Increase your metabolism? Pump it up!

Written by Libby Norris

Cardiovascular activity has many health benefits and is an essential component in a healthy balance in managing your shape. It is also often the first activity that people default to when starting a new fitness routine.

Cardiovascular activity helps to boost your metabolism, but primarily only during your workout. Resistance training may burn fewer calories during the workout but it helps you to increase your metabolism twenty-four hours a day!

Your resting metabolism rate (RMR) is the rate at which you burn energy or calories at rest. Your RMR is the main factor in your overall energy expenditure for the day, accounting for approximately 65-75% (1) of your total metabolic rate. The remaining amount results from activity, digestion and other metabolic functions.

Your resting metabolism changes throughout your life. It actually drops by about 25% between the ages of six and eighteen (2)! Why so dramatic? You may have heard that muscle burns calories faster than fat. True - muscle is what we call 'metabolically active'. Other metabolically active tissues include the heart, liver, lungs, brain and kidneys. These tissues are in a higher proportion in children than in adults, so as we grow the proportion changes and resting metabolism goes down. Although it doesn't sound fair, there's not much we can do about this drop!

After the age of eighteen, your resting metabolism can drop between 2-3% per decade (3). Notice the word 'can'. This drop in our metabolism doesn't necessarily have to happen but typically results from a loss in muscle mass, so you definitely want to keep what you have! One pound of muscle requires between 35-50 calories a day to function (4). This compared to one pound of fat, which takes fewer than 3 calories per day to function! If you don't lose it, you really will lose it - your muscle and metabolism that is.

An interesting fact to note is that inactive women lose muscle mass twice as fast inactive men (5). You can lose one-quarter to one-half pound of muscle per year and if you are inactive you can lose five to ten pounds of muscle between the ages of forty and fifty-five (6)!

The good news is that you can stop the madness and make a change for the positive at any age and stage in your life.

Adding just five pounds of muscle can result a 10% increase in your resting metabolic rate (7). Translation-it becomes much easier to manage your shape without having to give up the occasional indulgences you enjoy!

This doesn't mean you have to hit the weight room and train like Schwarzenegger. There are many options for adding resistance training in to your weekly routine. You can use many user-friendly tools including resistance tubing, bands or body bars (weighted straight bars) or perhaps pick up some Pilates or yoga. Another option is to select recreational activities that challenge the body with resistance such as mountain biking, swimming, basketball, in-line skating or hiking.

Maintaining your muscle mass takes a moderate amount of time and intensity, with 1-2 workouts per week for about 10-15 minutes doing 1-2 exercises for each major muscle group.

To increase your muscle mass, you?ll need to work a little longer and with a bit more intensity. Here, training should include 2-3 times workouts per week for about 20-30 minutes including 2 exercises for each major muscle group.

Whether your goal is to maintain or build muscle mass, a great guideline for intensity to keep all of your exercises or activity comfortable but challenging. That's a common measure used in research and it will always grow with you.

The bottom line is that muscle conditioning isn't just for bodybuilders, it's an essential fitness component for any age for better health and long-term results.

1. ERIC T. POEHLMAN; Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition, Departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences, university of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405
2. Controversies in Metabolism; Paige Kinucan and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
3. Controversies in Metabolism; Paige Kinucan and Len Kravitz, Ph.D. Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Robert Wolfe, Ph.D., Chief of Metabolism and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Texas Medical Branch
4. Bryant, Cedric X. Ph.D., Chief Exercise Physiologist. (2006, March/April). ACE Fitness Matters, p. 6.
5. Fat Around the Middle; Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD is a registered member of the Nutrition Society, a Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine
6. The American Council on Exercise (2003)
7. Campbell, W.,Crim, M., Young,V. and Evans,W. (1994). Increased energy requirements and changes in body composition with resistance training in older adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 60: 167-175. Poehlman, E.T., Denino, W.F., Beckett, T., Kinaman, K.A., Dionne, I.J., Dvorak, R., & Ades, P.A. (2002). Effects of endurance and resistance training on total daily energy expenditure in young women: a controlled randomized trial. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 87, 1004-1009 Pratley, R., Nicklas, B., Rubin, M., Miller, J., Smith, A., Smith, M., Hurley, B., & Goldberg, A. (1994). Strength training increases resting metabolic rate and norepinephrine levels in healthy 50- to 65-yr-old men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 76, 133-137
8.Controversies in Metabolism; Paige Kinucan and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.