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Exercise And Metabolism
There are thousands of metabolic reactions happening at the same time just to keep your cells healthy and working. These are all regulated by your body without you having to give them a second thought. Your metabolism can be broken up into three sections. 1) Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – this is how much energy your body uses at rest and contributes to 50–80% of the energy your body uses every day (i.e. the amount of energy your body needs just to maintain itself). This is largely affected by your total lean mass,particularly muscle mass, as lean muscle mass has a major impact on your BMR. Therefore, anything that reduces your lean mass, such as calorie restricted dieting, will also reduce your BMR. That is why it is so important to preserve muscle mass when you are losing weight by ensuring you are losing body fat rather than body ‘weight’. 2) How much physical activity you do – the more you move the more energy your body will use, both through planned exercise and incidental day to day activities. The energy used by your muscles makes up around 20% of your total energy used at rest. However, when you are doing strenuous exercise the rate of energy used by your muscles can go up 50-fold or more! Including both strength training and cardio into your weekly exercise program can have a massive impact on this area of your metabolism. 3) How often you eat: the thermogenic effect of food – this is how much energy your body uses when you eat, digest and metabolise food. Contrary to what many people think, eating actually helps to increase your metabolism. Every time you eat, a metabolic rise occurs shortly after you start eating and then peaks about two to three hours later. Depending on the types of food and the size of the meal you are eating, this can range from as little as 2–3% up to a massive 25–30%. To give you a rough indication of how foods can affect your metabolism, fats raise your BMR by about 4%, carbohydrates by about 6% and proteins by up to 30%! Hot and spicy foods can also have a positive and significant thermic effect. There are a number of other factors that also have a smaller affect on your metabolism. * Age: Your metabolism may slow down as you age as a result of the body losing lean muscle mass over the years. You can expect your metabolism to decline by about 2% every decade after the age of 20 if you don’t strength train! * Sex: Men have a naturally higher level of lean muscle mass, so generally they have a higher metabolism than women. * Height: Tall people have a greater surface area for their bodies to fuel; as a result they tend to have a faster metabolism. * Family History: Your genetics may also play a small role in your metabolism. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Sonja Falvo is the Body Transformation Specialist at Real Body Enterprises and has helped thousands of people to get the body they have always dreamed of. Author of two books (The Real Body Plan and The Real Body Real Food Plan) and highly regarded public speaker, Sonja can show you how easy it is to lose weight without dieting, giving up your favourite foods or spending endless hours in the gym. For more information visit www.realbodyenterprises.com |
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