Posts Tagged ‘metabolism’

Things That Can Make You Gain Weight Instantly

If you incessantly check your weight, you may be losing motivation very quickly. Keep in mind, however, that even though your weight may be going up, you could be making substantial progress in the right direction.

In fact, you might be losing fat while gaining weight. How can this happen? Well, usually water is to blame.

Now you may already be aware of the fact that water can lead to excess and temporary weight gain. However, have you pinpointed the exact source of your excess water gain? If you haven’t, here are 5 weight gain gremlins:

1. The weight of food. Although this sounds simplistic, many women overlook this factor. If you eat a big meal, you’ll instantly gain the weight of that meal. Period. Food has weight, and if the food goes into your mouth you gain that weight. And if the food is loaded with salt expect additional water weight.

2. Carbohydrates. You need carbohydrates to function properly. Without them, your brain would become extremely sluggish and you’d lose most of your ability to recover from exercise. And each gram of carbohydrate that gets pulled into muscle brings 3 grams of water with it.

3. Sodium. You probably already knew this one, but did you appreciate the magnitude of sodium weight gain? Most women grossly underestimate how much water they are actually retaining because of sodium. Too much sodium can make or break an already lean woman’s appearance.

4. Water. I’m not talking about drinking water, I’m talking about water hitting your skin. Believe it or not, you will absorb water when you shower or take a bath or enter any body of water. Many athletes have failed their weigh ins because of this skin-absorbing effect.

5. Lifting heavy stuff. By heavy stuff I mean weights. Weight training teaches your muscles how to hold on to more carbohydrates, and remember that more carbohydrates translate into more water coming in. Does this mean you shouldn’t weight lift? Absolutely not! In the long run you’ll be way better off if you do.

Please do not get compulsive with weighing yourself every single day. This is a surefire way to de-motivate yourself very quickly. And if you are having some water retention issues, the above tips can be a great starting point for troubleshooting the cause.

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Regular Short Sprinting Sessions Boost Metabolism

The current issue of the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders contains a report from researchers at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland, who have shown that an extremely short high-intensity interval training workout can improve metabolic function substantially in as little as two weeks. We’re talking about really short workouts here: a total of 3 minutes of maximum effort sprinting per workout, with workouts completed just a few days each week.

Professor James Timmons and a team of researchers at Heriot-Watt tested the insulin action and glucose clearance of 16 sedentary male volunteers. They then started the men on workouts consisting of short all-out sprints of 30 seconds on a stationary bike, with the total exercise time being three minutes. The volunteers repeated these workouts every few days.

When tested two weeks later, the volunteers were seen to have “substantially improved both insulin action and glucose clearance” even though the total workout time was far shorter than any commonly-accepted guidelines.

Dr. Timmons went on to say that while the standard workout guidelines of several hours a week of moderate to vigorous exercise are a fine target, few people are accomplishing this. Very short HIIT workouts can deliver substantial improvements, and could provide an alternative for people who can’t or won’t meet the standard workout guidelines.

This study is yet another example of the significant potential benefits of short, high-intensity HIIT style workouts when compared to more traditional workouts. You can also take something else away from these impressive results. If the sedentary males in this study could achieve substantial metabolic improvements in just a couple of weeks of super-short HIIT workouts, what can you achieve if you adopt a proven muscle building and fitness plan that applies HIIT principles?

To read a review of a complete fitness and muscle building plan that employs HIIT to deliver exceptional results, visit http://GetFitAtLast.com

 

How to Boost your Metabolism

There are too many things to do with your body for you to have any excuses for being overweight. You could exercise to speed up your metabolism, or you could pick up some extra muscle so that you can burn calories better. No one really should have to deal with weight problems anymore… if they can just work hard on boosting their metabolism. So please stop eating those delicious chocolate caramels.

Fast weight loss comes in no way better than with a fast metabolism. Much of the food you eat and the calories it contains stay in your body when metabolism is slow. You are however able to live a healthier life when your systems works just a bit faster.

A lot of people think they are obese because they are born that way, but they couldn’t be more wrong. The truth is that they are obese because they have a slow metabolism. This they have to do something about, or remain that way for life. Instead of doing nothing about it, look for effective ways to boost your metabolism. You will be surprised how easy it can be to start and successfully maintain an effective system for boosting your metabolism. But if you are weak enough when it comes to eating candies, at least try the calorie-free chocolate.

It is no longer a secret that obese people often suffer from slow metabolism. The amount of stuff that is stored up under their skin is sufficient evidence of this. To change their condition, they often have to work out and work out hard. In addition, they might need also to watch their diets. With these, they just might boost their metabolism. If you are also suffering from obesity, it’s time to get your jogging shoes out and get the fat out as well.

Foods that you eat contain calories. But by engaging in lots of exercise you do yourself a ton of good. You see, the exercises that you do help to burn these calories, they speed up your metabolism such that the calories are either consumed or passed out. You simply have to watch out that it doesn’t get too much, though. You could hurt yourself.

You are a happier person, by and by, if your metabolism is fast enough. Not too fast – that is just as bad as having a slow metabolism. Rather, you just want it to be appropriate. And who wouldn’t? Just make sure you do it right. Many people do it wrong and end up complicating their system, instead of helping it. Don’t let this happen to do. Boost your metabolism – yes, but do it in moderation, not in excess.

Obesity is almost a direct indictment on you. It points quite clearly to the fact that your metabolism is slowing down and you might not be liking this soon enough. By speeding up the metabolism in your body, you are almost certain to lose much of the weight. And tell me – apart than weigh you down, what good does an obese size do to anyone, let alone you?

Have you ever heard about Basal Metabolic Rate? Many people haven’t. You see, your Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of calories that your body burns up out of the amount of calories that you consume in food. Known as your BMR, its standard value in most humans is about 60 percent. Anything less implies that your metabolism is too slow. You might want to speed it up a little.

Your own personal anomalies aside, if you eat lighter foods, you get to have a quicker metabolism. However, if you are someone who exercises a lot, your metabolism is already fast enough. Lighter foods then might not be a great idea; your body will consume such foods too fast and then you find yourself asking for more.

Individual muscles in your body each burn up to 50 calories a day. As such, you know that the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. If you are a lady, you are actually healthier if you put on some muscle. Not everything has to be curves in your body.

Exercise works for you in two ways. Your cardiovascular processes are improves while you are working out, for one; and on the other front, even after you are done working out, you body maintains that boost of metabolism for a while longer. Why else do you think athletes act like junkies as regards to daily exercising? Because they need that daily fix of course! Get into such a mood too and your health will be the better for it.

One of the most important metabolism boosting exercise that you can do is resistance training. This is true even for ladies – “especially” for ladies. With work outs of this nature, you not only get a longer boost on your metabolism, you also get to grow some muscle.

Speeding up the metabolism in your body is easy when you know what foods you can eat to get you there. Some combinations do the trick, but you have to learn them and use them well, or else you could end up all obese and overweight and pretty sickly.

The trick to better health is faster metabolism, in case you do not know this already. And the key to a faster metabolism is actually threefold. Good food, muscle mass, and reasonable exercise. Keep it up like this and you would have increased your chances of living a very long and healthy life. Avoid high calories desserts.

A faster catabolism means that the large molecules in your body break down faster. Your cells are able to breathe better and faster; and you are better able to stay healthy. If you ask me, I’d say this is worth a whole lifetime of workouts.

You can lose weight pretty fast if you really want to. What you need is a quicker metabolism. All those processes, chemical and physical inside of you, all you need is a quicker metabolism that will have them all falling into place within days. Before you know what hit you, you’re bouncing around in your dream body.