Our hormonal health is big business these days and there is good reason for this. Our hormones are the chemical messengers that carry instructions to the systems and processes of our body. They are so powerful they can determine how fast or slow we age, how strong and fit we are, whether we become overweight or remain slim or succumb to disease or stay well and healthy.
One of the areas that many of us are interested in is the ability to be slim and not be overweight and hormonal balance is very much as the heart of this matter. This is referred to as having good ‘metabolic fitness’ which means our hormones are in balance and we have fat burning hormones working for us and not an abundance of fat storing ones.
Without proper physical activity fat burning slows to a crawl
With our modern world being so sedentary many people suffer from lack of muscle exertion which leads to fat burning hormones not being stimulated. When our muscles are challenged with the right activity it sends signals to the brain that strength is needed. Growth and repair and fat burning hormones are activated giving the metabolism a boost so it burns more fuel (calories) every minute of the day and night.
So, we do actually have quite a bit of control over the way our body burns up the energy produced from the food we eat. In the past we were only concerned about what happened and how many calories we burned during an exercise session. Now our modern exercise programs are more concerned about what happens after the session is over in the area of fat burning.
We want to make sure the time we spend exercising is going to produce the best results and to do this it has to be the right type of exercise. We want to be directly working the muscles under a load through their ranges of movement and a proper strength training program is perfect to achieve this. Low intensity, long duration activity is simply not intense enough to boost the metabolism and encourage fat burning in a significant way.
Good metabolic fitness means good fat burning
Although achieving good ‘metabolic fitness’ means you will have a strong, lean, slim healthy body as you have an efficient fat burning metabolism. It also means you will slow down the aging process, boost energy levels, sleep better, have better mental and emotional well-being, improve everyday physical performance and have greater protection from disease.
One of the hidden culprits that cause us to age faster than we would like is the loss of muscle tissue at the rate of around one half pound per year. It does not sound much but it does add up as the years pass and affects us in many ways including our body’s fat buring ability. When we lose our body strength it drags down our health and we usually blame growing older but it is really just inactivity that is the villain.
But it won’t happen to you as you now know how to keep your metabolism humming with 2-3 strength training sessions each week so your body stays efficient at fat burning and can not only stay slim and trim but protect your health in every way for the future.
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