We’ve all heard it or even said it before: “I can’t lose weight because of my metabolism.” It’s easy to blame our extra pounds on an abstract idea like metabolism, but let’s learn about the real importance of metabolism – and better yet, how you can get the most “burn” for your buck by recharging your metabolism.
In the most basic sense, metabolism includes each of the chemical and physical changes that take place within the body’s cells. Most often, however, metabolism refers to the manner in which the body gets and uses energy from food, so it really does have an important part in weight loss and gain.
Not everyone is given the same metabolism, and our rates actually vary over the course of our lives, so someone who blames their metabolism isn’t necessarily making excuses. Age affects metabolism, which will slow about 5% every 10 years after we turn 40, and by sex, as males usually burn more calories at rest than females, and by the amount of muscle mass you have (more muscle generally means a higher metabolic rate). Our genes also impacts metabolism, not to mention pregnancy, as well as whether a woman chooses to breast-feed.
In spit of all of the wild cards, the simple fact is that when your calorie intake surpasses your metabolism, excess energy will get stored in the body as fat. Though many of the aspects affecting metabolic rate can’t be changed, fortunately, there are ways to rev up the metabolism you are born with.
The first guideline is to consume the correct foods in the right amounts. When you omit a meal, your body switches to starvation mode, which slows metabolism to keep calories, because it does not know when it will get food again. And when the metabolism slows down, so does the rate at which you lose weight.
When you finally do eat food after skipping a meal, instead of using the calories in the food you have just eaten, your body converts them to body fat to hold for the next “fast.” To keep your metabolism efficient, eat 4 – 6 small meals spread evenly throughout the day and aim to eat close to the same times every day. Most importantly, never skip a meal.
You can also step up your metabolic rate with exercise, including both aerobic routines and weight training. Aerobic activities, such as running, biking and dancing, burn more calories in the short term, while weight training will build more muscle, which increases metabolism and burns more calories in the long term – even when you are at rest, muscle requires more calories to function than fat.
In fact, every pound of muscle requires 35 calories a day, while every pound of fat requires only 2 calories per day. Despite this, you might be surprised that the more weight you posses, the faster your metabolism is likely to run. Simply put, the extra weight forces your body work harder to maintain its processes.
This is partially why it is almost always easiest to lose weight when you begin dieting, and becomes more difficult as you continue because, if you are significantly overweight, your metabolism is already at an elevated rate, so that even a slight decrease in calories will lead to an immediate weight loss.
But what happens after that immediate loss, when a plateau occurs and motivation seems to go by the “weigh” side? Persistent cravings and compulsions can swiftly come back, and when they do, don’t overlook a valuable resource – weight loss hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy can actually retrain your unconscious so that, in essence, you can do away with food cravings. When we study why we snack, recognizing why weight loss hypnosis works so successfully becomes evident.
For many of people, snacking has become a habit – perhaps you do it without thinking when you are watching TV or driving or when you’re under stress. Hypnosis can actually reprogram your thoughts to stop those associations, leaving you to drive or watch TV without experiencing the need to eat.
One of the most successful weight loss hypnosis techniques for stopping the snacking cycle is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which relies on negotiating with the unconscious and getting it to use the same thought processes that are creating your appetite, to eliminate your appetite. NLP entails many years of study and practical experience for a hypnotherapist to learn and master, but positive results can come very quickly and seem almost magical to a person who has always suffered from cravings.
NLP can be just as important as motivation and exercise because, as you read above, it can help ensure that you eat the right kinds of foods at the right times, and this is a vital aspect of turbo-charging your metabolism. If you aim to keep your metabolism at full speed and ensure that all of hard work and exercise are not going to waste by giving in to your food temptations, weight loss hypnosis and NLP can be a secret weapon to eliminate your cravings once and for all.