Myth No. 2 – Dropping Calorie Intake
As we discussed earlier in this blog series (but it’s so important that it deserves an encore near the end), trying to lose weight by drastically cutting down on your calories doesn’t work; in fact, it’s unhealthy.
The thing to remember is that the body’s ability to lose weight is not controlled by calories. Calories are the input. The real control mechanism is that famous concept that you’ve become very familiar with now: metabolism.
Calories are merely units of energy. It’s how your body deals with that energy that determines whether weight is gained or lost.
So with that being said, cutting down your caloric intake to, say, 1000 calories a day isn’t necessarily going to help you lose weight; because it doesn’t necessarily change your metabolism.
Indeed, as you know, if you slow down your caloric intake, your body – which is always trying to help you in the best way that it knows how – will slow down its metabolism.
Really, it makes sense: the body says that something has gone wrong; instead of the 2000 calories that it needs, it’s only getting 1000. The body doesn’t know why this is happening; it doesn’t know that you want to lose weight.
It just senses that something is wrong; perhaps you’re trapped in a cave or something, or stuck in a snowstorm. So the body, trying to help you, will slow down its metabolism; it will do its best to slow down the conversion rate, so that you have as much energy on hand as possible.
Now, if your body was able to read this book and you could say: look, please just do what you normally do, but do it with 1000 fewer calories a day for a while, then we might actually get somewhere.
But the body doesn’t work that way. It won’t help you lose weight if you dramatically cut down on calories.
It will not only slow down metabolism, but also (and here’s the worst part), if and when you ever increase calories again, your body will have to deal with that via a slower metabolic engine. So you can actually gain weight if, after cutting down your calories for a period of time, you consume extra calories (say while on a vacation for instance).
See you next time with Myth No. 3.
Take care and best wishes
Sandra
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calories. Show all posts
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 20 - Build Muscle
Many people, particularly some women, are very cautious about undertaking any exercise regimen that can lead to muscle building.
The old perception was that muscle building leads to muscle bulking, and before long, gorging forearm veins and other unwanted results. This is, frankly, not the case.
Provided that women aren’t supporting their workouts with specific muscle-building supplements, there is no need to be concerned; because building lean muscle won’t make them bulk up.
Still, however, the question remains: why would women (and, of course, men) who want to boost their metabolism focus on muscle building? Isn’t cardiovascular exercising the only thing that matters?
Again, the answer is: No! In addition to a healthy and responsible cardiovascular program, muscle building is an exceptionally powerful way to boost metabolism.
How? Because, a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat.
And what does this mean? It means (and get ready to stare in awe) that if you have more muscle on your body – anywhere on your body – you will simply burn more calories as a result.
You don’t even have to do anything. You’ll simply burn more calories, because muscle requires more of an energy investment.
Of course, it’s common-sense that if you build muscle and then leave it alone, over time, the muscle fibres will weaken and you’ll lose that wonderful calorie-burning factory. But that’s no problem, because all you need to do is build and maintain healthy muscle.
It may sound daunting; especially if at the moment you believe you have much more fat than muscle. Yet the important thing for you to remember is that once you start building muscle – through any kind of strength training – your body will itself start burning more calories.
It has to, even while you sleep, or go to a movie, or read a book. It’s like putting your calorie-burning (catabolism) program on auto-pilot. So don’t let a little (or even a lot) of extra flab, at the moment, deter you from believing that muscle building is important.
Yes, you should enjoy cardiovascular exercise too, because that’s ultimately how your body is going to burn existing fat. But muscle building plays a profoundly supportive role in that pursuit.
And it’s an exponential one, too: the more fat you transform into muscle, the more calories you’ll burn simply to maintain that new muscle (and the wonderful cycle goes on and on!).
So you see, building muscle isn’t so scary and it can boost your metabolism too.
Next time, we’ll take a look at what the Common Metabolism-Boosting Myths are, starting with Myth No.1.
Bye for now
Sandra
The old perception was that muscle building leads to muscle bulking, and before long, gorging forearm veins and other unwanted results. This is, frankly, not the case.
Provided that women aren’t supporting their workouts with specific muscle-building supplements, there is no need to be concerned; because building lean muscle won’t make them bulk up.
Still, however, the question remains: why would women (and, of course, men) who want to boost their metabolism focus on muscle building? Isn’t cardiovascular exercising the only thing that matters?
Again, the answer is: No! In addition to a healthy and responsible cardiovascular program, muscle building is an exceptionally powerful way to boost metabolism.
How? Because, a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat.
