Q&A for: 2-Dec-05
1118. Q:
what are the benefits of a high metabolism? what are the best ways of getting one?
A:
The biggest benefit of a high metabolism is looking good :) High metabolism is what will help you burn body fat and also what will allow you to build new muscle (if that's what you want).
Sayings like 'oh he can eat all the cheeseburgers he wants because he has high metabolism' are true to a large extent because people with high metabolism really will gain less fat from eating same foods as a person with low metabolism. The big catch is of course, that if you're eating a lot of junk eventually your metabolism will decline. This is what happens to so many people in their late 20s and early 30s. They had naturally high metabolism of a young person and never used to watch what they ate. Then as they got older the same foods started catching up with them big time.
Things like age you can't control, but the two biggest factors in your metabolism that you do have total control over is having a good diet (read that link) and exercising (or just doing physical activity in general -- it could just be your work if you do a lot of physical labor). Pretty much any exercise and activity (done safely, of course) is going to boost your metabolism compared to sitting on the couch. Weight training, especially whole-body weight training with heavy weights, is probably the best activity to raise your metabolism -- by damaging your muscles in lifting heavy weights (and your muscles really do get physically damaged after heavy weight-lifting sessions!) you then force your body to burn a great deal of energy while repairing and rebuilding them.
1119. Q:
If I avoid eating a couple of hours before going to bed will this help me lose weight? when I do this I weigh about a pound less in the morning,but not because I have lost a pound of fat but because there is less food in my stomach when I wake up.
A:
As you said, that weight loss overnight is not real fat loss, but just having less food in your stomach. For people who exercise no control over their diets whatsoever suggestions like 'don't eat last 2 hours before bed' are useful because at least it keeps them from eating junk food in the evening. Of course those people are not likely to be successful in losing fat and keeping it off for good. But if you are willing to keep track of what and how much you eat, you should plan to eat healthy stuff all throughout the day, up to the bedtime.
The truth is that you'll already be not eating for 8+ hours during the night, so no point extending that period even more by not eating in the evening. Small frequent meals throughout the day are key to keeping your metabolism high and your body burning fat. Of course if you eat your regular 3 or however many meals during the day and then top it off with a big pizza before bed, it isn't going to help your metabolism at all :) Instead you should plan out your daily diet so you still eat the same amount of (healthy) food, but spread it all along the day, right up to bedtime.
A perfect pre-bed meal is something based around protein, a bit of fat, and green veggies: steak with green beans, chicken salad with olive oil, salmon with broccoli, etc.
|
