Metabolism - How to Lose Weight and Save Money
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Healthline
Many false claims are made about metabolism.
Metabolism as you get older is not the culprit with much weight gain. Think of all the people who are eating more than in past years, exercising less, doing less, sitting around more, and eating junk food and soda. They gain weight and say the reason is that their metabolism slowed because they got older.
That fact that you burn fewer calories when you decrease activity can be twisted by clever product advertising as "slower metabolism." Don't fall for it. Find fun, healthy things you like to do and start them again to get the increase in metabolic calorie burning that comes with activity.
Don't fall for pills and supplements advertised to increase metabolism and therefore promote weight loss. Some contain stimulating compounds that increase heart rate or other functions. That is not helpful or healthy for your body. Many people feel stimulated and happy on these products, and don't notice the nervousness, anxiety, inability to focus, moodiness, difficulty falling asleep at night, and depression that also often occurs. A more serious cycle starts when people take other drugs to try to stop these symptoms. Then more drugs when the first drugs upset their stomach. Exercise will improve mood and increase your metabolism for weight loss more safely without the negative effects of stimulants and medicines.
Several devices, pills, and patches claim to burn calories or fat while you sleep or watch television. They can claim that because you always burn calories and fat when you sleep or watch television. That is how you stay alive. It is not because of the pill or the machine.
Eating food raises metabolism. The increase comes because your body has to do something extra – digestion. You still gain calories from the food and can gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn. Watch out for advertising that exploits the fact of the "thermogenic" (heat producing or calorie burning) effect of food. The effect is small compared to the calories you have eaten.
Some devices and pills claim to increase metabolism even after exercise ends. They can claim that because all exercise does that - with or without the device or pill. Exercise raises metabolic levels. It takes time after stopping exercise to return to resting level.
Live a healthy active life. Get outside and play. Move, bend properly (Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix), and stretch as part of your everyday life (What is "Fitness as a Lifestyle?"). Get up now and walk away from the computer to take a break, breathe, stretch arms overhead, move, look up at the sky, and smile. The average amount of money spent on diet products that don't work is saddening. Every time you want to spend on them, put the money in a jar and go do something active instead, even if it is just dusting or gardening. Lift weights, including your own body, to regain the muscle you need for metabolic rate (How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending). Muscle loss from sitting around is often confused with aging. You will burn some calories, keep your joints moving, feel better, and save enough to give to the poor with enough left for a vacation.
Related Fitness Fixer:
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- What is "Fitness as a Lifestyle?"
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Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Thank you to Paul & Aline for this photo from Creative Commons
Labels: aging, drugs, nutrition, performance enhancing modality, weight loss
4 Comments:
At Thursday, October 05, 2006 3:10:00 PM, Anonymous said…
Does menopause (by itself) cause a decrease in metabolism or muscle mass?
At Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:47:00 PM, Healthline said…
I read all the time in various fitness and medical sites that it does but I am not yet convinced. Studies showing greater decreases in muscle and bone than other 5-year periods of life still do not establish it is the menopause. Other things are also going on. Sure, some things get more difficult with time, but you have cells growing all the time too, all your life even at your oldest years. You can increase muscle and bone mass during the time of menopause, and for the many healthy good years beyond.
So, either way, you don't have to let it. I do not see that it necessarily has to cause ruinous decreases, and it isn't a good excuse not to stay active.
At Monday, October 16, 2006 11:46:00 AM, Anonymous said…
Can you increase your metabolism with short bursts of exercise, e.g., jumping rope for 5 minutes at a time, or do you need to sustain it for the usual recommended 20 min. or so period to get such a result?
At Monday, October 16, 2006 5:32:00 PM, Healthline said…
Kathy, smart question. Any exercise raises your body's needs (metabolism) to do the work for the time you are exercising, plus a short time following the exercise during which you gradually return to normal rate at rest (or whatever else you are doing). Long exercise raises for a longer time than shorter exercise. Mild exercise raises need for calories mildly. Hard exercise raises a larger amount. "Exercise" does not have to mean jumping rope or classes in a gym. Vacuuming, rearranging furniture, and raking leaves, for example, are various amounts of exercise. Metabolism goes up and down all day according to what you are doing, even varying at night during sleep.
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