There are many benefits to increasing your metabolism. You can have an energy boost throughout the day, you will sleep much better, and probably the most important health benefit of all is that you will lose weight and then be able to maintain that weight. And here’s a benefit that most people don’t think about. Simply increasing your metabolism will burn more calories even when you are sleeping.
With a slow but steady increase in metabolism, it is possible to achieve the recommended weight loss of one to two pounds per week. The interesting thing about increasing your metabolism is the fact that to burn calories the body needs calories. In fact, cutting calories can slow down your metabolism to the point where you no longer burn excess calories and your body begins to store more fat.
As everyone knows, exercising is a good way to lose weight. It is also a good way to increase your metabolism. But just like anything else, it’s the type of exercise that’s important to your long-term weight loss goals. Many fitness and weight loss “gurus” have led the general public to believe that aerobic or cardiovascular type workouts are the best way to lose weight. While there is nothing wrong with doing those types of exercise and there are indeed great health benefits to doing them, but they are not the end of weight loss.
This is why. By doing aerobic workouts, your metabolism increases and burns more calories than if you were sitting on the couch watching TV. But what happens when your training ends? Your metabolism slows down. You are no longer burning those extra calories. The key to increasing your metabolism is to increase your metabolic rate while resting.
How do you do this? Weight training. Building lean muscle mass is a calorie burning machine not only during training, but also after training, when you are resting your muscles are rebuilding and this is consuming calories. The beauty of weight training is that you can customize your workout to shape your body as you see fit. Lifting weights will not build large, bulky muscles unless you adapt your training and lifestyle to do so. For women, weight training is a great way to not only increase your metabolism, but also to shape and tone your body. The other benefit of weight training is the ability to keep the weight off once you’ve lost it. Lean muscle mass requires large amounts of caloric energy to maintain itself.
Combine these two exercise regimens to boost your metabolism and you’re really on your way to losing your desired amount of weight and keeping it off with ease. The only thing missing is the desire and commitment to make it happen and that is something that has to come from within.