Exercise & Weight Loss Pt. II - BMR
The final important element in understanding and maximizing weight loss is your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Your BMR is a more specific way of measuring metabolism and is defined as the rate of energy expenditure at rest. Rest being defined specifically as physically and psychologically undisturbed, existing in a thermally neutral environment (i.e., at a temperature that does not require you to produce additional heat to maintain your body temperature), while in the post-absorptive state (i.e., not actively digesting food).
Many “experts” talk about certain foods and tricks to “boost” your metabolism.
Many “experts” talk about certain foods and tricks to “boost” your metabolism.
What they are talking about here is far less specific than BMR. When people say certain foods, or eating frequently, etc. can boost your metabolism, generally what is happening when you eat these foods or start these habits is that these cause some sort of increase in chemical reactions, either by raising your body temperature and even heart rate slightly, like with spicy foods, which then slightly increases your metabolism due to your body trying to maintain its ideal body temperature, or assists with some other metabolic process making calorie expenditure more efficient, etc, all of which are temporary and stop as soon as the food is processed, or your body returns to homeostasis. With eating frequently, as we talked about earlier, it doesn't actually increase your metabolism, it just convinces your body it is safe to burn more calories versus putting them on I.C.E.
The only true way to (permanently) increase your metabolism is by increasing your lean muscle mass.
There is varying reports of how much differential exists between the calories burned by muscle vs. fat, but conservative research puts muscle burning 3-5 times more calories than fat. Keep in mind that this is while at rest, when you add exercise into the mix, muscle adds a lot more calorie burn to the equation.
Besides just increasing the load you are able to handle and your physical ability to perform intense exercise, the more muscle you have, the more you can recruit into each exercise or lift. The more muscle recruited, the more energy required for fuel.
For an example,
Besides just increasing the load you are able to handle and your physical ability to perform intense exercise, the more muscle you have, the more you can recruit into each exercise or lift. The more muscle recruited, the more energy required for fuel.
For an example,
Picture your muscle fibers as kids and calories as food. The more kids you have the more food required to feed all of them, and the more they play (work) - the more food they will require to sustain themselves.
This is why resistance training is more effective for weight loss and toning than cardio training. Cardio can help you burn calories, but it isn’t going to increase your lean muscle mass very much, limiting the results it can give you.