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Wednesday, 3rd October

We talked about the value of trying to raise your metabolism yesterday, here are some key ways on how to do it!

Number one is to lift weights. If you just do normal cardio that most people do (treadmill, bike etc), then your metabolism will be raised but only for the duration of your workout.

The difference with weights/resistance training is the effect will last a lot longer!

Scientific studies show the elevated metabolism you will experience can last up to 39 hours!!! This is why weight training is so important! Weight training breaks down muscle tissue and usually needs that amount of time to recover.

We have always talked on here about the benefits of weight training, and obviously this another big reason to lift!!

Number two is to train intensely. Whatever workout you do, make sure you train with purpose and if you put a good intensity into it, your metabolism will be raised that much more again, meaning you burn more calories and burn more fat.

Number three is embracing the process of building lean muscle tissue. Experts suggest that for every pound of muscle gained, your body will burn an extra 35-50 calories a day!! Compare that with just 2 pounds for every pound of fat. This is why people who are lean and muscular find it easier to stay like that, whilst people who carry a lot of fat struggle more to get it off.

Number four is eating more  protein, not too much but a sensible amount. With all of this good training, you should also a healthy amount of protein such as the size of your fist in each meal. Not only does it fill you up that much longer than carbs and fat, it also takes 25% more calories for the body to break down protein.  These 25% of the calories in protein are broken down through the digestion process, compare this to 5% of carbs and just 2% effort to burn fat when ingested!!

More tomorrow!!

Twitt
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Day 3

So where are we today? All of you are positive on here, and the phone calls and texts i’ve had suggest the same too. There is a real sense that we can all do it this time, and some really positive habits are beginning to take shape. Most of you are changing your shopping lists, things like brown rice, wholewheat pasta, sweet potatoes, chicken, turkey, lean beef, porridge, vegetables of all kinds, fruit of all kinds, etc etc are becoming staples of your weekly shops.

If you work on the thinking that as long as you eat well 80%-85% of the time, you’re going to be treating your body well, giving it enough energy to perform, enough nutrients to boost your immune system, and enough good nutrients to drive your metabolism up to another level, burn more calories, burn more fat and shed the unwanted fat on your body. Try and get these nutrients in on a regular basis, and spread your meals and snacks throughout the day. Have a good breakfast, snack mid-morning, have a healthy but not huge lunch, have an energy filled snack mid-afternoon when your energy may well be flagging, and have a really good evening meal after a hard day and your activity, loaded with lots of veg and try to make your plate as colourful as possible, the more variety of vegetables you have in the week the better.

You should be eating fruit and vegetables for not only the reason you KNOW they are good for you, scientists are always telling us you should be eating them for what you DON”T know. They are finding out new things out all the time about fruit and vegetables and their healing properties, and their abilities to fight off various diseases.

When you are cooking all of this good food, i take it that most of you don’t add salt to your meal, that practice seems to have largely vanished and salt on foods has long been associated with rises in blood pressure of course. I would guess though that some of you still add salt to the cooking process, and do me a favour and get rid of that too? It really makes sense to get rid of all added salt in the cooking process and those of you suffering from blood pressure issues, definitely need to limit or get rid of the salt. It may take a bit of time to get used to, but you will be soon telling me about the benefits you have been getting since getting rid of salt. 

Also, salt is known to lead to water retention. Those of you who feel bloated will find that by drinking more water and getting rid of added salt, and avoiding salt-loaded products (ready meals are prime culprits), your bloated feelings will soon go.

How’s your workouts going today? If you did a resistance based workout monday, i would tend to do another one today such as my home based circuits as i have listed in previous posts. I would like you to keep your same numbers this week, and look to make improvements once a week if possible. We are looking for a steady rise in performance here and if you can make a good rise each week, then you will have accomplished 12 such rises in 12 weeks, and believe me, that will be highly impressive.

A quick note on alcohol, if you want to put on weight, and really hurt your health, carry on drinking every night, but if you don’t, and i know you really don’t, let’s cut out alcohol, particularly in the week and cut it down to once a week max, or if you are looking for amazing results, i would cut it out for a while. Your body is much less likely to burn fat if you drink on a regular basis. Just try it if you don’t believe me, giving up the booze for a while will help you sleep better, give you more energy and burn more fat and get into great shape.

Let me know how you get on!

Keri

Twitt