Boosting
Metabolism: Is It Possible?
It’s one
of the most maddening—and somewhat unfair—facts about
human existence: some people can eat whatever they want and never
gain weight, while others eat very little and have a weight problem.
What is the difference between these two groups of people? Metabolism:
the way your body uses calories from the food you eat. Metabolism
is a complex process that involves many different chemical reactions
and organs in your body. The bottom line is, unfortunately, some
people burn calories more than others. If you happen to be one of
those people who don’t need many calories to keep you going,
you may be happy to hear that boosting metabolism is possible, although
not always easy.
Boosting metabolism
can be a challenging experience, especially as you age. After the
age of 40, your metabolism will slow at a rate of about 5 percent
per decade. Other factors that influence metabolism are gender (men
need more calories than women to survive), heredity, thyroid issues,
and the amount of muscle mass you have.
Strangely, when
you weigh more, technically your metabolism is running higher. The
more people weigh, the more calories they need to maintain that
weight. This fact makes boosting metabolism essential when you lose
weight, because otherwise, the weight will be easily regained if
you go back to your old eating habits.
In some ways, you
are stuck with the metabolism you were born with, but there are
a few tricks to boosting metabolism that will help you lose weight
and maintain your weight loss. Basically, there is one key to boosting
metabolism: exercise.
Both aerobic exercise
and weight lifting will help you in boosting metabolism. Aerobic
workouts burn more calories while you participate in the exercise,
and these workouts also boost your metabolism in the hours following
your exercise. Weight training is just as important for boosting
metabolism. Why? Because weightlifting builds muscle tissue. When
your body is at rest, muscle tissue burns way more calories than
fat tissue—up to 15 times more calories.
So, even though
you may have been given a slow metabolism by nature, aerobic exercise
and weightlifting may be able to give you the metabolism boosting
edge that you’ve been searching for.
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