Fitness Tips: Ramp Up Your Fat-Burning Ability

Two girlfriends go out to the local pizza place. They weigh the same but you would never know because their bodies look totally different. One exercises and looks like she weighs less, but her increased muscle mass adds weight. Anyway, they split a pizza and eat the same number of slices, equaling the same amount of calories consumed. After they part ways, the exerciser burns off the pizza over the next several hours. The non-exercising friend does not burn off all the pizza. In fact, the extra calories convert to stored fat and the pizza goes to live on her thighs.

I give this analogy because there is a reason the friend that exercises burned off the pizza. Introducing metabolism. It is the number of calories you burn by simply breathing. If your metabolism is low, the math mentioned above won’t hold true. Weight loss will take a while until you speed up your metabolism.

To lose weight your metabolism must be functioning properly. For women, it peaks in their late teens and early twenties. You could go out and eat pizza for every meal followed with ice cream and not gain much weight. It also means that when you decided to diet and exercise, the pounds would fall off quickly.

According to the American Council on Exercise, your resting metabolic rate drops about one to two percent per decade. So just about the time when your metabolism starts to decrease, you also start to slow down on your activity level, whether you realized it or not. You got out of school and entered the workforce. Your job requires you to sit for most of the day. All of the sudden you start to gain weight and cannot lose it like before. That’s because your metabolism slowed way down.

When you hit your 30s your growth hormones start to also slow down (they build and feed muscle growth). Adding insult to injury, your muscles start to turn to fat. The composition of your body starts to change. Weight gathers in your midsection and will not leave, no matter what you do.

So with all this depressing news, you need to know that there is hope! You do not need plastic surgery. It for sure cannot fix your metabolism problem. Your metabolism rate is 100% affected by your activity level.

METABOLISM-BOOSTING PLAN

Step 1: Find a strength training class. I recommend a class because if you are just starting out, the instructor does all the homework for you. Simply show up and they already have a solid routine ready to go. The accountability and friendships you make will be an added bonus!

Step 2: Decrease daily caloric intake. Keep your metabolism burning by eating five small meals within your appropriate calorie range. Not sure what your range is? Ask a dietitian Never go below 1,500 calories. It’s called starvation. Your body will hold on to calories instead of burn. It is also harmful to your body. You are straining your internal organs when you withhold proper nutrition.

Step 3: Take a Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) supplement. These amino acids feed the muscles so that they will maintain and continue to eat fat and keep your metabolism up. I personally take this everyday.

If your doctor told you to take Vitamin D, you would run to the pharmacy and buy that supplement. So as your fitness professional, I’m prescribing exercise, a lower calorie diet and a muscle feeder, fat eater supplement.

If you take action and implement these three things into your life, your metabolism will start to rise. You will lose weight and your body composition will change. And you can eat a cheeseburger every once in a while and burn it off!