physiology,

Please feel free to visit my blog at www.getfittoday.blogspot.com

Learn more at eDiets.com...

.