Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 21 - Common Metabolism-Boosting Myths

Hi again, as we move towards the end of our ’Boosting Your Metabolism’ series, we thought it might be useful to talk about the 4 most prevalent myths concerning metabolism and metabolism-boosting.

Since this blog has been about reality and not myths, we didn’t cover any of them in the actual blog. Yet, considering how common these myths are, it is still useful for you to know them; and to know that they’re myths.

That way, if you come across them in a magazine, at a fitness club, or just from the well-intentioned but misguided advice of a friend, you can confidently say (or at least just think), sorry, but that’s a myth and I’m not going to fall for that one!

Myth No. 1: Diet Pills

The general consensus on diet pills are contained in two powerful words: BUYER BEWARE.

The problem here is that many makers of diet pills offer claims that simply aren’t realistic; and if you read the fine-print of most of these advertisements, you’ll see that they’re really too good to be true. Little notes like the claims made in this advertisement are not typical should be enough of a wake-up call to realize that there’s more to the story.

In some cases, diet pills can help boost metabolism temporarily. This, however, can be risky and generally shouldn’t be done without a doctor’s say-so. Unfortunately, people can become somewhat addicted to diet pills, which can lead to disaster.

Remember that some diet pills are water loss pills. That is, they are diuretics that promote water loss, usually through excess urination. The jury on water-loss diet pills is somewhat less open-minded than diet pills in general – three words this time …… THEY DON’T WORK!

Seriously: water loss diet pills are taken on the principle that you’ll lose weight through water. And, yes, that’s true: if you urinate 15 times a day, you’re physically going to weigh less.

But this is not actual weight loss! This is merely unhealthy temporary weight loss, and it will come roaring back the minute that water stores are replenished through diet.

Or, worse still, if a person taking these water pills fails to restore their body’s fluid needs, they can actually suffer dehydration; which can, and has, led to coma and death.

Now granted, that’s a pretty bleak picture, so it is wise to keep an open mind and a balanced view. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of pills available on the market that can aid weight loss in healthier ways that water loss, it’s just that ‘BUYER BEWARE’ has been written in capital letters for good reason!

In the next blog we’ll look at Myth No. 2 – Drop Calorie Intake.

So until then,

Take care


Sandra

Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 18 - Eat Yourself Slimmer

Eat Early!

We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In terms of boosting your metabolism, this is certainly true, because again people who do are much less inclined to snack throughout the morning. For instance, if you have a good breakfast of fruit and low-sugar cereal in the morning, the likelihood of you visiting the vending machine at work around 10:30am diminish significantly.

That does not mean you should avoid eating between breakfast and lunchtime of course, but by starting your day in a nutritious way, you will have more control over what you eat throughout the day, and be less inclined to eat anything you can get your hands on.

Another good reason to eat a healthy breakfast is because it directly boosts your metabolism. You see studies have shown that metabolism typically slows during sleep, and does not really get going again until you eat.

Therefore, starting the day with breakfast is like kick-starting your metabolism. You will actually burn more calories throughout the day, simply by eating breakfast.

When you prepare your breakfast, control both the portion size, and beware of high-fat content. High-fat breakfasts, like those including bacon and sausage deliver lots of calories (9 calories for every gram of fat, as compared to 4 for every gram of carbohydrate and protein). Worse still, if you eat such a breakfast, you will not only have ingested a lot of fat (and hence a lot of calories), but you may also still find yourself hungry again in a few hours.

This explains why many people who eat a high fat content breakfast find themselves painfully hungry by lunchtime - it is not their “overactive metabolism” at work, it is simply because the high fat content has been swiftly digested. Conversely, breakfasts that are high in fibre take much longer to digest, which will not only ensure your body is not hungry again for a while, but also help to boost your metabolism because your body is working longer to digest it.

So, eating more (in a controlled way) and eating early, can help you boost your metabolism and slash those pounds – it is one of the most incredibly easy ways to lose weight there is!

See you next time, when we’ll take a look at the 3 food groups that are good for speeding up your metabolism.


Sandra

Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 2 - What is Metabolism?

Hi again,

Before you can begin to boost your metabolism, it makes sense to explain exactly what metabolism is, and how it works – but don’t worry, you only need to know the basics!

Some people think that the metabolism is a kind of organ, or a body part, that influences digestion. Actually, the metabolism isn’t any particular body part. It’s the process by which the body converts food into energy.

Hence, you’ve likely heard of the phrase metabolic process used synonymously with the term metabolism, because they both mean the same thing.


The Medical Mumbo Jumbo

Again, don’t worry - this isn’t a complicated medical text (which should be great news to most of you!), and so we don’t need to spend an unnecessary amount of time and space focusing on the layered complexity of the human body and its extraordinary intelligence.

Without drilling deeply into medical details (which are not relevant for our general understanding purposes) it is however helpful to briefly look at the biological mechanisms behind metabolism.

Metabolism, is the process of transforming food (e.g. nutrients) into fuel (e.g. energy). The body uses this energy to conduct a vast array of essential functions.

In fact, your ability to read this page, literally, is driven by your metabolism.

If you had no metabolism – that is, if you had no metabolic process that was converting food into energy – then you wouldn’t be able to move.

In fact, long before you realized that you couldn’t move a finger or lift your foot, your internal processes would have stopped; because the basic building blocks of life – circulating blood, transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide, expelling potentially lethal wastes through the kidneys and so on – all of these depend on metabolism.

Keep this in mind the next time you hear someone say that they have a slow metabolism. While they may struggle with unwanted weight gain due to metabolic factors, they certainly have a functioning metabolism. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t even be able to speak (because that, too, requires energy that comes from, you guessed it: metabolism!).

It’s also interesting to note that, while we conveniently refer to the metabolic process as if it were a single function, it’s really a catch-all term for countless functions that are taking place inside the body. Every second of every minute of every day of your life – even, of course, when you sleep – numerous chemical conversions are taking place through metabolism, or metabolic functioning. Anabolism (building cells) and catabolism (breaking down cells), are two of those functions we’ll be looking at a little more in Boosting Your Metabolism – Part 3.

So to sum up, metabolism can reasonably be referred to as a harmonizing process that manages to achieve two critical bodily functions that, in a sense, seem to be at odds with each other.

And that’s it – that’s about as much as you need to know about what metabolism is to start boosting yours, and when you do, you will find out that it is not just a healthy way to lose weight, but one of the most incredibly easy ways to lose weight too!

If you would like to find out more about a really great metabolism boosting proramme, just Click Here.

Till next time

Best Wishes

Sandra