Last week we discussed the control we have on basal metabolic rate. This week we will look at the other things you have control over and a few things you don’t have control of when it comes to your metabolic rate.
We all know increased activity means burning more calories. Exercising with increased intensity and time we will burn more calories, which can help reduce our weight. Some caution with long slow cardio sessions needs to be understood though. When your immediate stores of energy for activity get used up, your body will pull energy from muscle and fat. If the intensity is low and duration is long, the body will tend to pull more from muscle. The reason is all that muscle is not needed to produce the low level force but lots of energy can be taken from the muscle to allow you to go for a long time. Increasing intensity over time can help with weight loss through improving metabolic rate, but make sure you are medical able to increase intensity. Remember goal should be to minimize muscle loss to help boost BMR but done safely so not to injury yourself. With all the talk of importance of muscle, you can probably see the importance of strength training. Strength training is probably the hidden gem missing from so many people’s efforts to lose weight. Strength training is vital to increase muscle mass which improves BMR and also increases activity levels. Don’t forget activity is not just the time spent exercising at the gym or going for a walk, this can be achieved with just daily activities as well. Think about how to move throughout the day more as compared to sitting or lying down.
Thermogenesis is a big word that is sometimes thrown around with weight loss, but lets’ understand a little more about it before we think it is the missing link in weight loss. Yes, processed foods are easier to break down and require less energy (less thermogenesis) than whole foods. But remember this effect will help your metabolic rate some, but it is small. Eating whole foods is more important for other health reasons, not so much from a thermogenesis standpoint. Also eating more times in a day does not increase your thermogenesis. If you take in 2000 calories in 3 meals or 6 meals for a day it requires the same energy to break those 2000 food calories down.
There are few things you don’t have control over when it comes to your metabolic rate. First is your genetics, some people are gifted with better genes that increase their metabolic rate. Next is sex, men typically have lower body fat percentage because they have more testosterone to increase muscle mass and don’t need to carry fat that is essential for child bearing that females do. But a fit woman is better off than a fat man when it comes to metabolism. The last one is age; the reason age can be a factor is that we lose muscle mass as we age past around 30 years of age and we have talked the importance of muscle mass before. Thus again one more reason strength training is so important.
The last thing on metabolism is there are supplements and “super foods” that claim to affect your metabolism. Some supplements can improve it, such as ephedrine, but the side effects are more likely to kill you then help you much. Many of the other supplements and “super foods” are just that, claims with no evidence or exaggeration of the evidence (you would have to consume more then possible to even make a difference). They have lots of fancy marketing to get you to waist your money for no real change in your metabolism. So again keep it simple eat healthy and balanced and avoid the hype.
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