The Makeover, a term that is applied to a change in one's overall external appearance. The Makeover can range from something as simple as a haircut to body altering cosmetic surgery. Makeovers have been made into popular reality television shows, "Extreme Makeover, The Beauty Show, Bridalplasty, and What Not To Wear," for example. Instead of focusing on the outside appearance, today we are going to discuss the Metabolism Makeover.
The Metabolism is the "Engine of Life." It the body's mechanism for burning fat, especially stored fat. Metabolism varies from person to person with some being slow/sluggish and others fast. The good news is that you can change or better yet makeover your metabolism with six simple Metabolism Makeover Tips.
1. Muscle: The most important impact on metabolism is the amount of lean muscle you have when compared to body weight. Muscle burns calories for fuel, especially fat calories. Once ignited muscle burns about 50 calories a day and, like a fire, your body will burn at optimal levels, even while you are sleeping.
2. After-Burn: The extra calories burned after your exercise session is over. Also known as "Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption." While working out your body burns calories to fuel muscle, this caloric burn is important but it's what happens post exercise that is most critical. The stress of physical activity keeps your body burning calories from glucose and fat long after the exercise bout is completed. It is this caloric burn that pays for the investment of exercise.
3. Interval Training: This concept is simply alternating short, high intensity spurts of cardio activity with spurts of less-intense cardio training. This is an excellent calorie-burning program because it recruits more and new muscles fibers. Another fantastic aspect of this program is it can be used with any aerobic activity, biking, walking, jogging, swimming, elliptical, etc.
4. Fuel/Nutrition: Just like showering without soap doesn't work, you're not going to experience optimal fat burn without exercise and the right nutrition plan. You need the correct balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat to get the metabolism boost. If you want a nice hot fire you need to constantly feed it with wood, your metabolism is like this also. Focus on the number of snack and meals eaten daily. Eating five to six meals a day as opposed to three squares keeps your metabolism going 24/7.
5. Sleep: Sleep deprivation is a leading contributor to weight gain. It disrupts hormones that control eating habits and metabolism, and is really the main saboteur to fat loss. Also, when you're tired your body's energy levels are low, causing your metabolism to slow down.
6. Stress: When stressed your body gets flooded with stress hormones. These hormones trigger fat cells to increase in size and storage. They also put the appetite into over drive, triggering an urge to eat everything in sight, especially sweets, carbs and fats. Eventually, you'll be eating more calories than can be burned off.
The next time you think about a make over, start with your metabolism and burn the optimal amount of fat 24 hours a day for the rest of your life.
Blair Moreau - Mercy Health Partners