exercise and metabolism

ambzdee94

Hi guys..

im new to exercise but im taking it seriously and changing my lifestyle.
been doing it for 2 weeks now 5-6times a week.

is it true if i do this exercise for the rest of my life it will increase your metabolism to go faster.

cwolfman13

increasing/maintaining muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate because muscle is an expensive commodity and requires a lot of energy (calories) to maintain itself.

Other than that, exercise is additional activity...additional activity requires additional fuel...which means additional calories...which means in essence, your metabolism is increased.

Example...without deliberate exercise I maintain on roughly 2300 - 2400 calories per day...that's just my day to day kind of stuff in combination with my basal rate. With the exercise that I do, I require around 2600 - 2800 calories per day depending on what exactly is going on....I typically average around 2700 or so when I'm working out for fitness but not necessarily training.

At the moment I'm training for an endurance event and cycling about 100 miles per week + in combination with weight training and jogging for cross training and I need around 3200 - 3500 calories to maintain. Once my event is over and I go into more of a general fitness program, I will again have to dial things back to around 2700ish calories per day.

It's all just math.