How to Speed Up Your Metabolism to Lose Weight Faster

There is tons of information out there about metabolism and fat loss. I will guide you through the tricky waters of metabolism facts and fiction. Metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you did nothing all day (or the amount of calories your body needs to maintain itself).

The starting point for determining your daily caloric needs starts with your BMR. It is critical for you to know your BMR if you are attempting to burn fat and lose weight. If you maintain a caloric surplus (consuming more calories than you burn), you will gain weight and fat no matter how fast your metabolism hums . For example, my BMR is about 2000 calories, so I would need to consume at least this amount of calories just to maintain my weight. I will talk more about BMR and the energy equation in part 2 of this series.

Here are a few facts about metabolism:

Fact #1 A slow or sluggish metabolism is not the major cause of weight gain.

A caloric imbalance is the cause of weight gain (consuming more calories than you burn in a day). If you have a slow or sluggish metabolism? A brisk 30 minute walk each day would get you started in the right direction to speed it up.

Fact #2 Lifting weights (or other resistance exercises) and cardio exercise will give you a higher metabolic rate.

Specifically, a combination of circuit weight training and high intensity interval cardio will get your metabolism "revved up."

Fact #3 Sweating is not a gauge of how many calories you are burning.

This may be bad news for sauna and steam room lovers! Weight loss or gain is a product of calories consumed or burned. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight and vice-versa.

Fact #4 The best time to exercise is whenever you have the most energy.

Working out at any time of the day will increase metabolism for several hours, depending on intensity.

Fact #5 Your metabolism doesn't necessarily have to slow down as you get older.

In general, your metabolism slows down at a rate of 5% per decade after age 40 (source: WebMD.com). The easiest way to keep a healthy metabolic rate for life is to engage in consistent weight training and interval cardio. This way, you will maintain important muscle mass and burn fat. So, how many daily calories are burned by one pound of muscle? And the answer is---35 to 50 calories!

So, what determines the rate at which your body burns calories? Some factors include age, heredity, gender and lean muscle mass. Men tend to have faster metabolisms than women. Thyroid problems may also cause your metabolism to slow down.

The energy equation as it relates to fat loss and weight loss

Remember, metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you did nothing all day (or the amount of calories your body needs to maintain itself).

The starting point for determining your daily caloric needs starts with your BMR. It is critical for you to know your BMR if you are attempting to burn fat and lose weight. If you maintain a caloric surplus (consuming more calories than you burn), you will gain weight and fat no matter how fast your metabolism hums.

Follow this example:

Your BMR is 1800 and you use another 800 calories through exercise and daily activity (a total of 2600 calories). If you consume 2200 calories during the day, you would have a caloric deficit of 400. This will cause you to lose weight for the day. If you continue this pattern, you will lose weight every day. It is important not to starve your body or you will get the opposite effect of what you want. Starvation will cause your body to conserve energy and store fat. For instance, if you consumed 1700 calories, you would not even meet your BMR needs. This amount (900 deficit) is unhealthy and will cause fat storage and a host of other health problems if continued. This type of deprivation can also lead to loss of lean muscle mass.

The type of nutrition you consume and timing of nutrition is also very important for your metabolism. Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly. In the next part of this series, I will cover the basic role that nutrition plays as it relates to your metabolism.

The type of nutrition you consume and timing of nutrition is very important for your metabolism. Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly.

Increasing lean muscle mass is critical to permanently speed up your metabolism. The body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. Thirty-five to 50 daily calories are burned by one pound of muscle. Protein's main role in the body is to repair and rebuild body tissues (especially so after an intense weight training workout). When your body doesn't get enough protein, it will take protein from other sources--mainly your muscles! Obviously, you don't want that to happen. See my post that discusses daily protein and carbohydrate needs.

Carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen, are your body's preferred source of energy. Glycogen is stored in your liver and muscles and it is broken down into glucose. Glucose is then used by your body to make energy. As a result, when your glycogen stores are low, your body's performance will suffer. When your body doesn't have enough carbohydrates, it uses energy from proteins and fats. As just stated above, protein has another primary role in the body. And, again, your lean muscle mass will take the hit.