And what does this mean? It means (and get ready to stare in awe) that if you have more muscle on your body – anywhere on your body – you will simply burn more calories as a result.
You don’t even have to do anything. You’ll simply burn more calories, because muscle requires more of an energy investment.
Of course, it’s common-sense that if you build muscle and then leave it alone, over time, the muscle fibres will weaken and you’ll lose that wonderful calorie-burning factory. But that’s no problem, because all you need to do is build and maintain healthy muscle.
It may sound daunting; especially if at the moment you believe you have much more fat than muscle. Yet the important thing for you to remember is that once you start building muscle – through any kind of strength training – your body will itself start burning more calories.
It has to, even while you sleep, or go to a movie, or read a book. It’s like putting your calorie-burning (catabolism) program on auto-pilot. So don’t let a little (or even a lot) of extra flab, at the moment, deter you from believing that muscle building is important.
Yes, you should enjoy cardiovascular exercise too, because that’s ultimately how your body is going to burn existing fat. But muscle building plays a profoundly supportive role in that pursuit.
And it’s an exponential one, too: the more fat you transform into muscle, the more calories you’ll burn simply to maintain that new muscle (and the wonderful cycle goes on and on!).
So you see, building muscle isn’t so scary and it can boost your metabolism too.
Next time, we’ll take a look at what the Common Metabolism-Boosting Myths are, starting with Myth No.1.
Bye for now
Sandra
Sunday, 3 October 2010
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
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
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 17 - Eat Yourself Slimmer
Eat More Often?
You may have heard before that eating frequently throughout the day can be very good for boosting metabolism, but if you ever wondered why, here are a couple of reasons.
The first is that people who tend to eat throughout the day do considerably less snacking. As a result, they are able to avoid the potato chips or candy bars that they might otherwise consume if they suddenly became hungry. People who eat throughout the day do not tend to experience severe hunger pangs, because they never reach that stage.
The second reason is that by eating throughout the day, you are constantly keeping your metabolism working. It is a little like having a generator running all the time; it will simply use more electricity than if you just powered it up 3 times a day.
Now, it goes without saying (though it should be said anyway just in case!), that just because it is good for metabolism-boosting to eat frequently, does not mean that you can eat junk all day long!
If you choose to eat more frequently, then try to be more aware of what you eat; because you can easily exceed the amount of daily calories you need if you do not keep an eye on this.
So, if your plan is to follow the eat-more-to-burn-more approach, it is often a good idea to keep a food journal that notes what you eat throughout the day (and drink of course).
Merely focusing on the number of your daily calories is only half the trick though. Try to ensure that you are also eating enough protein, carbohydrates, fats (the good unsaturated kind!), and the other vitamins and minerals that your body needs for a healthy way to lose weight.
See you next time in 'Boosting Your Metabolism - Eat Early!'.
Sandra
You may have heard before that eating frequently throughout the day can be very good for boosting metabolism, but if you ever wondered why, here are a couple of reasons.
The first is that people who tend to eat throughout the day do considerably less snacking. As a result, they are able to avoid the potato chips or candy bars that they might otherwise consume if they suddenly became hungry. People who eat throughout the day do not tend to experience severe hunger pangs, because they never reach that stage.
The second reason is that by eating throughout the day, you are constantly keeping your metabolism working. It is a little like having a generator running all the time; it will simply use more electricity than if you just powered it up 3 times a day.
Now, it goes without saying (though it should be said anyway just in case!), that just because it is good for metabolism-boosting to eat frequently, does not mean that you can eat junk all day long!
If you choose to eat more frequently, then try to be more aware of what you eat; because you can easily exceed the amount of daily calories you need if you do not keep an eye on this.
So, if your plan is to follow the eat-more-to-burn-more approach, it is often a good idea to keep a food journal that notes what you eat throughout the day (and drink of course).
Merely focusing on the number of your daily calories is only half the trick though. Try to ensure that you are also eating enough protein, carbohydrates, fats (the good unsaturated kind!), and the other vitamins and minerals that your body needs for a healthy way to lose weight.
See you next time in 'Boosting Your Metabolism - Eat Early!'.
Sandra
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Boost Your Calories to Boost Your Metabolism
For many of us, information concerning metabolism has related in one way or another to eating, in that we are told of metabolism-friendly foods, or metabolism unfriendly foods.
But really, while we may be basically aware that, all else being equal, a stalk of celery is better for your metabolism than fries with gravy, our understanding of diet and metabolism is actually pretty low.
