Overweight people are quick to blame their metabolism on their weight loss struggles. After all it is the rate our body burns fuel so it has a big impact on whether we remain slim and trim or become one of the two thirds of us who are overweight.
Most of us are confused about our metabolism (our body’s engine) and have little idea of how to keep it in good running condition. What do you think has the biggest impact on it? Age? Activity levels? Thyroid function? Wrong, wrong and wrong. These things all do affect our metabolism but not nearly as much as….Any idea? It’s our muscle tissue.
To have a metabolic motor that burns up the food we eat and use it all for energy is to die for. But it is not something that we just get lucky (or not) with. We can easily create a hot burning metabolism by simply keeping our muscles strong and toned.
In our modern sedentary world this is becoming increasingly rare. Most of us sit for up to 80 percent of our day in one chair or another. Our muscles deteriorate, become weak and flabby and their energy requirements nose-dive. And, guess where the excess ends up? Yes as stored body fat, making you gain excess fat weight, spoiling your looks.
But it does not end there, becoming overweight not only spoils your exterior looks it makes you feel less good about yourself reducing personal self worth. It also increases disease risk for some nasty condition somewhere down the track.
Reducing food intake and dieting are the very worse things you can do in this situation as it will further work against your metabolism. The same with adding long duration low intensity exercise as it will do nothing to boost your metabolic rate.
There is only one way to reboot your metabolic motor and that is to get a proper strength training program in place 2-3 times each week to rebuild and re-tone your muscle tissue so it can in turn boost your metabolic rate and start burning off excess body fat.
The very good thing is once you get it back up and toned in a few months of consistent strength training with a bit of effort put into it, you can enjoy the fact that not only will be you burning more calories when you are being active, you will also be burning more calories when you are resting, sleeping or watching television.
This is how something so simple as giving your body what it needs to be healthy can do. Muscle cells are where fuel (calories) are burned for energy so never underestimate how this will affect whether you remain slim and trim or become overweight which if you do nothing will only increase as you get older.
Only you can fix the problem up right down in the engine room of your metabolism, so get yourself started and watch the magic happen. Your active participation is required to prevent becoming overweight or reverse it if it has already happened. Strength training – 2-3 sessions each week – make it happen.
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