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WEIGHT LOSS
Nick Wachter
Personal Trainer & Conditioning Coach
PhysiKcal Fitness; Feb 27th 2013
WHAT IS METABOLISM?
It isn't anything really. Its the word we used to describe how much cellular activity occurs in your body. The same as a calorie isn't anything, it is a measure of energy, it isn't a fat or carb, it isn't hiding inside them, its just the unit we used to measure how much energy there is.
In fitness metabolism is the buzz word. So lets clear it up.
The more energy you expend = the higher your metabolism
whether that's through doing more, or by having more muscle or even by the environment you live in. If your cold you shiver to keep warm, this uses up energy (makes a very very tiny difference)
That's it folks. That's all there is to it.
BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. At rest its the energy your body needs on a cellular level to keep itself alive (carry out all the cellular functions needed to stay alive) when your are unconcious/not moving, immobile.
Imagine your in a coma, doctors need to feed you enough energy (food) for you to maintain your weight. So how much should they give you. Who knows? that's why we have general guidelines on food, for the average person. The taller and more muscular someone is the more they get fed through a drip.
The taller you are the higher your BMR
The more muscle you have the higher your BMR
and the more you do the higher your BMR
People love to use BMR and talk about boosting it. Well since we cant really grow taller we better effect the other two. Gain muscle (This is the main reason (not the only) why us PT's bang on to you ladies to do strength) or two do more (ie get fit, the fitter your are the harder you can train and the longer you can train)
NOBODY HAS A SLOW METABOLISM
actually that's not true. There are several conditions that effect the thyroid gland. This gland regulates many hormones which determine your basal metabolic rate (fats or slow metabolism) but unless you have one of these conditions (and believe me you will know about it because of all the medical symptoms that go along with it) you have no excuse. Thyroid problems cause a host of problems including sudden death syndrome etc.
Everybody who claims to have a slow metabolism is unfit. I've never met a fit person who has said it even after 10 years in the industry. Metabolism is determined by 1) how much muscle you have and 2) how much activity you do. If you train your body needs to repair itself while your asleep, ie your metabolism is higher due to the cellular activity caused by training. When your train your muscles produce heat as a biproduct of all the chemical reactions that allow energy to be released (not to mention intra muscular friction), more reaction = more heat. The more heat the more your body has to cool itself down. Ever been in the shower after a hard session or holidaying when the temperature is 40 degree's as soon as you come out of the cold water you start sweating again. That's your raised metabolism, the body working to cool itself down.
Inactive people with little muscle have a slow metabolism. Do more, train more and gain muscle.
YOUR METABOLISM SLOWS DOWN AS YOU AGE
No it doesn't YOU DO. If you do less at 45 than you did at 35 of course it will slow down, because you have! Muscle is harder to keep as you age due to testosterone levels (and a few other factors). However these are small. Many people take up body building in their 50's and 60's and thus increase their muscle and their metabolsim. Last year I saw a documentary on a 76yr old body building who only took it up at 68. Yes, he was oiled in gravy and ripped... bloody impressive.
As I trainer many of my clients are in their 40/50's and getting back into exercise after 20-25 years off. Their metabolism will be much higher 2 years after they train than when they start. 1) because they can do more (5 mins on treadmill at 5kph may well be 1 hr on treadmill at 9kph) and 2) because they have more muscle than when they first started training.
I'VE GOT A SKINNY FRIEND WHO CAN EAT WHAT EVER THEY WANT
No you haven't. You only have a skinny friend who you believe can eat what ever they like because at a glance it would APPEAR as if they eat lots. So many studies have been done on this and it always shows the skinny persons consumes relatively small amounts of calories. They may get their calories from very unhealthy high fat foods (macdonalds, crisps) but the quantity they eat is small. In generally they tend not to snack, because the meals they have fill them up. As a trainer if someone tells me they eat X amount of calories a day I do a little bit of maths. “X x 1.5 = Calories consumed” We know from so many studies over many decades that people are completely useless at accurately measuring the calories they consume and the portion size they have (1 portion is 2.5 - 3 actual portions, most of us have 75g of cereal and count it as one portion, where one portion is 30g)
There are app's and diet websites that give you the food contents. Download it to your phone, barcode scan the items and you cant go wrong, unless you get the amount you type in wrong. It may appear your friend can eat what ever she/he likes but when studied they DO NOT eat as much as others.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
FAT FRIEND VS SKINNY FRIEND
I watched a great bbc documentary on obesity. Both women agreed with each other, the skinny girl ate lots more than the bigger girl (one was about a stone underweight the other about a stone over weight, both looked quite normal and relatively healthy, no anorexics or morbidly obese here)
Thin friend claims to eat anything and everything she likes and never gains weight. Fat friend claims she doesn't eat that much and definitely nowhere near as much as her skinny friend.
STUDIES RESULTS = Fat Friend Eats more (total calories) 620 kcals a day more. And coincidently was also less active.
Skinny friend eat unhealthy meals, but rarely snacks
Fat friends eat fairly small / ok meals, but snacks a lot
FAST vs SLOW METABOLISM
My friend is called “little Nick”. The reason is he is tiny, well 10 stone wet. He weigth trains regular (most days) and is very active, playing with his son, doing up the house and also has a physical job.
So how come he can eat what he likes and never gains weight. He cant! Little Nick isn't so little now. After getting married and having a second child little nick stopped training and ate less healthy. See when he trained although he ate some junk food mostly he ate chicken and veg to help gain muscle and keep his abs looking good. So 7 sessions a week taken out, some healthy food taken out and replaced by a bit more junk and the result after 12 months is no abs, a little belly and more fat everywhere.
Just in case you need another example. In my early 20's (the day before i was due to start as a PT) i injured my back playing rugby. I was basically in a hospital bed for several weeks and could not even sit up to go to toilet. After 3 weeks i could walk as far as the toilet which was about 6 meters away. 5 weeks from the accident i was home, walking semi normally, but most definitely still very much injured and out of action. 5 weeks of eating Nutella / chocolate spread in a hospital bed and in my bed and literally doing nothing, barely moving. i had gained 1 stone of fat 8%. Now if you the maths that 96% body fat gain in one year or an incredible 12 stone. This young fit in shape active sportsman would gain 12 stone in a year if he ate crap and did no exercise (or movement at all).
The best example was an arguement with ones mother. "your ok though, people like you are lucky, you never gain weight"
Ok had she not noticed the 12 stone of weight gain i'm about to put on. The simple truth was she had not. she had not noticed the lack of six pack, She had not noticed my back muscle not being as defined as they were. I hardly got fat, in fact i had gone from 5.6% body fat to 13.8% body fat, which is still pretty low. But how she could not noticed i had gained weight at all, and to come out with a statement like after just shocked me...
We are all very biased. Just because you think you saw something doesnt mean you did. If this was the case magicians would be out of a job
