Understand Your Metabolism and Unlock Your Weight Loss Results

Have you ever seen an ad for the next latest and greatest weight loss program or diet pill, only to see in fine print that this person also ate a balanced diet and did regular exercise? The other common complaint all the time is "I workout hard everyday and I don't lose a pound." Does this sound like you? The key to achieving health weight loss and keeping it off for a lifetime is understanding your metabolism.

When you think about weight loss you want to think in terms of a diet fitness program. The problem many people do is they only focus on one aspect which leaves them always falling short of their goals.

What is metabolism any way?

Your metabolism doesn't have to be confusing. Let's break your metabolism down in to two aspects. First, is your body's ability to break down food that you eat and convert it into energy or store it. You can store fat in your fat cells though you do store carbohydrates in your muscle cells to be used as energy later. The second is the rate at which your body produces energy, or do you have a fast or slow metabolism? The other key part to your metabolism is what you are burning for energy.

Your metabolism wants small amounts of food at regular intervals throughout the day. Typically every 2-3 hours is a good time to eat. This isn't eating the average American meal 5 times a day, more cutting your meal in half and eating that amount throughout the day. When we go longer than 3 hours between meals are body starts to store the food we do eat as fat, and can burn away muscle tissue for energy instead of using your food. When you eat 5 small meals a day you train your body to use fat as your main fuel source. A proper metabolism burns 70% fat as its main source of energy all day long. Just think while you are working sitting at your chair you are burning fat.

It is through exercise that we raise our metabolism up. The amount of calories we burn is not as important as the rate at which we burn calories. If burning 3500 calories worked than all the walkers at the gym would be the thinnest people. You typically see runners much thinner than walkers and that is because running burns calories at a greater rate and raises up your metabolism. You burn more calories by raising up your metabolism the entire day than you can in any workout.

Cardio interval training is considered one of the best ways of raising up your metabolism. Interval training is short burst of high intensity follow by short durations of low intensity and then repeated. People after doing an interval workout burn more fat as a source of energy for the entire day after than any other form of cardio. You only want to do one interval workout per week as over doing it creates over training and a drop in results.

Combining exercise and eating 5 small meals and you will unlock your weight loss potential. This not only the fastest ways to lose weight these habits work for the rest of your life to have more energy and keep the fat off your body.

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Why Metabolism is Important

Read through any diet success story and you will see the true secret to that person's success. At some point, the person always integrated exercise into their plan. The same holds true the other way around. How many times have you heard someone say that they work out all the time, but just can't seem to lose those last ten or fifteen pounds?

The truth is, in order to achieve lifelong results, nutrition and fitness need to go hand in hand to optimize your metabolism.

What is Metabolism? Metabolism is the process your body uses to break down the food that you eat, convert it to energy, or store it. Your metabolism is based on several cues that you give your body by the way that you eat and the energy you use in your daily routines.

To achieve lifelong fitness, you need to raise your activity level to start burning more calories, while feeding your body the right amount of food to sustain itself. That means eating enough throughout the day to let your body know that there will be plenty of food around to sustain a higher caloric burn. Once your body acclimates to both of those signals, your metabolism will start to change. You will be burning more calories by increasing your activity level, but you will also increase the amount of calories you burn when you are not working out - while you work, watch television, and even when you're sleeping.

Understanding your metabolism is the reason that low calorie diets don't work. When you feed your metabolism your body burns more calories. A great example of this is on a weight loss network tv show that the people who won't follow their eating plan and kept eating less calories actually gain weight. Your body will burn fat as your main source of energy if you eat 5 small meals during the day balanced with the proper calorie range.

One thing to keep in mind is that the faster your metabolism gets and the more fat you burn the more you need to eat. This concept is one of the hardest for people to understand which is evidence why 60% of Americans are overweight or obese. Without increasing your calories as your metabolism increases you burn away your new muscle tissue for energy which keeps you staying at the same results no matter how hard you workout.

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Food and Diet for More Energy

Do you find that you get fatigued during the afternoon? There are better choices than reaching for that candy bar, soda, or the latest energy drink. Food and diet is essential to giving your body more energy during the day. With making some easy diet choices you can have more energy and feel alive during those once sluggish hours.

