Posted on November 18, 2011 by Jenny Cromack

If you’re looking to lose weight one word seems to keep cropping up “METABOLISM”. For most of us our metabolisms have been slowed down through bad nutritional advice, yo-yo dieting and a sedentary lifestyle. It is very important to understand that we ourselves slowed it down, unless you are in the small percentage of people in Britain with a diagnosed metabolic condition.

Before we get into kick-starting your metabolism naturally, let’s look at the two most common mistakes going:

• Caffeine and metabolism! Yes it’s true it will increase metabolic rate but only in the short term, over time the body requires higher and higher doses of caffeine to elicit the same response. This means down the line you have to consume more caffeine just to maintain a normal metabolic rate. So keep off the caffeine!

• Sugar spikes! If your blood sugar is up and down then guess what…..your metabolism is too. This results in increased fat storage and insulin resistance long term. So keep away from high glycemic foods.

To fix these issues the solutions are relatively simple, get the right balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in your diet. This gives the body the chance to burn fat rather than struggle and work on processing the sugar that shouldn’t be there. This alone will have astonishing effects on your metabolic rate.

Secondly building lean muscle is incredible at raising your metabolic rate, hence why jenny and I always include resistance work in all of your programs!

Even women can benefit from lifting weights, don’t be afraid of bulking up or looking masculine….it just won’t happen, not unless you start injection yourself with testosterone! I’ll even let you in on a secret “toning” is a made up word in the exercise world for increasing muscular endurance, you can’t just make an arm firm you must remove the fat and add lean tissue it’s that simple. Think of lifting weights as restructuring your body you get rid of the fat which requires a slow metabolism and replace it with lean muscle which loves to burn calories.

Finally no supplements work no matter what they say in the long term. So…..eat right and lift weights!

Chris Baird