To help overcome this, here are some powerful and scientific diet-related tips that will boost your metabolism. Indeed, as you will soon learn, it’s not just the case of what you eat that matters; it is when, and how, too.
So calories – yes, the word calorie has a bad rap. We frequently come across low calorie or calorie reduced foods. And it is not uncommon to overhear someone gasp about the immense calorie content of certain foods, such as a rich and creamy desert, or a giant fast food burger.
All of this anti-calorie rhetoric has therefore made a lot of us pretty calorie-phobic; as soon as we see something that has lots of them, we run away. But is this wise?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is wise in the sense that avoiding that double-layer chocolate fudge cake for dessert may be a good idea. The calories that come from the cake are really going to be the so-called empty calorie kind; which means there is no real nutritional value that your body can squeeze out and make use of.
But in the bigger picture, it is definitely unwise for your metabolism to become calorie-avoidant.
Why? Because your body is a marvelous machine that tries, at all times, to do what it can to make your life easier. Indeed, even when is does not function at optimal levels (for a variety of reasons, including genetics), it still tries to do its very best. The body, for all of its limitations, is not lazy!
The body is always trying to keep us alive and functioning in the manner that it deems to be healthiest, so that is why if you suddenly decrease the amount of calories you need, your body will not try to do more with less. In other words, your body will not respond in the way that you want it to, it will not necessarily provoke catabolism and thus reduce weight and fat cells.
To the contrary, your smart and wise body will try to keep you alive by slowing down its metabolism. Whether you are genuinely trapped somewhere without food, or are deliberately slashing your calories, to your body the circumstances are irrelevant – it will simply believe something is wrong and become very stingy with energy.
The end result? If your body needs 2000 calories a day to survive, and you suddenly slash it to only 1000, it will not begin to burn off 1000 calories worth of cells that you have lying around on your love handles. Instead, your body will slow down its metabolism. It will really try to squeeze as much energy out of those 1000 calories, because it does not want to waste anything.
Physically, you will naturally feel more tired because your body is being very miserly with energy, and will devote its 1000-calorie ration to essential systems, like blood and oxygen supply (and others). Slash your calories and the bottom line is, metabolically, you will not be burning off extra calories. In fact, you can actually gain weight by dramatically reducing your calorie intake!
The flipside to this is of course, that you should consume a daily caloric intake that is proportionate to your body size, type, and weight loss goals. Once you have got an idea on the amount of calories that you need you can provide them to your body via healthy, efficient calories.
For instance, if your body needs 1500 calories per day, and one slice of double-fudge chocolate cake delivers a whopping 500 of those, then obviously, eating just one of these slices will take up a full 1/3rd of your daily caloric needs and worse still, they are empty calories, which means you are going to be very tired and lethargic.
On the other hand, drinking a tasty fruit smoothie made with yogurt and nuts can deliver half as many calories, and provide you with essential nutrients, vitamins, and other elements that your body needs.
So, the healthy way to lose weight is not by slashing your calorie intake; and if you are looking for easy ways to lose weight, banishing all the bad calories you enjoy in your diet is certainly not the answer either. But if you understand where good and bad calories come from, and ration the bad rather than the number of calories in themselves, you will find that boosting your calories really can boost your metabolism, and it is a whole lot easier than you might think!
Until next time, CLICK HERE and find out how you can boost your metabolism without going hungry!
Sandra
But really, while we may be basically aware that, all else being equal, a stalk of celery is better for your metabolism than fries with gravy, our understanding of diet and metabolism is actually pretty low.
To help overcome this, here are some powerful and scientific diet-related tips that will boost your metabolism. Indeed, as you will soon learn, it’s not just the case of what you eat that matters; it is when, and how, too.
So calories – yes, the word calorie has a bad rap. We frequently come across low calorie or calorie reduced foods. And it is not uncommon to overhear someone gasp about the immense calorie content of certain foods, such as a rich and creamy desert, or a giant fast food burger.
All of this anti-calorie rhetoric has therefore made a lot of us pretty calorie-phobic; as soon as we see something that has lots of them, we run away. But is this wise?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is wise in the sense that avoiding that double-layer chocolate fudge cake for dessert may be a good idea. The calories that come from the cake are really going to be the so-called empty calorie kind; which means there is no real nutritional value that your body can squeeze out and make use of.
But in the bigger picture, it is definitely unwise for your metabolism to become calorie-avoidant.
Why? Because your body is a marvelous machine that tries, at all times, to do what it can to make your life easier. Indeed, even when is does not function at optimal levels (for a variety of reasons, including genetics), it still tries to do its very best. The body, for all of its limitations, is not lazy!
