A Personal Trainer's Secrets to Increase Metabolism, Lose Weight, and Lose Fat
Most of the people I work with have weight plateaus they cannot crack and stubborn fat they cannot lose. My job is to help them break the plateau and get a restraining order for the pesky fat that stalks them. Both of these tasks point toward one common foe: slow metabolism. Here are some of the metabolism secrets I use when helping a client look and feel their best.
Personal Trainer Metabolism Secret #1: Stop Robbing the Body of Nutrients
Everybody knows they should take a multivitamin (my doctor says....) but few people do consistently. I'm a firm believer (as in I really believe in it, and also my body is firm).
How many of us track our daily intake of magnesium? I'd say about nobody...I don't know and don't care about how much magnesium is in my foods. I know it's in my multivitman. I also know that magnesium plays a role in over 300 biological reactions in the body. It's an important mineral! How about the B-vitamin family? It's in my multivitamin, so I don't really worry about it (and it's water-soluble, so I can't really overdose on B). The B vitamins help process protein, fight stress, supply energy...their job description is endless!
A strong metabolism is one that can process the foods you eat. You need the right nutrients to process food correctly. Taking a multivitamin to ensure that your body gets enough nutriets (the right ones and the right amounts) is incredibly important. If you email me and tell me a bit about your situation (age, pertinent medical conditions i.e. anemia, osteoperosis, etc.) I can suggest a multivitamin to you (adam@keepyourbetterhalf.com). I promise I will not suggest Centrum!
Personal Trainer Metabolism Secret #2: Eat Early and Often
Again, everybody knows this...but how many of us actually do it? Breakfast skippers are insane! So are late-night-big-dinner-eaters! You people are CRAZY! So are the too-busy-at-work-to-eat employees. Your boss WILL understand if you stop and grab some nutrients to increase your productivity in the afternoon.
Here's the thing about eating: it doesn't have to be a big deal. Eat a handful of almonds. Grab a dozen grapes. Surround yourself with "It doesn't matter how many of these I eat" snacks that are good fuel (and not likely to be stored as fat...again, email me, and I'll send you a list of foods you should go after). If you pick healthy options (not watermelon by the way, email me!!!!), they will be a blessing to your system and your metabolism . Eat SOMETHING every 2-3 hours. Make it your mission!
Personal Trainer Metabolism Secret #3: Make Your Workouts Fiber-Tearing Intense
When people tear a lot of muscle fibers during their workout (which almost always requires weight training), the metabolism is forced to work harder to break down nutrients better to repair the torn tissue quicker. Therefore, make weight-training a staple of your workouts. Studys have prove that metabolisms are boosted up to 39 hours after weight training, compared to up to 24 hours after intense cardio training. Read my other blogs about weight training to get an idea of what to do (or...you guessed it, email me....or submit a comment and I'll blog an answer for you). And after your intense weight-training workout, follow it up with a whey-isolate-based protein shake.
Personal Trainer Metabolism Secret #4: Run Away From Artificial Sweeteners (like Diet Soda!)
Artificial sweeteners are metabolsim killers (read the diet soda blog to learn more!). A 12 oz. can of regular Pepsi has 41 grams of sugar in it. Guess what Diet Pepsi has to live up to: 41 grams of sugar. If my only job was to drive around the Twin Cities area (Wayzata, Eden Prairie, Woodbury, Minnetonka, Maple Grove, Minneapolis, St. Paul) and take diet soda out of the hands of people on the street and give them water instead, I'd have a full-time job (with a lot of angry, addicted diet soda drinkers chasing after me!).
Natural sugars in moderate quantities is much better than massive quantities of artificial sweeteners. Running away from artificial sweeteners will help to repair a broken metabolism.
Personal Trainer Metabolism Secret #5: Do Everything You Can to Feed Muscle-Growth
If I were to guess, I would say 90% of people pursuing weight loss go wrong by trying to lose any type of weight instead of focusing on losing fat weight. Guess what, I wrote an article on that too (keep reading the blog and you'll do just fine!). If you focus on feeding your muscle, your body will be forced to burn fat. And...the more muscle tissue you have (and it can be lean muscle tissue...I'm not talking about biceps that are so big that you can't scratch your own back!), the more calorie-burning capacity you have.
When we focus our foods and supplements on keeping, repairing, or gaining muscle, our body is forced to respond by burning fat (again, read the blog for more on this topic).
If a weight-loss-minded person took these five ideas to heart and applied the principles discussed above, their metabolism would be sure to take off...which would result in more calories burned, which would result (assuming secret #5 is being followed) in fat loss and weight loss.
AdamErwin is a personal trainer who travels the world working with people who want to experience fat loss and weight loss in record-time. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN and loves to train the great folks in the Lake Minnetonka area. Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work.