How to Burn Calories with Activity

Everything we eat, no matter how healthy or unhealthy, contains calories. Calories in food provide the necessary energy for us to do our daily activities. In a week, we use up an average amount of calories per day. This is called Basal Metabolic Rate. To manage your weight, it’s important to know your BMR. Your BMR refers to the amount of calories you consume in order to perform your regular activities and maintain your weight.

Read Body Mass Index Defined for more information about BMR and BMI

However, most don’t really want to maintain weight, but rather shed weight or gain weight (former more common than latter). Losing weight requires a deficit in calorie intake. We have to consume calories in a day that is lower than our BMR. To do that, we have to minimize high-calorie foods, control portios AND burn calories through exercise and activities.

There are three types of activities we can do to burn calories:

• Sports

If you already play sports, keep it up. For example, you can burn calories at a rate of 200 calories per hour playing golf? But increase the number of hours or days that you play as an hour’s worth of golf barely burns a regular latte. If you play tennis, you’d be glad to know it burn calories at the rate of 560 per hour. That’s a significant amount! Another sport that burn calories great is boxing. This can burn calories at approximately 420 per hour.

• Exercise

You can go to the gym or work out at home. By running on the treadmill for half an hour, you burn calories at a rate of 150 to 250 per hour. Try to increase the intensity by setting it at a faster pace. That will surely burn more calories. Lifting weights is also an important part of a workout regimen. You can burn 170 to 250 calories for an hour of light to moderate weight lifting. If you’re looking for something that’s not as strenuous, you can try Tai Chi, a Chinese martial art, one hour of which can burn calories at 280 per hour.

• Everyday activities

You’d be happy to know that simple everyday activities can expend those calories. Walking your dog for half an hour can burn calories at  100 to 150 per hour. So don’t break your promise of an afternoon walk with Fido; it will benefit you both. Do some sweeping inside the house or out in the driveway; a half hour will burn 120 to 170 calories for you. Carrying your baby while doing some mall shopping can burn calories at around 200 to 300 per hour. Now, there really isn’t any excuse for you now, is there?

The idea of having to burn calories with activity shouldn’t elicit a groan. When you exercise more, you grow muscles which burn calories more and raises your BMR. You should actually be happy because there are just so many things you can do on a daily basis that will help you burn calories and lose weight.

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Factors Affecting Your Metabolism

Metabolism is a collection of chemical reactions that helps your body get the necessary energy from food. This energy is necessary for your body to sustain its essential functions. The speed at which your body burns calories is your metabolic rate. A fast metabolism or high basal metabolic rate (BMR) helps in weight loss. And that’s not all. A healthy metabolism is necessary for the overall health of your body. There are various factors that can affect how fast or how slow your metabolic rate is. Here are some of them:

Age

Your total lean muscle mass is largely responsible for your BMR. After the age of 30, the body begins to lose its lean muscle mass. This leads to a decline in your metabolism. Expect your metabolic rate to decrease by 2% every decade after the age of 20. You can increase your metabolism by increasing your physical activity after the age of 30.

Gender

Since men have more lean muscle mass, their metabolism is higher than women. This is why women tend to gain weight more rapidly than men and need to work harder to boost their metabolism.

Height

If you are tall, your body has a higher surface area to sustain. This means that your body needs more energy than a short person. As a result, the taller you are, the more active your metabolism and the more calories you need to stay energized.

Genetics

We have all known people who do not gain weight inspite of being heavy eaters. And then there are those who end up gaining weight although they eat normally. This is because of the differences in their genetic makeup. Your BMR is inherited and there is not much you can do to change it. However, knowing your BMR will help you do the needful to raise your metabolism.

Eating Habits

Some foods increase your metabolism and some slow it down. How and when you eat are also factors which may decrease or increase your metabolism. If you eat small meals throughout the day rather than one huge meal a day, your metabolism will be more active.

Stress

If you are under constant stress and pressure, your metabolism will be slow. You can increase your metabolism by managing your stress effectively.

Hormonal balances

Different nutrients are metabolized by different hormones in the body. Correcting a hormonal imbalance can increase a sluggish metabolism.

Physical activity

Increasing your physical activity and exercising is the best way to increase your metabolism. Aerobics and working with weights increases lean muscle mass and increases metabolism. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, your metabolic rate will be slow. Any kind of physical activity requires more energy for your body. This means that your metabolism will speed up to burn more calories to produce more fuel to carry out the bodily movements.

A healthy metabolism is necessary to create new cells and tissues, maintain the body’s temperature, repair injuries, and perform bodily activities. Although there is nothing you can do about factors such as your genetic makeup and your height, a healthy diet and the right fitness routine can help increase your metabolism to the appropriate level and contribute to your overall health.

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The Relation between Weight Loss and Metabolism

Anyone who is on a weight loss program cannot afford to ignore his/her metabolism. Metabolism is the process through which food is converted into energy. This process occurs in the cells of our muscles and organs and helps in burning calories. And this is why a good understanding of our metabolism can help us in weight loss. Let’s take a closer look at the relation between weight loss and metabolism.

The process of metabolism

Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are broken down in our digestive system to be used by the body. They are then transported to the cells of the body through the blood stream, where they are metabolized. During this metabolism process, the calories released are combined with oxygen and released in the form of energy to help your body function. When considering the role of metabolism in weight loss, it is this burning of calories which plays an important role.

