Burning Fat 24 Hours a Day - How Metabolism Shapes Your Body

I can name a good number of diets which you will undoubtedly recognise which offer short-term weight loss. Most diets will have such a negative effect on your muscle mass that long term fat-loss goals are extremely hard to reach.

What's needed is diets which will turbo charge your metabolism and leave you with a body which burns fat even when asleep. The obesity epidemic we see cannot be solely blame on diets alone, there are other significant factors such as stress, fast food, sedentary lifestyles, large portion sizes and lack of physical exercise.

The biggest obstacle in weight loss is the reliance on exercise machines and the misconception that they will be the tool to guarantee weight loss. The theory sticks that if you exercise more than you take in then the weight will just drop off. Weight loss experts inform us that 1lb of body fat contains a whopping 3,500 calories so if you just cut out 500 calories or exercise up to 500 calories a session then you have nailed it.

The problem lies in the amount of work you have to do just to burn that 500 calories is immense. You finish you treadmill session gasping for breath only to find 300 calories is your total burn. The psychological effect this continuous cycle has chips away at your resolve and leads you to comfort eating and in a position where what takes you 30 seconds to eat will now take 30 minutes to burn off.

This cycle of calorie counting will lead you down a negative mind set. This min set is typical in every person who fails in their weight loss goal. So what's the secret then I hear you ask? Well I am about to take you into a world where fat burns 24 hours, your body loves you and you begin to learn to love your body.

The first thing to understand is your metabolism. Now, this mythical word basically sums up as being the rate at which your body burns its way through calories just to stay alive with its basic biological functions.

There are three different types of calorie burn which happen day to day.

1. The thermic effect of eating. Between 10 and 30 per cent of the calories you consume get burned just digesting the food you ate. Eating smart here like eating more protein which takes longer to digest means you will burn calories smarter.

2. Exercise and movement. Around 10 to 15 per cent of your calories burned can come from exercise and everyday movement. Even clicking your muse burns some!

3. Basal metabolic rate. Now this is the bit we need to understand and use to our advantage. This is basically your resting metabolism, so the amount of calories you burn resting, sleeping, and watching TV etc. Around 60 - 80 per cent are burned keeping your body alive. That's a huge amount.

Now, looking at these three situations it is easy to see that resting calorie burn, those calories needed for physiological functions is where your body can become your secret weapon in weight loss and fat reduction. This is where the exercise program we choose is massively important in manipulating your basal metabolism and turning your rest time into fat burning time.

We have to change the way we exercise. In fact, if you want to lose weight and look amazing then changing how you exercise is a MUST. The cardio machines are the supermarket tills of the gym. People queue for these things, waiting for their sweaty time. Now the ethos is that the more you sweat and pound that treadmill the more you burn and lose weight. Now this is correct at the time, and you will burn those calories good and proper whilst gasping for breath. But when it comes to weight loss aerobic exercise is totally overrated. I know what you're thinking, but wait, what we need to remember is that muscle is what makes a speedy metabolism and aerobic exercise is not muscle building exercise.

Muscle eats fat for breakfast. Add 1lb of muscle and your body burns an extra 50 calories a day just to keep that muscle functioning. Add 6lb of muscle and your body is now, at rest, burning a whopping 300 calories to keep the muscle alive.

So the focus needs to shift to how we exercise not how long we exercise. The secret to burning fat and losing weight lies fundamentally in building muscle through resistance training, mainly involving weights.

Now you don't have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger but as mentioned just 6lbs of muscle can super charge your metabolism. The program you choose must be short, sharp and challenging for your muscles so they adapt, grow and increase your basal (remember resting) metabolism.