Methods To Speed Up Metabolism

Cardio and high or mid-impact level aerobics are an absolutely great way to increase one’s ability to speed up metabolism, that is an undisputed fact. However, there are far too many people who worship cardio exercise to far too great a deal and ignore the other method that is phenomenal for metabolism boosting: strength training.

The reason that strength training is a tremendous activity for those looking to speed up metabolism is that lean muscle mass requires a great deal of calories to ‘feed it’ in order to maintain that muscle mass. In other words, if one strength trains and packs on an additional five pounds of muscle, then the body will need to consume additional calories in order to maintain that muscle mass at its current size and thus speed up metabolism. So, excess calories are consumed by the body either in the form of the food that is eaten or, better yet, by metabolizing stored fat. This explains why those lean models have a lot of muscle definition. In order to stay thin, they need to weight train a great deal in addition to proper diet, of course.

One of the reasons that muscle mass consumes so many calories and provides an effective means to speed up metabolism is that when lifting weights, muscle tissue is broken down. In order to avoid this breaking down process from happening again, the body will cause the muscles to grow larger. In order to complete the process of muscle growth, the body will need, you guessed it, energy (calories)!

Now, lifting weights improperly or with a half hearted effort will be of little help. Nor will it be helpful to eat an outrageously high calorie, high fat, high sugar bad diet. Weight lifting will speed up metabolism, but it isn’t going to burn the same amount of calories that running a marathon will. Considering that in order to burn off three McDonald’s meals a day would require running a marathon EVERY DAY (“Make that Happy Meal to go!”), simply hitting the weights for 45 minutes everyday will not perform plastic surgery level miracles.