Life is different nowadays.
Food is abundant. We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. Do you feel like eating a whole tray of Oreos? Just take a short drive to the grocery store and bam, they’re yours. Want to get a burger with extra fries, maybe a milkshake, too? Pick from any of 2-5 locations within a 10 minute radius and go nuts. We have easy access to food, and even easier access to highly processed, hyper palatable foods.
Our days are sedentary. We simply don’t have to do as much physical work to get things done and earn a living. We have offices and computers where we can collaborate and create from one place. We have social media, skype, and phones that allow us to communicate with others at the touch of a finger. Life is just easier and lazier than it used to be.
Having easy access to highly processed foods paired up with a sedentary life is a recipe for disaster.
But it seems that life isn’t going to go in the opposite direction, so what are we to do about it?
HOW TO COMBAT MODERN LIFE
Modern life isn’t a bad thing. This is one of, if not, the best time to be alive. Although this is quite a time to be alive, it’s quite a time to be unhealthy and overweight, too. No matter what we do, we have things fighting against our ability to lose weight, keep it off, and maintain a high quality of life. We need to combat those tings, and the way we do it is through nutrition and exercise.
RESISTANCE TRAINING: THE KEY TO A FASTER METABOLISM
The human metabolism is one of the most complex things we have ever tried to understand. What we do know is that our bodies burn calories based on a few different factors.
It takes energy (calories) to digest the foods that we eat.
It takes energy (calories) to live, breathe, and perform involuntary functions that keep us alive.
It takes energy (calories) to move.
Moving is one of the best ways we can burn calories. But if you recall, movement isn’t really happening. Our lives are calling us to be more and more sedentary.
What do we do about it?
Move more and more, right?
Well, yes, and no. Creating more movement in your life is a great first step to fat loss and better health, however we can only add so much movement before we hit a wall. We can only do so many hours on the treadmill per week. We can only walk so many steps in the day. It’s not realistic for us to get to a point where we are on our feet 24/7, and exercising most hours out of the day. We have other things to do, and honestly, no one wants to be exercising for most of the hours in their day. I am in love with fitness, but the sound of living in the gym 7 days per week makes me want to die inside.
We need to do something different.
Calories are burned one of two ways. Automatically, or manually. Automatic calorie burn occurs when we just live our daily lives. Calories are burned from our existence. Manual calorie burn occurs when we create opportunity for additional calorie expenditure. Calories are burned when we exercise, do chores, walk, etc.
We can only do so much manual calorie burn, so we need to find a way to increase automatic calorie burn.
This is where resistance training comes in. Resistance training is the key to increasing your metabolism so more calories can be burned through your existence. After all, we can only do so much manual calorie burn. So why not make fat loss easier by increasing the amount of calories you burn automatically?
People interpret resistance training differently, so I need to be clear on what I’m talking about. When I talk about resistance training, I’m speaking of weight lifting and strength training. This means going to the gym with the goal and intent to get stronger by using heavier weight and usually fewer reps than you’re used to.
No, this does not mean you are adding more weight to your exercises and still performing circuits. No, this does not mean you’re doing 30 squats with five pounds more than you’re used to.
In short, here are good general rules of thumb for resistance training with the intent to speed up your metabolism:
Follow a traditional weight lifting workout with assigned sets, reps, and rest periods
Rest periods should be 90 seconds to 2 minutes in between sets
Sets can range anywhere from 3-6
2-8 reps generally bring about the most strength increases.
The above guidelines are general recommendations. Your body will change the most after you introduce whatever it is NOT used to. For example, if you are used to training with 15-20 reps with 30 seconds in between sets, you will likely see improvement when changing to 8-10 reps with 60 seconds in between sets.
The main takeaway here is that you likely need to lift heavier, and rest a bit longer than what you’re used to.
Now, what does "heavy” mean? Lifting heavy means you are using a weight that gets you 1-2 reps short of failure once you reach your assigned rep target. Let’s break that down.
If you have to get 6 reps, you want to be using a weight that allows you to reach 6 reps, knowing you could only do one or two more reps if you had a gun to your head.