Fat is important for your diet because it helps you feel full and keeps skin, hair and nails healthy (among other things). You should limit your intake of saturated fats (usually solid at room temperature, such as butter) and trans fats ( partially hydrogenated fats found in packaged foods and fast foods). Instead, increase your intake of unsaturated fats (they are usually liquid at room temperature, such as olive, canola oil, fish, nuts, seeds and avocados). Fats should not exceed 30% (closer to 20%) of your total caloric intake. Again, fat should not be used as your primary energy source.

Your body needs the macronutrients at all times to function properly. When your body functions properly, your metabolism will also function properly. That's why you need to eat every 3-4 hours to give your body what it needs and to protect your vital lean muscle mass. If you are a person who skips breakfast, stop doing that! You are sabotaging your fat loss and weight loss efforts and throwing your metabolism out of wack!

I don't recommend any diets that omit one of the macronutrients. Eat right, exercise right and do the hard work it takes to change your body composition to
more lean mass and less fat mass. There are no quick solutions that will give you the permanent fat loss and weight loss you want!

Impact that stress has on your metabolism

I have more things to do tomorrow than I can handle. How organized I am today will probably determine how good or bad my day goes. Of course, something unexpected could happen that would "mess up" my day and drastically change my mood. Stop me if this scenario sounds familiar to you! The events of life bring on stress. A certain amount of stress and tension helps us take on challenges and perform better. Too much stress (left unchecked)over a prolonged period is not good and it causes health problems and affects metabolism. Also, some people respond to stress better than others. One person might crumble under the same workload that causes another person to thrive.

The body's normal state (homeostasis) is changed by stress. The hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, are secreted in response to a stressful situation. The "fight or flight" response to stress is intended to give you the energy to take on or run away from a particular situation. Stressful situations that go on for months or years signals to your body that the normal state includes excessive amounts of adrenaline and cortisol. As it relates to metabolism, adrenaline makes the fat cells more efficient at turning fat into energy and speeds up metabolism. On the other hand, cortisol increases the amount of glucose in the blood and creates more energy. If you have an office job, this excess adrenaline and cortisol builds up. Unused excess energy will be stored as fat.

Chronic stress or stress with no end in sight has major health implications. Adrenaline will continue to be secreted but the body and the fat cells will build up a tolerance to it. This means that the fat cells won't be converted to energy and cortisol will continue to increase glucose in the blood. This means the fat gain and weight gain begins to happen if left unchecked.

So what's the bottom line? Situational stress can improve the efficiency of your metabolism. Chronic or prolonged stress changes the body's normal state and can negatively affect your metabolism. Left unchecked, this leads to other health problems.

We all know this: life continally has stressful situations and life sometimes brings unavoidable prolonged stress. Regular exercise helps me to deal with stress and brings my body back to the true normal state (or as close as possible).

You are now ready to learn how to really ramp up your metabolism! There are two weight training workouts that will kick your metabolism into high gear (high intensity interval cardio will do the same).

These two workouts are advanced and you are at risk of injury if your core and joints are not stable and strong. The two workouts are:

1) Full body explosive circuit weight training (i.e., full speed reps)

2) Full body explosive athletic circuit weight training. It is different than the workout in item 1 in that it has some exercises that are more difficult (athletic) to execute.

These workouts are available as downloads for your iPOD (click on workout above)!

Both of these workouts will also activate your fast-twitch muscle fibers which are important for giving definition to your body shape and increasing your power. These types of workouts should not be done more than 3 times a week. Interval cardio could be done for the other 2-3 days.

It is important to listen to your body when doing these types of workouts. Your body could easily breakdown with injuries (high risk and high reward). Don't be afraid to do "regular" weight training for a week or so if needed.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES, CPT is a Certified Personal Trainer and former NCAA Division I athlete. Mark’s Fat Blaster Athletic Training System has been proven to give his clients the fit, sculpted and athletic-type bodies they want. Visit Mark’s sites:

My Fitness Hut http://myfitnesshut.blogspot.com

Her Fitness Hut http://herfitnesshut.com 

Sports Fitness Hut http://sportsfitnesshut.blogspot.com