The body is always trying to keep us alive and functioning in the manner that it deems to be healthiest, so that is why if you suddenly decrease the amount of calories you need, your body will not try to do more with less. In other words, your body will not respond in the way that you want it to, it will not necessarily provoke catabolism and thus reduce weight and fat cells.
To the contrary, your smart and wise body will try to keep you alive by slowing down its metabolism. Whether you are genuinely trapped somewhere without food, or are deliberately slashing your calories, to your body the circumstances are irrelevant – it will simply believe something is wrong and become very stingy with energy.
The end result? If your body needs 2000 calories a day to survive, and you suddenly slash it to only 1000, it will not begin to burn off 1000 calories worth of cells that you have lying around on your love handles. Instead, your body will slow down its metabolism. It will really try to squeeze as much energy out of those 1000 calories, because it does not want to waste anything.
Physically, you will naturally feel more tired because your body is being very miserly with energy, and will devote its 1000-calorie ration to essential systems, like blood and oxygen supply (and others). Slash your calories and the bottom line is, metabolically, you will not be burning off extra calories. In fact, you can actually gain weight by dramatically reducing your calorie intake!
The flipside to this is of course, that you should consume a daily caloric intake that is proportionate to your body size, type, and weight loss goals. Once you have got an idea on the amount of calories that you need you can provide them to your body via healthy, efficient calories.
For instance, if your body needs 1500 calories per day, and one slice of double-fudge chocolate cake delivers a whopping 500 of those, then obviously, eating just one of these slices will take up a full 1/3rd of your daily caloric needs and worse still, they are empty calories, which means you are going to be very tired and lethargic.
On the other hand, drinking a tasty fruit smoothie made with yogurt and nuts can deliver half as many calories, and provide you with essential nutrients, vitamins, and other elements that your body needs.
So, the healthy way to lose weight is not by slashing your calorie intake; and if you are looking for easy ways to lose weight, banishing all the bad calories you enjoy in your diet is certainly not the answer either. But if you understand where good and bad calories come from, and ration the bad rather than the number of calories in themselves, you will find that boosting your calories really can boost your metabolism, and it is a whole lot easier than you might think!
Until next time, CLICK HERE and find out how you can boost your metabolism without going hungry!
Sandra
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 12 - Get on the Wagon
Maybe you have noticed that people who carefully choose low-fat, low-calorie meal choices, are often very disciplined when it comes to not ordering the Chef’s Special pecan pie for desert, yet order a glass or two of wine with their meal?
Well, unfortunately, these people are really undermining their efforts to boost metabolism, and are simply unaware that many alcoholic drinks are laden with almost as many calories as sugary-rich soft drinks.
A bottle of beer can deliver a few hundred calories, and most cocktails are in the same range. Wine is generally considered to deliver the least amount of calories; but even this is a bit of a slippery slope.
Three glasses of wine can be worth 300 calories that the body simply has to deal with in one form or another, but that’s not all, because studies show that drinking alcohol with meals actually encourages over eating; which means yet more calories that need to be burned away (or transformed into fat!).
The tip here isn’t to stop drinking alcohol altogether (despite the title of this section). If you enjoy alcohol then there’s no particular reason why you have to quit cold turkey, but you will save a bit of money and not consume as many calories.
If you are compensating for these added calories through exercise or muscle building, that’s okay and catabolism cannot occur. But if you go heavy on the alcohol instead, without compensating, then anabolism will inevitably occur, and new cells will be created from those calories (mostly fat cells).
So the call here is simply that you become aware that alcohol influences your metabolism significantly. If you consume excess alcohol, (even without becoming inebriated), you force your system to deal with more calories and worse still, they will be ‘empty’ calories with little nutritional value.
Just something to bear in mind till next time, when we continue through the Lifestyle section of Boosting Your Metabolism.
See you again soon
Sandra
Well, unfortunately, these people are really undermining their efforts to boost metabolism, and are simply unaware that many alcoholic drinks are laden with almost as many calories as sugary-rich soft drinks.
A bottle of beer can deliver a few hundred calories, and most cocktails are in the same range. Wine is generally considered to deliver the least amount of calories; but even this is a bit of a slippery slope.
Three glasses of wine can be worth 300 calories that the body simply has to deal with in one form or another, but that’s not all, because studies show that drinking alcohol with meals actually encourages over eating; which means yet more calories that need to be burned away (or transformed into fat!).