Weight loss and metabolism

It is a well known fact that weight gain occurs due to consuming more calories than what your body burns. For maintaining your weight, you need to calculate your daily caloric intake. This can be calculated by calculating the amount of calories expended on the three essential components of metabolism. So, your daily caloric intake should be equal to the calories expended on your basal metabolism (calories required for the basic functioning of your body), your physical activity, and the digestion of food. For weight loss, you need to reduce your caloric intake and/or increase the amount of calories that you expend.

Besides this, an increase in metabolism helps in weight loss. If you increase your physical activity and exercise regularly, your weight loss routine can be a success. By increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of your physical activity, you boost your metabolism and burn more calories. Strength training and aerobics activity build muscle tissue. An increase in the lean muscle tissue means increase in metabolism. This will again lead to faster burning of calories.

Your eating habits also play an important role in increasing your metabolism and promoting weight loss. Contrary to popular beliefs, skipping meals actually slows down your metabolism.  If your body doesn’t get its regular calories, it will go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down. You will lose muscle tissue and excess energy will actually be stored as fat. Therefore, the right thing to do to increase your metabolism is to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. Combined with drinking the necessary 8 glasses of water a day, it will help in raising your metabolism and induce weight loss.

As you can see a weight loss routine is aimed at faster burning of calories and your metabolism is the process that is actually responsible for burning them. Calculating your daily caloric intake and taking steps to boost your metabolism can help you in losing weight in a healthy way.

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Tips to Boost Your Metabolism

A healthy low-calorie diet is a good way to lose weight. However, often people find that despite eating a low-calorie diet, they do not achieve much success and end up feeling constantly exhausted. The reason could be a sluggish metabolism. If you have a slow metabolism and you don’t take the necessary steps to boost it, you will find it difficult to lose weight and maintain your energy levels. Here are a few quick tips that you can use to boost your metabolism.

• Calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and adjust your daily calorie intake accordingly.

• If you have thyroid problems or any other metabolic disorders, get proper treatment. Thyroid disorders slow down your metabolism and make you gain weight.

• Never skip meals, especially breakfast. Contrary to popular beliefs, skipping meals actually slows down your metabolism and your body stores calories as fat rather than burning it.

• Breakfast and lunch can be substantial, but dinner should be the lightest meal of the day and there should be a gap of about 3-4 hours between dinner and bedtime. This way, your body will process the food while you are awake and burn more calories.

• Eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day to provide enough fuel for boosting your metabolism.

• Drink at least 64 ounces of water throughout the day. Your body needs water to boost your metabolism.

• Make sure you are getting enough supply of Vitamins B and C in your diet since they are necessary to give your body enough energy.

• Never consume less than 1000 calories a day. Anything less than that is not enough to support your basic metabolic functions. So, make to sure to consume enough calories to boost your metabolism.

• Include fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, lean beef and chicken, oatmeal, and milk in your diet. Your body needs more energy to digest these foods and this boosts your metabolism.

• Include aerobics exercises in your daily schedule. Jogging, brisk walking, swimming, and cycling are wonderful ways to keep you physically active and raise your metabolism.

• Include weight training and muscle-building exercises in your weekly schedule. These should be done at least 2-3 times a week to increase your metabolism.

• Try and be as physically active as possible. Take the stairs or walk to the nearest shopping complex. Do whatever you can to stay as active as possible.

• Drink green tea. It’s not only good for giving a boost to your metabolism but lowers cholesterol levels, builds immunity, and prevents cardiovascular disease.

• Always look for natural and healthy ways to lose weight. Pills and powders to lose weight and increase your metabolism can harm the normal functioning of your body.

Your metabolism plays an important part in losing or maintaining weight. Use these tips to give a boost to your metabolism. It will not only help you lose weight but also promote your overall health.

For more tips and more explanations about how to increase your metabolism, please read “How to Increase Your Metabolism”.

Body Mass Index Defined

Health-conscious individuals need to understand weight-related terms. No other word is as closely associated to weight as the word metabolism. People often refer to themselves as having a slow or fast metabolism.
What exactly is Metabolism?   Metabolism refers to all the chemical processes that are taking place within the body by which the food you eat is converted into the energy your body needs to function.
And there are a lot of influencing factors that can influence the metabolic rhythm such as gender, genetic facts, environmental temperature, stress, and also the quality and quantity of exercise. The measurement that evaluates the relationship between body weight and height and is the recommended method by medical professionals to diagnose overweight and obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI).
There is no such thing as an ideal body weight but there is what you call a healthy weight range.  The Body Mass Index is the height-weight system that will determine this healthy weight range.

The BMI formula (in pounds/inches) is:
Your Weight (in pounds) x 704.5 divided by Your Height (in inches) x Your Height (in inches)

A handy tool used to calculate BMI index is the Body Mass Index Calculator. This is one of the most accurate ways to determine if extra pounds pose health risks. In general, when people use the word metabolism they used this interchangeably with Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

How Body Mass Index Classifies Weight

Under 20 (19 for women) = Underweight
Between 20 and 24.99 = Normal Weight
Between 25 and 29.99 = Overweight
Between 30 and 34.99 = Obese Class 1
Between 35 and 39.99 = Obese Class 2
40 and above = Morbid Obesity

This is the sum-total of all the energy consuming process going on in the body while it is resting and the release of this energy is only sufficient for the vital functioning of the heart, lungs, nervous system and kidneys. If the Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories your body needs when you are resting and multiplied by your activity level, BMR then lets you estimate how many calories you need to lose weight or maintain your current weight.

If you calculations fall outside of the normal range and you are not an athlete, then consult with a licensed medical practitioner to achieve your goals.