The fatigue and lack of energy you feel is associated with how you fuel your metabolism. Another way of looking at it is the food you eat or not eat is causing you have low energy and want to take a nap at work. If you are having any lack of energy throughout the day, now is a great time to start making better dietary choices.

The common diet programs that create this lack of energy are low calorie diets or eating 3 meals a day or less. Also, if your diet habits consist of fast food, candy, or soft drinks then your body is simply not getting the energy it needs and how it wants it was balanced energy levels. Another aspect that affects your energy with poor food choices is a lack of essential vitamins, minerals, complex carbs, and amino acids. All of these are building blocks for proper metabolism functioning.

The major issue with the ineffective diet programs of Americans is bad habits actually create more bad habits. Many people think that if they just had will power they won't succumb to food cravings that crush their diets. The reality is that poor choices create times when your body is in low blood sugar and that period is what causes your cravings. It is physiology that causes them not a lack of mental strength. Did you know that once you start eating 5 small meals during the day your cravings for sugar go away? Follow me on this person's day. We are starting with breakfast though they don't eat breakfast because they have noticed that if they skip breakfast they don't feel hungry till lunch. So at lunch they go out to dinner with their coworkers. Now, from a lack of energy they over eat more food than they should at any one meal. The problem is this doesn't feel or looks like too much food because this is what they are used to. How do I know this is too much food because at around 2 or 3 pm they are crashing. Their energy is low and they have become exceptionally irritable. Does this sound familiar?

So what are we supposed to eat? The goal is to eat 5 small meals throughout the day. For the average American this is cutting their normal meal in half and eating the other half as a snack. Breakfast starts the day either burning fat or storing fat. You know you had a proper breakfast because you are hungry 2-3 hours later, and it is time for another snack. You want to keep having small meals every two to three hours throughout the day. The reason this is good is because your body is burning calories and wants more fuel to keep burning. I know it seems logical if you don't eat you will lose weight. The problem is when you don't eat your body stores the food you eat as fat. When you fuel your body every 2-3 hours your body starts to burn more energy and will stop storing energy. This is the key to healthy losing weight.

Another key aspect to controlling your energy levels is the use of caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that supports your body to release adrenaline into your system. Caffeine in moderation, as in one cup of coffee doesn't throw your body out of balance. Having a multiple cups or some of the energy drinks and your body is running on artificial energy and then you crash. Once you crash you want that good feeling again, and so you are off on another Starbucks run. I know people who go to Starbucks every 2-3 hours or after each time their body crashes. One thing on energy drinks, Red Bull has less caffeine than a cup of coffee though I can't guarantee what is in the rest of the energy drinks.

Do you need more protein or more carbs in your meals? If you find that your meals are made of mostly carbs or simple sugars than eating protein with your meals with balance you out. Most Americans are over eating protein. If you are not getting a small amount of complex carbs in each meal, this is another reason why you are low on energy. Carbs are you body's fuel. Protein is designed to rebuild your muscle tissue and your body doesn't want to use it as energy.

Adding proper supplementation can make easy healthy and throughout the day easier. For most people getting that mid morning or mid afternoon snack can be a challenge. Having a meal replacement bar or shake can give you the healthy fuel you need. Also, most meal replacement supplements are fortified with vitamins and minerals which is a far cry from the candy bar. Supplements allow you to get exactly the right amount of calories in your meal as well. Especially, if you are going after a weight loss goal you don't need to eat any extra calories. What should I eat for my 5 small meals? The first answer is the same things you are eating now only cut them in half. You will find that the sugar cravings go away so we automatically start eating less sugar. The goal is to go to the super market thinking about what you want to eat for your meals. If you buy it at the grocery store than you will have it ready when it is time to eat? Liveleantoday.com's diet program creates weekly menus that print out grocery lists to make this process easy. Start eating every 2-3 hours and turn your metabolism into a fat burning machine. I know you might be laughing, not your metabolism. Today if you start eating 5 small meals your body will start to turn over. You will know this is working because you will have more energy than you have ever had before.

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Find personal trainer the fitness and nutrition information you are seaching for at LiveLeanToday.com. LiveLeanToday.com has a full library of diet, exercise, and supplement information.