I met a fantastic new client a few weeks ago (Hi Jane), and its been a pleasure seeing the shocked look on her face as I’ve taught her about nutrition and lifestyle changes. One question she’s had has been about a ‘bootcamp’ she’s booked on which involves a 1200 calorie controlled diet alongside 3000 calories worth of exercise a day.
Math wasn’t my best subject at school but the figures just don’t make sense!! Sure they’ll be a weight loss but it isn’t healthy and would no doubt me loss of muscle tissue than body fat loss. Why would the body release body fat under such extreme starvation. Metabolism needs careful consideration, not shock tactics.
Metabolism gets blamed when people put on weight or have trouble losing weight, people often say ‘I have a low metabolism, so its not my fault’. Metabolism is a constantly adapting factor in our bodies designed to help us in times of starvation. Nowadays we have an abundance of food and the metabolism ends up working in a far different way.
Rather than helping us during food shortages (low crop yields etc) it ends up becoming confused by our erratic diet and lifestyle. One day we binge eat, the next we starve. I say ‘we’ because I did eat this way a long long time ago before I started studying nutrition. To balance out the metabolism and learn how to speed it up (bring it back to where it should naturally be), we need to eat smart.
Metabolism is a combination of physical and chemical processes called anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the constructive phase of metabolism in which body cells synthesize protoplasm for growth and repair. Catabolism is the destructive phase of metabolism in which complex substances are broken down into simpler compounds producing energy which is essential for the proper functioning of body cells. Together, these processes distribute nutrients which are absorbed into the blood after digestion.
Three factors determine your metabolic rate, which is the amount of calories your body uses every day. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate your body uses energy for vital body processes. The rate you burn energy during physical activity and the rate you use energy during digestion of food are the two other factors involved in your total metabolic rate. To improve your metabolic efficiency you only need to alter the way you eat and what you do a little bit to experience a difference in how you look and feel. If your expend huge amounts of energy and don't consume the necessary amounts of energy for YOUR body, you will be starving it which necessities your metabolic rate becoming more efficient i.e slowing down to protect its energy supply.
The best way to jump-start your metabolism is to eat with structure. By structure I mean eating the same amounts (calories) each day at similar times. Avoid yo-yoing up and down, skipping meals and having binges and starvation periods. Doing this alone will teach your body to trust you once more and the metabolism will reset itself.
Exercise can help reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass but you really do need to know what your doing. By increasing lean muscle mass, metabolism will increase and aid in the weight-loss process. Muscle tissue uses more calories than fat tissue because it has a metabolic need. Resistance or strength training increases your lean muscle mass which in turn increases your resting metabolic rate. This means you need to eat for the new muscle mass, otherwise your semi-starving yourself.
Eat breakfast!
Breakfast is essential. Your body has been deprived of food throughout the night, therefore your metabolism has slowed. If the cells do not receive sufficient nutrients they will begin to function less efficiently on smaller amounts, and they will actually store more fat to use during these times of nutritional deprivation. Eat five to six small meals a day to keep your body’s fuel supply consistent and keep your metabolism trusting in you. Consistency is important because your body metabolism adapts to your current weight. If you have been dieting or skipping meals your body’s metabolism slows down to compensate for the lack of nutrients. When lean people overeat their metabolism speeds up and when people diet their metabolism slows down. The key is a balance of exercise and diet, not a boot camp that restricts calories and forces exercise at insane levels.
Math wasn’t my best subject at school but the figures just don’t make sense!! Sure they’ll be a weight loss but it isn’t healthy and would no doubt me loss of muscle tissue than body fat loss. Why would the body release body fat under such extreme starvation. Metabolism needs careful consideration, not shock tactics.
Metabolism gets blamed when people put on weight or have trouble losing weight, people often say ‘I have a low metabolism, so its not my fault’. Metabolism is a constantly adapting factor in our bodies designed to help us in times of starvation. Nowadays we have an abundance of food and the metabolism ends up working in a far different way.
Rather than helping us during food shortages (low crop yields etc) it ends up becoming confused by our erratic diet and lifestyle. One day we binge eat, the next we starve. I say ‘we’ because I did eat this way a long long time ago before I started studying nutrition. To balance out the metabolism and learn how to speed it up (bring it back to where it should naturally be), we need to eat smart.
Metabolism is a combination of physical and chemical processes called anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the constructive phase of metabolism in which body cells synthesize protoplasm for growth and repair. Catabolism is the destructive phase of metabolism in which complex substances are broken down into simpler compounds producing energy which is essential for the proper functioning of body cells. Together, these processes distribute nutrients which are absorbed into the blood after digestion.
Three factors determine your metabolic rate, which is the amount of calories your body uses every day. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate your body uses energy for vital body processes. The rate you burn energy during physical activity and the rate you use energy during digestion of food are the two other factors involved in your total metabolic rate. To improve your metabolic efficiency you only need to alter the way you eat and what you do a little bit to experience a difference in how you look and feel. If your expend huge amounts of energy and don't consume the necessary amounts of energy for YOUR body, you will be starving it which necessities your metabolic rate becoming more efficient i.e slowing down to protect its energy supply.
The best way to jump-start your metabolism is to eat with structure. By structure I mean eating the same amounts (calories) each day at similar times. Avoid yo-yoing up and down, skipping meals and having binges and starvation periods. Doing this alone will teach your body to trust you once more and the metabolism will reset itself.
Exercise can help reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass but you really do need to know what your doing. By increasing lean muscle mass, metabolism will increase and aid in the weight-loss process. Muscle tissue uses more calories than fat tissue because it has a metabolic need. Resistance or strength training increases your lean muscle mass which in turn increases your resting metabolic rate. This means you need to eat for the new muscle mass, otherwise your semi-starving yourself.
Eat breakfast!
Breakfast is essential. Your body has been deprived of food throughout the night, therefore your metabolism has slowed. If the cells do not receive sufficient nutrients they will begin to function less efficiently on smaller amounts, and they will actually store more fat to use during these times of nutritional deprivation. Eat five to six small meals a day to keep your body’s fuel supply consistent and keep your metabolism trusting in you. Consistency is important because your body metabolism adapts to your current weight. If you have been dieting or skipping meals your body’s metabolism slows down to compensate for the lack of nutrients. When lean people overeat their metabolism speeds up and when people diet their metabolism slows down. The key is a balance of exercise and diet, not a boot camp that restricts calories and forces exercise at insane levels.
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