FITNESS TRAINING: ARTICLES

Speeding Up Metabolism Naturally
By John Hoeber, MS, RD

Speeding up metabolism is the key to weight loss success. Diet pills offer the promise of easy weight loss by speeding up metabolism, but these chemical or herbal concoctions rely on stimulants that temporarily elevate metabolism. This can have some potentially dangerous side effects. It’s not unlike taking a small 4 cylinder engine and pushing it to 120 mph all the way to Tahoe and back. It’s better to increase the amount of gas you burn by switching to a larger engine, say an 8 cylinder SUV. If you increase your own calorie burning engine, your muscles, you can burn more calories naturally.

Most dieters have heard of the “set point” theory – the idea that the body has a certain weight that it likes to maintain. One of the most basic and overriding functions of the human body is homeostasis, or - maintaining the status quo. During a diet the body fights to maintain weight, and afterwards it tries to return to the previously set weight.

The body resists weight changes by regulating appetite and metabolic rate. If we try to lose weight by drastically cutting calories, the rate at which we burn calories (resting metabolism) lowers. It does this by slowing down normal body processes. It slows down even more if we skip meals, often called “starvation mode.” To make matters worse, adding a light cardio exercise program, such as walking, on top of calorie restriction has been found to lower resting metabolism even further.

Fortunately, the “set point” can be reset, but it requires permanently changing activity level and resting metabolism. You can increase resting metabolism by adding muscle. Muscle is the engine that drives resting metabolic rate and the bigger the engine the more fuel it burns. This is true at any age – the slowing in metabolism as we age can be attributed to loss of muscle mass.

A person over 35 years of age can lose about one pound of muscle per year due to inactivity. That loss can decrease resting metabolism enough to gain one pound of fat that year and each and every year thereafter. At first the change in weight is minimal as muscle is replaced with fat, but each year the pace of fat deposition speeds. As more and more muscle is lost, metabolism gets slower and slower. Weight loss becomes more difficult and dieters who cut back on food even more get caught it a vicious cycle of ever decreasing metabolism and less and less food. The cycle can be reversed by eating regularly and building muscle. Building muscle is the most important thing to do to keep from gaining weight.

But how can we lay down new muscle? And how fast? The speed at which we lay down new muscle varies greatly due to genetics, gender, age, current fitness level and type and intensity of exercise. A reasonable expectation is 4 to 10 pounds per year. Muscle magazines are filled with muscle building supplements and protein bars, but simply eating more protein will not create muscles, we have to work at it. For most people the limiting factor in muscle development is the amount and intensity of exercise they do, not the amount of protein they eat. A good rule of thumb is to workout with weights heavy enough to make you feel sore the next day – without sacrificing posture and form – and to do that three days per week.

Those who increase their resting metabolism are the most successful dieters. The best part of increasing resting metabolism is that you can more burn calories while sitting around, in your car, all the way to Tahoe.