Most people don’t fully understand what their body is capable of, because they’ve never tried. Next time you’re in the gym, do your 6 reps. Then do another, then another, then another. Odds are, you’re stronger than you think, and your mindset has been limiting you. Test your strength and push your comfort zones if you want to see change.
There are a few signs that your new resistance training protocol is helping your metabolism. If you are getting progressively stronger, even if its a 5 pound difference on your lifts, you are headed in the right direction. If your appetite is increasing, you are headed in the right direction. If you are gaining lean muscle, you are headed in the right direction. Nine times out of ten, resistance training can increase the amount of calories you burn in the day, making fat loss easier and easier.
More to come on how you can assess your progress.
NUTRITION: HOW TO AID YOUR TRAINING FOR A FASTER METABOLISM
Unfortunately, you can’t just lift weights and see results. Well, you can, but the results won’t be most optimal.
In order to maximize your results and really get your metabolism cranking, you need to use the food you put in your body to enhance the effects of your resistance training program.
If you recall, we can burn calories by digesting and breaking down the food we eat. And good news, there are foods that burn more calories through digestion than others.
Protein makes the body burn the most amount of calories through digestion. Increasing your protein intake is key for building muscle (which will increase your metabolism) and increasing the amount of calories we burn through digestion.
To tell you the truth, I can’t remember the last time someone was eating enough protein before they came to me for coaching. Protein is one of most underconsumed nutrients. We need to eat more of it, and you need to eat more of it, especially if you want to change your body and health.
It’s recommended you eat .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight. If you are overweight or obese, you should be lower than that. I have found for most of my clients that aren’t overweight or obese, .8g of protein per pound of body weight is the average sweet spot. However, as with other things, there is individual variance. Play around with it and see what your body responds best to.
Aside from the extra calorie burn through digestion, protein is going to be one of the main contributors to building lean muscle tissue that increases your metabolism.
Protein is a must.
Not only do you need protein for a better metabolism and a healthier body, you need to use fats, carbs and additional calories to aid your weight training.
Healthy fats are a must for proper hormone function, and carbs are extremely helpful with performance and recovery.
Other than getting proper nutrients in, it’s likely important to slowly increase the amount of food you’re eating over time.
This is what we talk about in detail in the Eat More, Get Leaner Ebook.
The metabolism can’t increase if food is being restricted. There must be a slight introduction of additional calories week over week.
When I’m helping my clients work on building their metabolisms, we slowly introduce 50-150 calories per week as they begin to get stronger and stronger in the gym. Note: we only do this if they are undereating. There are a lot of factors that play into this, but if you’ve been decreasing your food intake over time, increasing your activity, and you haven’t seen results in some time, odds are you need to increase your intake.
You should have your protein set, and you can add additional healthy fats and carbs into your 50-150 new calories each week.
HOW TO ASSESS PROGRESS
There are many ways you can track your progress throughout this process. I have found one of the best ways is through body composition tests and weekly average weights.
Using the scale isn’t enough because there are many factors that come to play. Sodium, water, and even stress can skew your weight.
Body composition tests will tell you how much lean muscle you have, and how much body fat you have.
I recommend taking one of these every two weeks at the most. Every month works will in my opinion.
As you increase your weights in the gym and very slowly increase your food intake, your goal should be to keep your average weight the same, decrease your body fat, and increase your muscle.
Let’s talk average weights. As I mentioned, taking a weight each morning and using the average to determine progress will help zero out all of the random fluctuations that come with body weight like water, salt, time of the month, stress, and more.
Take your weight first thing in the morning after using the restroom and before eating and drinking. On Sunday, average out your weigh-ins and record that as that week’s weight. As you increase your weight and very slowly increase your food, the goal should be to keep that average weight the same, or +/- two to three pounds. If this happens, it could be a sign that you’re doing exactly what you need to which is increasing muscle and decreasing body fat, thus increasing metabolism. Getting the body composition tests done every so often will help verify if this is really what is happening.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Lift weights with the intent to increase your strength each week. Push your limits
Your program may include 2-8 reps, 90 seconds to 2 minutes of rest, and 3-6 sets
Slowly increase your food intake week over week, given your average weight is staying the same. 50-150 calories will suffice.
Eat .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re overweight or obese, you can go a little lower than that.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.
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