Change your body composition to burn more calories
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is how do I boost my metabolism? This is actually easy and hard all at the same time! Easy because you can boost your metabolism all day long by achieving an ideal body composition of 18-22% body fat, hard because as you might have found out, this can be easier said than done.
First make sure you don't have an underlying problem.
I want to back up a bit as before we go down this road on how to build and keep muscle without looking like an Olympic powerlifter, you will first need to ensure that your metabolism isn't operating on the slow mo due to other reasons. The two classic reasons that your metabolism may be sluggish and you fight to lose a pound only to look at a cupcake to gain it right back are 1. Thyroid fatigue and 2. Toxicity. If your body temperature is chronically running below 98 degrees, you are frequently fatigued, your skin is dry, you have gastrointestinal issues or high cholesterol see your integrated health care professional who understands these conditions to dig deeper.
You may be thin but still fat!
So assuming that your thyroid gland is working well and your detoxification pathways are handling the ever increasing toxic load we are dumping into ourselves, then you want to look at how you can build and maintain muscle. You have probably heard the alarming statistics that 70% of the American population is now overweight or obese(more are obese now than overweight). But what you might not have heard is that of the other 30% roughly half of them are TOFI-thin outside, fat inside. This means that they have too much body fat and not enough muscle relative to their body weight due to the fact that they are maintaining their weight without exercise, or the type of exercise that builds muscle.
Quit breaking down.
Remember as we age we breakdown more than we build up so you will need to do exercise that builds muscle as you age in order to just stay the same! Muscle is the single biggest way you can boost your metabolism all day long. Each pound of muscle can require as much as 50 more calories a day to maintain. Plus exercise that builds muscle (ie short burst high intensity style exercise lasting 30-60 seconds and performed in multiple sets with recovery periods in between) is much more metabolic costly.
Think about walking, in a sense it is really just controlled falling, your body doesn't have to do much repair work afterwards to recover from it. Contrast this with resistance training using multi-joint big muscle free weight exercises like lunges, squats, pull-ups and push-ups. Your body has a lot of work to do after you are done training to repair the micro-damage you have done and replace the oxygen debt you have incurred. The result, a revved up metabolism post exercise and then a consistently elevated metabolism as you add more muscle to your frame.
No you won't get bigger.
Okay, I take that back, if you start doing this type of training to build muscle and you begin eating like a football player on game day, yes you will. But if you follow a healthy balanced eating plan and you add this training in you will get tighter(remember muscle is that metabolic girdle that holds everything in tighter and gives you tone and shape) and smaller even if your weight doesn't change as much since muscle is more dense and therefore weighs more than fat. This is why it is critical to not only look at your total weight but to look at your body fat, it is not just what you weigh, but what that weight is made up of that counts!
Celebrity Nutrition and Fitness Expert JJ Virgin PhD CNS is the founder of Overcoming Weight Loss Resistance(TM). If you are struggling with weight loss visit www.jjvirgin.com.
