Exercise vs. Diet

You might be surprised to know that your level of activity has more to do with controlling your weight than the amount of food you eat. While calories do count, the more efficiently and faster they are used determines how much is burned for energy (used immediately - primarily by your muscles or for body processes), or stored (which, if not used to build up your body as it needs vitamins and minerals, turns into FAT!). The speed at which calories are burned is your metabolic rate, and your goal is to increase this rate by burning calories continually, both day and night. Exercise stimulates metabolism, and insufficient calorie intake decreases metabolism (your body goes into starvation mode and slows everything down); to reduce fat stores and lose weight, you want your metabolism to do it's job - burn calories and produce energy. Now this is where your diet comes in...for your metabolism to work most efficiently, and continually, you want to feed it regularly - this is why you want to try for six small meals a day (or three meals and 3 snacks; if your body has a chance to burn up most of what you are consuming, then you store less (this is where portion control comes in - you want your body to use as much of what you eat as possible, and store as little as possible). Proteins and complex carbohydrates make your body work harder to metabolize them, and your body needs these, so these are least likely to be stored. As you exercise, you are constantly burning calories, and if you lift weights, you are burning even more - up to 10%! Depending on the intensity of your exercise and the amount of muscle you have, your metabolism can be elevated for as much as 4 hours after your workout; then, as you sleep, your body rebuilds itself (so your metabolism is still working, just at a lower rate); the more muscle you have, and the more you have used it that day, the more rebuilding the body has to do as you sleep - meaning you wake up to a lean machine! Melissa