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It’s true that when you’re young,
your body finds a way to balance energy expenditure and energy intake. It’s true that, as we age, we have a much more
difficult time maintaining what we’ve got. And it’s true that studies have shown that one third of all
British adults are at least 20 percent over their “ideal weights.”These truths, however, don’t seal our fates. Just because some folks spend their lives engaged
in a frustrating battle of eating less only to gain more, that doesn’t mean you have to. Personally, I’ve skirted
around those so-called truths. I eat just as much food - if not more - than I did in my 20s, and yet I have no more body fat
to show for it.And I’m no anomaly. Over the
years, I’ve trained countless clients, ranging in age from 25 to 65. It didn’t matter how high their body fat
percentages, how slow their metabolisms or how scrawny their muscle mass when they met me. They were all able to turn things
around as long as they did what it took to boost their metabolic rates! Scientists have spent quite a bit of time sorting out what happens to the metabolism with age. And
what they’ve noticed is that while the metabolism does seem to slow with age, it only slows if you do nothing about
it. If you eat properly, exercise the right way and take the right supplements, you can maintain your metabolic rate over
your entire life span! Even if you’re age 40 or older and things have already slowed down, you can reverse the trend
and regain the metabolism of your youth. In fact, you can create a metabolism that’s even faster than the one of your
20s!Is it easy? No. Does it take hard work and dedication?
Yes. But it can be done. I’m living proof. So are my clients, and so are the thousands of people who have participated
in hundreds of studies conducted from around the world.The Age and the MetabolismSo why does maintaining a healthy weight get tougher as we age?
Well, although most people eat less as they age to compensate for moving less at their desk jobs, their activity
levels generally decrease more than their energy intakes. And with less activity than food, fat gain is inevitable.These decreasing activity levels result in yet another problem:
muscle loss. Researchers have determined that, starting between the ages of 25 and 30, most people lose roughly five
to 10 pounds of lean body mass during each decade of life. As muscle is a metabolically active tissue, that means that
in addition to burning calories to move your skeleton through space, it also burns calories to maintain itself. So age-related
muscle loss can cripple your metabolism. The average person who becomes less active and consequently loses muscle experiences
a 20 to 25 percent reduction in 24 hour metabolism (measured as the amount of energy your body burns in 24 hours) by age 65.
This adds up to a daily metabolic drop of more than 500 calories from age 25 to 65.So it’s no wonder folks are gaining weight! It’s tough to cut 500 calories off
your daily menu to compensate for that metabolic drop, so most people end up packing on the fat. Of course, again, this scenario
holds true only if you do nothing to prevent it. Why do most people lose muscle as they age? Because they don’t use
it. When it comes to the human body, what you don’t use, you lose, and muscle is no exception.Studies of people older than age 60 show that you can, at any age, reverse muscle
loss and regain the metabolism of your youth. In fact, according to research, individuals who maintain their lean mass (muscle,
bone and other non fat tissue) through exercise and smart eating as they age experience only a 0.36 percent drop in metabolism
per decade compared to the five to seven percent per decade drop that most adults experience. This is a huge difference!
Add a few key supplements to the mix, and you can even prevent that 0.36 percent drop and possibly even rev your metabolism
higher than it was during your youth!So metabolic
slowdown is not inevitable. You can prevent it. And you can reverse it using a three-pronged approach including eating, exercising
and supplementing the right way to get a series of all natural “metabolic advantages.”The Metabolism AdvantagesThe following tips are
essential to maintaining a fast, youthful metabolism: - Build the muscle needed to speed up your
resting metabolism (the number of calories your body burns to maintain life) all day and all night long. A gain of five
to 10 pounds of lean mass muscle will rev up your resting metabolism by roughly 100 calories - each and every day.
- Maximize something called the "afterburn." Through targeted strength training and energy system work (a
specific type of interval training), you can increase the number of calories you burn during your workouts (about 300 to 600
calories per day depending on your body size and workout duration). However, assuming you integrate these high intensity efforts,
you can also blow through another 100 to 200 calories per day – a post-exercise energy burst that eats up calories even
when you’re sitting on your butt.
- Increase the number of calories your body burns as it digests
foods. Prioritizing metabolically costly proteins, metabolism boosting healthy fats, antioxidant rich fruits and veggies
and the right carbs at the right times can boost your metabolic rate by another 100 to 200 calories per day. That’s
right. The very food you eat can increase fat oxidation and metabolic burn. You just have to know which foods are right for
the task at hand.
- Encourage your body to waste calories. The right combination of food choices
and supplements can turn you into a much less efficient calorie burner. Much like a car in need of a tune up, your body will
consume more fuel than it needs to operate, wasting away the excess as heat. Unlike with your car, however, when it comes
to your metabolism, inefficiency is a good thing. It will coax your body into burning more calories – and more fat –
for fuel.
- Boost the number of calories your body burns through movement. Thanks to that desk job, family
commitments and a great line up of must-see TV, most of us move less at ages 30, 40 and beyond than we did during our teens
and 20s. By training at least five hours each week, you can increase your calorie burning by about 300 to 600 calories
per day. But don’t just limit your thinking to planned “gym time” physical activity. By including more physical
activity of all types, you can maximize the metabolism.
All told, with the right combination of training, nutrition and supplementation, you can expect to increase
your daily calorie burn by between 40 and 60 percent within just eight weeks. In other words, a guy who currently burns
2,500 calories a day would rev up his metabolism to a 3,400 to 4,000 daily calorie burn! That’s enough of a boost for
you to see a 10 to 15 pound drop in body fat during those eight weeks above. And for those at a beginner/intermediate level of training, you can expect muscle gain as
well. Muscle gain and fat loss simultaneously? Yep, it happens all the time in this population. If you’ve never seen
it, you’re simply not doing the right things.Even
more important, when you get these things right, you will simultaneously improve your health. In addition to speeding your
metabolism, building muscle and shedding fat, you can also expect to lower your blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood
sugar. So not only can you look better, you can live longer. So, in the end, I’m here to tell you that a large scale metabolic decline isn’t inevitable as we age. If you’re young and haven’t seen the affects of father
time, that’s excellent. But that doesn’t mean you wont! Make sure you use a combination of smart eating, training
and supplementation to keep that metabolism reving for life. And if you’re older and your current lifestyle has negatively impacted your body, it’s not too late. Turn
things around now, and you can reverse the damage that’s been done. I’ve seen it happen time and time again.
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