The tip here isn’t to stop drinking alcohol altogether (despite the title of this section). If you enjoy alcohol then there’s no particular reason why you have to quit cold turkey, but you will save a bit of money and not consume as many calories.
If you are compensating for these added calories through exercise or muscle building, that’s okay and catabolism cannot occur. But if you go heavy on the alcohol instead, without compensating, then anabolism will inevitably occur, and new cells will be created from those calories (mostly fat cells).
So the call here is simply that you become aware that alcohol influences your metabolism significantly. If you consume excess alcohol, (even without becoming inebriated), you force your system to deal with more calories and worse still, they will be ‘empty’ calories with little nutritional value.
Just something to bear in mind till next time, when we continue through the Lifestyle section of Boosting Your Metabolism.
See you again soon
Sandra
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Boosting Your Metabolism - Part 8 - Build Lean Muscle
Many women are very cautious about undertaking any exercise regimen that can lead to muscle building.
The old perception was that muscle building leads to muscle bulking, and before long, gorging forearm veins and a shrinking cleavage, is frankly not the case.
Provided you aren’t supporting workouts with specific muscle-building supplements, there is no need to be concerned; because building lean muscle won’t make you bulk up.
Still, the question remains: why would women who want to boost their metabolism focus on muscle building? Isn’t cardiovascular exercising the only thing that matters?
Again, the answer is: No! In addition to a healthy and responsible cardiovascular program, muscle building is an exceptionally powerful way to boost metabolism.
How? Because a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat.
And what does this mean? It means that if you have more muscle on your body – anywhere on your body – you will simply burn more calories as a result.
You don’t even have to do anything. You’ll just burn more calories, because muscle simply requires more of an energy investment.
Of course, as you can probably guess, if you build muscle and then leave it alone, over time, the muscle fibres will weaken and you’ll lose that wonderful calorie-burning factory. But that’s no problem, because all you need to do is build and maintain healthy muscle.
It may sound daunting; especially if at the moment you perceive yourself to have much more fat than muscle. But the important thing to remember is that once you start building muscle – through any kind of strength training – your body will itself start burning more calories.
It has to; even while you sleep, or go to a movie, or read a book. It’s like putting your calorie-burning (catabolism) program on auto-pilot.
So don’t let a little (or even a lot) of extra flab, deter you from believing that muscle building is important.
Yes, you should enjoy cardiovascular exercise too, because that’s ultimately how your body is going to burn existing fat. But muscle building plays a profoundly supportive role in that pursuit.
And it’s an exponential one, too: the more fat you transform into muscle, the more calories you’ll burn simply to maintain that new muscle (and the wonderful cycle goes on and on!).
For more great ideas on building lean muscle Click Here and take a look...
See you in Blog 9!
Sandra
The old perception was that muscle building leads to muscle bulking, and before long, gorging forearm veins and a shrinking cleavage, is frankly not the case.
Provided you aren’t supporting workouts with specific muscle-building supplements, there is no need to be concerned; because building lean muscle won’t make you bulk up.
Still, the question remains: why would women who want to boost their metabolism focus on muscle building? Isn’t cardiovascular exercising the only thing that matters?
Again, the answer is: No! In addition to a healthy and responsible cardiovascular program, muscle building is an exceptionally powerful way to boost metabolism.
How? Because a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat.
And what does this mean? It means that if you have more muscle on your body – anywhere on your body – you will simply burn more calories as a result.
You don’t even have to do anything. You’ll just burn more calories, because muscle simply requires more of an energy investment.
Of course, as you can probably guess, if you build muscle and then leave it alone, over time, the muscle fibres will weaken and you’ll lose that wonderful calorie-burning factory. But that’s no problem, because all you need to do is build and maintain healthy muscle.
It may sound daunting; especially if at the moment you perceive yourself to have much more fat than muscle. But the important thing to remember is that once you start building muscle – through any kind of strength training – your body will itself start burning more calories.
It has to; even while you sleep, or go to a movie, or read a book. It’s like putting your calorie-burning (catabolism) program on auto-pilot.
So don’t let a little (or even a lot) of extra flab, deter you from believing that muscle building is important.
Yes, you should enjoy cardiovascular exercise too, because that’s ultimately how your body is going to burn existing fat. But muscle building plays a profoundly supportive role in that pursuit.
And it’s an exponential one, too: the more fat you transform into muscle, the more calories you’ll burn simply to maintain that new muscle (and the wonderful cycle goes on and on!).
For more great ideas on building lean muscle Click Here and take a look...
See you in Blog 9!
Sandra
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