Posts Tagged ‘plateau’

Metabolism is a conveniet catch phrase; it really is taken out of context most times.

Metabolism-One Part

If you just look at one part of weight loss you lose the whole picture. Your metabolism is influenced by chronological age, sex, genetic make-up, and proportion of lean body mass.  A few facts that will show you that this is a small part of most weight loss plans.

“Some people just burn calories at a slower rate than others” says Barrie Wolfe-Radbill, RD, a nutritionist specializing in weight loss at the New York University Medical Center. There are a few intriguing reasons for this.

Yo-Yo Dieting

What most people do not realize, the heavier you are the chances are your metabolism is running faster.

It may only be a small amount faster, but the fact is your body has to work harder to sustain itself.  

For that reason it is sometimes easiest to loss weight at the start of a diet. A small cut in calories when you are obese results in a fast weight loss at first.

But, then as you lose both muscle and fat you need fewer calories to sustain body functions. This makes it easy to put on the pounds again if you go back to your regular eating.

Yo-yo dieting: you loss weight and then gain back more than you lost, when you return to your old eating habits.

Lifestyle

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is lifestyle. As engaging as all the theories are, weight follows your lead. To change weight you have to change your habits. You have to handle stress, food, and activity differently than previously. The thing that matters is the way you work with the metabolism that you have. This is a realistic goal.

Walking and any type of physical activity help speed up your metabolism.

Eating the right foods, at the right time of day often helps boost your metabolism.

Plateau

Reaching a plateau is  one of the problems when trying to lose weight. If you binge after you drastically cut calories your body will hold on to the calories as if you are in a famine.

With that said, the answer really is in a healthy lifestyle. It is not just calories in and calories out. It is where you are getting your calories from. To boost your metabolism should not be the focus of your dieting plan. Here is the key, the modern processed food diet that we gobble up is the culprit not a slower metabolism. Previous generations did not know all the buzz words for weight loss yet; they were not nearly as overweight as we are.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Here is a clue high-fructose corn syrup can switch metabolism from a fat-burning one to one that stores fat.

It promotes the formation of long chain fatty acids that are resistant to oxidation.

The amount of long chain fatty acids you produce is directly related to the amount of fat in and on your body.

We need to stop talking about a slow metabolism and concentrate on what is your source of energy. Yes, that source is from the food you ingest.

The fructose in fruit is a small amount and it is ingested with the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber which are present along with any fructose.

What we are talking about is the high fructose syrup that is in our food in epidemic proportions. This is the first generation to consume processed food with high fructose corn syrup. Coincidentally, this is the generation that is facing an obesity epidemic, and a laundry list of chronic health problems.

Answer

The answer to becoming slimmer, is to become healthier. The way to do that is through an individualized nutrition plan, one that becomes a lifestyle. To keep using the metabolism excuse will keep you from being healthy. By concentrating on a healthy lifestyle, everything will work as it is mean to, including your metabolism.