Home: Bridal Beauty: Your Body: Metabolize Into Better Shape Metabolize Into Better Shape
According to an eDiets fitness guru Greg Landry, M.S., there are ways to get more bang for your caloric buck, so to speak. By burning fat to its fullest potential, you can get in shape and stay in shape.
eDiets is full of helpful articles to help you find more efficient ways to lose weight, get in shape, and keep your sanity while doing so. One of their fitness and health superstars, Greg Landry, gives seven helpful hints to maximize your metabolism.
Metabolism is the process your body uses to convert food you eat into energy. Also called "burning calories", your body extracts energy from the food you consume to run your organs, supply your blood and tissues with plenty of oxygen, and keep your blood pumping. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the amount of calories your body uses just to keep itself going, which accounts for about 75% of the calories you consume.
Here's what Greg says burns fat best:
Muscles According to this fitness professional, cardio alone won't do the trick. Greg recommends 3 days of weight training a week. Toning muscle mass not only shapes your body, but gets your metabolism going and going strong.
Aerobics Not just the Jane Fonda kind, either. Guru Landry also recommends 30-60 minutes a day of some kind of aerobic activity, whether it be walking, jogging, swimming, dancing, or anything you can think of that gets your heart pumping. The trick is doing it every day - it makes your heart strong, and burns calories like nobody's business.
Breakfast Never, never skip breakfast. Apparently, if you don't eat in the morning, your body thinks you're starving it, and will slow your metabolism down to a crawl to conserve. Eating the first meal of the day actually helps you to burn more calories!
Bird-Eaters Beware Always thought only eating a few bites will help you lose weight? Not so, according to Landry. He strongly advises to never eat less than 1,200 calories a day, no matter what. Less than that, and your body cannot support its own organ and muscle function, much less help you with other things, like thinking. In addition, just like skipping breakfast, your body knows your starving it, and slows down to conserve, hanging on to every fat cell you ever had. Eat your food, girls. It will actually keep you thinner and healthier in the long run.
Walk In addition to your daily exercise, Greg also recommends walking at least 10-30 minutes a day. This can actually be accomplished pretty easily - a short walk around the block after dinner, taking the stairs instead of the elevator. This extra boost of activity can make a difference in the calories you burn.
Active Situations Landry suggests looking for "active situations" throughout your day. Park far from the store so you have to walk more, use the stairs, and other smaller activities to keep your body moving. Not only will this keep your calorie-burning at a maximum, you will also notice a general increase in your energy level from all the activity, which is always great during stressed-out wedding planning!
The "Interval" Workout Last but not least, Greg says that while you're working out, if you perform "intense" exercise for 1 minute for every 5 minutes of your regimen, it increases your metabolism. By inputting these "intervals" of intensity, you're giving you body a bit more workout, which in turn will cause you to burn more fuel. There's the skinny (no pun intended) on how to get your metabolism on the fast track.
Mr. Landry emphasizes in his eDiets article that this isn't just a quick fix to losing a lot of weight, but a life choice. Being more active not only helps you to stay in shape, but keeps your energy up, your outlook more positive, and keeps your heart and lungs happy and strong. Here's to a lifetime of a healthier you! If you're searching for a convenient, private way to lose weight, get in shape, and find a support system for a healthy lifestyle, join the gang at eDiets for a diet plan that's personalized just for you.
See our galleries of perfect wedding stories! Read all about them here...
Want to submit your wedding story?
Fall Floral Trends "Fall is summer's last hurrah, a time of transition, when roses ...
