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5 Ways to Fire Up Your Metabolism :

Aug 16, 2007

If I had a dime for every time a client said, "My metabolism..." I'd be dictating this article to a fleet of assistants while I sift sand through my toes on the beaches of Bora Bora. Not to make light of a serious issue, but I'd like to clear up some things so we can stop using the 'ole "When I was 30 I could eat anything... it's just my metabolism" excuse. Our metabolism is much more governed by genetics than age, but whatever body type your parents gave you, there are ways to make sure itā€™s moving at warp speed.

Metabolism, defined simply, is just the amount of calories our body needs to function in an energy-neutral state -- not gaining or losing weight , just holding steady. We typically measure this in calories per day. Genetics aside (another article for another day), that gives us two sides to work on: calories in and calories out. The wider I can make the gap between the calories I use and the calories I eat, the more body fat I can end up using as energy. The trick is to know how to eat and how much to eat in order to keep the amount of calories your body is willing to burn -- your metabolism -- as high as it can be, while creating that deficit.

What complicates matters is that how we diet can drop our metabolism like a rock (I've seen studies that show up to a 45-percent drop in 12 weeks). But we can increase our metabolism up to the maximum our genetics will allow; we have the power to do that. I hope that got your attention! Creating that gap -- that calorie deficit -- is a lot more fun if it doesnā€™t involve as much of a cut in calories, but instead focuses on a nice rise in our metabolism. Sign me up for that plan!

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The first thing you can do, at the risk of sounding boring, is to exercise. Seriously. Youā€™ve heard it a million times, but jumping from 50 to 70 calories an hour at rest to 300 to 500 while exercising is a big deal when you add it up over a week, a month and a year. And that doesnā€™t count the increased calorie use for the next hour or two after training or the energy-using muscle gained and metabolic efficiency that causes you to burn more calories every day. A lot of good stuff happens when you exerciseā€¦consistently. It is a big deal.