FITNESS Metabolism is key to fitness success

Metabolism is key to fitness success


Personal trainer
Paul O'Brien

BACK to basics. That’s been the theme of quite a few articles over the past number of weeks. This week is no exception. On many occasions, I encounter people trying to lose weight and tone up by following the mainstream trends.
Getting more exercise, eating less junk food, cutting down on alcohol etc. Don’t get me wrong, these strategies are all very important, of course. However, it seems that many of us adopt them without being aware of fundamental key issues that would greatly help our understanding of our bodies and by extension, help us lose weight and, most importantly, keep it off.
One such fundamental issue is our metabolism. Briefly, this refers to how your body burns calories in order to maintain all essential functions of living – eating, sleeping, walking etc. The total amount of calories your body burns daily to fuel these functions is known as your overall metabolic rate.
The overall metabolic rate, in turn, is made up of your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), which is the amount of calories your body burns while at rest, around 70 per cent of total daily calories.
Add to this the calories used during exercise and daily activity, around 20 per cent and finally, the amount of calories you burn while eating, known as the thermic effect of food, which is around 10 per cent of your total daily calories.
As can be seen, your RMR accounts for the vast majority of daily calories burned.
Working to boost your RMR will therefore help to increase your overall daily calorie expenditure and aid your weight-loss goals.
Often, people who have trouble shifting weight believe they are cursed with a ‘slow’ metabolism. Yes, genetics does control your RMR to a certain extent.
However, there are many changes you can make to your lifestyle to help boost your RMR, helping you ultimately burn more calories while at rest, even while sleeping!

• Lift weights – resistance training helps build lean muscle. The higher your percentage of body muscle you have, the higher your RMR, as muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.
• Enjoy the cold – working out in winter can help raise your RMR as your body uses more energy (calories) to warm-up and exercise in colder weather.
• Eat less, more often – eating five to six smaller meals daily helps the body use stored reserves of fuel more efficiently, raising RMR. Eating the right foods more regularly also increases thermogenesis.
• Train Intervals – interval training (combining fast-paced and slow-paced intervals within a training session) keeps RMR raised for longer after exercise than long, slow aerobic exercise. Try throwing in a few short 100-yard jogs into your daily walk for starters.

Also remember that your RMR decreases with age, making it more important to include the strategies above in your lifestyle.  Crash diets also lower RMR as there is invariably a loss of muscle mass involved with these fad diets. This is the reason why those who begin eating normally after a crash diet can find themselves piling the weight back on.
Understanding your resting metabolic rate can offer you some extra motivation and help you stick with your exercise programme. After all, knowledge is power.

Paul O’Brien is a certified personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise and a qualified life coach. He runs his own business in Westport and is the creator of Bootcamp West, an exciting and challenging exercise programme in Westport. For details of upcoming classes, visit www.bootcampwest.com or e-mail paul@bootcampwest.com or telephone 086 1674515.