Burn Fat, Increase Metabolism

I talked the other day about increasing metabolism to get faster caloric burn. What I suggested was eating more meals per day (5 to 6) but smaller quantities of food. This has been proven to work. I have even known people to sneak in an extra meal by getting up around 3 in the morning to have a meal replacement shake to push it a little further. I think that's a bit extreme (OK, a lot extreme, but that's just me)

What are some other ways to increase your metabolic rate? First let's understand what that really means. Metabolic rate is simply the speed at which your body burns calories. So what burns calories best? Muscle mass. So one of the best ways to burn the fat is to add muscle. And how do we do that?

Everyone, all together now, 1,2,3...weight training. That's right folks. Build your muscles and they will do the work from there. Lots of people spend time on treadmills and eleptical machines, etc, and I am not saying to give that up. That also burns calories and gives your heart a great workout, but muscle works 24/7 to burn more fat for you. If you've ver wondered how those bodybuilder types eat so much yet stay lean, that is the trick. Their muscles need all those extra calories. If those folks don't eat massive amounts of quality food they will lose muscle mass.

The next thing I will talk about is sex. Now the best way to do that is...wait, no, what I am talking about is the inequality of weight loss between men and women. I've heard it lots of times, it is easier for a man to lose weight than a woman. This ties right back to muscle mass again. A man with a high percentage of body fat will burn less calories than a woman who has more muscle mass. (Or it will be really close at least) So again it ties in with resistance training.

When I talked about weight training, it doesn't have to be free weights. It can be machines, it can be plate loaded machines, it could be using your body weight for resistance. It all boils down to pushing and pulling weights, of any sort, with your muscles and building them up.

Another, perhaps easier, way to increase the burn is to increase water intake. Water is at the center of the hydration process, and is also key to the chemical reactions that relate to burning more calories.

These are just a couple examples of ways to increase your metabolism. Deb is working on a new book with lots of ways to increase metabolic burn rate and I am really looking forward to reading that and incorporating some of those ideas as well.I'll keep you posted on the release.