Playing with Your Metabolism

Whether you want to lose weight, lean out, build muscle, or even just maintain your current weight, you must pay attention to two things. It is important to have a well balanced diet and include physical activity during the week. Other important factors are normal rest, stay away from unhealthy habits like smoking and excessive drinking...and I don't mean water!

Most people think of the word "diet" as a bad thing or relate it to being on a strict can't eat anything type of deal. What a lot of people fail to realize is your body needs food to keep your metabolism going. We must eat a minimum of 1200 calories a day. When people try these theories of minimal eating or severely low calorie intake, your body actually suffers. That's right! Your body will go into a "starvation" mode and actually save the foods you put in your body...which basically means your body stores the fat. Your body thinks you are starving it, so it tries to think ahead and in turn, holds on to the fat it has collected. This slows your metabolism immensely and will not benefit you whatsoever.

The second factor mentioned earlier, is very important as well. We. Must. Exercise. You need to get your heart pumping. To keep your metabolism going or to increase it, you want to include lean muscle building. Building muscles burns the fat. You have many things working to your advantage when including exercise and strength training. Women tend to shy away from muscle building because of a built up fear that we will grow big and strong, like the incredible hulk or something. Fortunately, ladies, we do not have enough testosterone in our system to make us have huge muscles. In fact, neither do men. Men will bulk up more than women, but the "Incredible Hulk" effect really only happens with enhancers and including supplements & powdered protiens. Girls...you are safe! What girl doesn't want to have that nice, toned and fit body that strength training helps to provide.

So, what do we conclude? HAVE A WELL BALANCED DIET. GET IN SOME EXERCISE. PUT YOURSELF TO BED ON TIME... A.K.A. SLEEP. DRINK A LOAD OF WATER AND NOT A LOAD OF ALCOHOL! Be patient. You want to make this a part of your everyday life and not some fad or quick fix. The quick fixes will just as quickly get you putting on the pounds back on (and then some) once you have jumped off the bandwagon. Play it safe by choosing good, whole, healthy foods and get active with the things you love Go ahead and GRAB LIFE BY THE BUTT CRACK! Shake things up a little! =)