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karenjoy

How to Make Your Body Burn More Calories

You can make weight loss quicker and easier by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories – here’s how:

Metabolic Rate is the rate at which the body burns up calories. A body that consumes 2500 calories a day, and burns 2500 calories a day will stay at the same weight. A body consuming 2500 calories daily but burning only 2000 will gain weight at the rate of about 1lb a week.

This explains why that ‘lucky’ person across the table from you doesn’t get fat from all that junk food.

You can do quite a lot to speed up your metabolism – the secret of burning calories lies in knowing what determines your metabolic rate and what you can do to influence it.

You burn calories to provide energy for three main functions:
1) Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
This is the amount of calories you burn just by being alive – even when you are lying down, doing nothing. BMR accounts for approximately 60% of the calories burned for an average person.

2) Burning Calories for Activity
This is the energy used during movement – from lifting your arm to operate the remote control to cleaning the windows. This accounts for approximately 30% of the calories burned by an average person.

3) Dietary Thermogenesis
The ‘thermogenic effect’ described as meal-induced heat production – the calories burned in the process of eating, digesting, absorbing and using food.

You can influence all these factors, and speed up your rate of burning calories using some, or all, of the following tactics:
1) Build Muscle
Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.

Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you’ll look better – whatever your weight.

2) Move More
Although the average person burns around 30% of calories through daily activity, many sedentary people only use around 15%. Simply being aware of this fact – and taking every opportunity to move can make quite a dramatic difference to the amount of calories you burn.

The trick is to keep the ‘keep moving’ message in mind. Write the word ‘move’ on post-it notes and put them in places you’ll notice them when you’re sitting still. Then, take every opportunity to move – here’s some ideas for burning calories:

•Tap your feet
•Swing your legs
•Drum your fingers
•Stand up and stretch
•Move your head from side to side
•Change position
•Wriggle and fidget
•Pace up and down
•Don’t use the internal phone – go in person
•Use the upstairs loo
•Park in the furthest corner of the car park
•Stand up when you’re on the phone
•Clench and release your muscles

You’ll find lots of opportunities for burning more calories if you remember that you’re looking for them! Keep thinking ‘keep moving’.

3) Eat Spicy Food
There is evidence to show that spices, especially chilli, can raise the metabolic rate by up to 50% for up to 3 hours after you’ve eaten a spicy meal.

Drinks containing caffeine also stimulate the metabolism, as does green tea.

4) Aerobic Exercise
As well as the actual amount of calories burned during exercise – studies have shown that sustained, high-intensity exercise makes you burn more calories for several hours afterwards.

Try 30 minute sessions of heart rate raising exercise, such as vigorous walking, step aerobics, jogging, cycling or swimming, 3-4 times a week.

5) Eat Little and Often

There is some evidence to suggest that eating small, regular meals will keep your metabolism going faster than larger, less frequent meals. There are two reasons why meal frequency may affect your metabolism. Firstly, levels of thyroid hormones begin to drop within hours of eating a meal, and metabolism slows. Secondly, it may be that the thermogenic effect of eating several small meals is slightly higher than eating the same amount of calories all at once.

Provided your small meals don’t degenerate into quick-fix, high fat, high sugar snacks, eating little and often can also help to control hunger and make you less likely binge.

karenjoy

Why Our Environment is Making Us Fat
By Dietitian Juliette Kellow BSc RD

Public health professionals in the UK and US are increasingly focussed on the apparent obesity epidemic facing both nations. This year, the results of several studies have shown that increasing portion sizes over the last two decades are making us eat calories we don't need - and wouldn't want, if they were not on the plate in front of us.

How Serving Sizes have Grown in Calories
Researchers at the University of North Carolina studied the changes in portion sizes in the US between 1977 and 1996.

The findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association by doctoral student Samara Joy Nielson and professor of nutrition Dr Barry M Popkin, showed that portion sizes in key food groups had increased markedly.

The increases were significant in calorie terms: salty snacks increased by 93 calories per portion, soft drinks by 49 calories, hamburgers by 97 calories, French fries by 68 calories and Mexican food by 133 calories.

The Effect on How Much We Eat
The problem is that when we are presented with more food on a plate than will meet our needs, most of us will eat more without even thinking about it.

The good news is that studies showing we eat more calories when given more, also show that we still feel satisfied when given less.

Commenting on the results of a restaurant study at Penn State University, Dr Barbara Rolls, who holds the Guthrie Chair of Nutrition said, "The bigger portions that restaurants are providing make consumers vulnerable to overeating, since most individuals eat all or most of what is served."

In the study, the size of a pasta dish portion served was varied between a standard serving and a serving 50% larger. Customers who ordered the meal were asked to rate their satisfaction and the appropriateness of the portion size.

The results showed that customers who were served the larger portion ate nearly all of it - consuming an extra 172 calories. The survey responses showed that customers rated the size of both portions as equally appropriate for meeting their needs.

Double Trouble: High Calorie Bigger Portions
A further Penn State study by doctoral candidate Tanja Kral examined the effects of portion size and calorie density.

In the study, 39 normal weight and overweight women ate breakfast, lunch and dinner once a week for six weeks in the University's Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behaviour. The breakfasts and dinners were standardised, but lunch was formulated to vary in portion size and calorie density.

"Portion size alone increased calorie intake by 20%. Calorie density alone increased by 26%." says Kral

That's an overall increased calorie intake of 56%. The amazing thing is that when people were given smaller portions and/or less calorie dense food it didn't leave them hungry.

Kral says, "Even though the study participants consumed 221 fewer calories when offered a smaller meal of lower calorie density, they felt just as full and satisfied as when they had consumed a larger meal of higher calorie density."

All going to show that our eating habits are being adversely affected by the food industry's desire to sell us more product. We're losing touch with what it means to eat as much as our bodies need; making the food environment we're in a dangerous place to be. Rolls argues that the food and restaurant industry and policy makers should develop strategies to persuade consumers, who are used to big portions, to get back in touch with their real calorie needs.

Whilst waiting for the industry to change, people concerned about their weight and health should start thinking about portion sizes, especially of high calorie foods, and try to get back in touch with their own real needs.

karenjoy

Becoming more active benefits your health, helps you lose weight and improves your body shape

Start now - make exercise part of your daily routine. At any age, increasing your daily activity, even by a small amount, can make a difference.

Our bodies are designed to be active and all activity / exercise will develop and firm the muscles of the body. Exercise doesn't have to be a chore. Moderate exercise for half an hour 3 to 5 times a week can bring enormous health benefits. Read on to find ways you can become more active, lose that fat and have some fun…

Walking
Make a determined effort to walk throughout the day. Get off the bus or train a stop or two before your destination and walk the rest of the way; park your car in the furthest space in the car park; walk up and down stairs (no lifts); walk the children to school; walk to the local corner shop for your newspaper or milk, etc.

15 min moderate walking will burn 52 extra kcal

Housework Can Do the Trick!
Turn those tiresome chores into healthy positive ones! Turn on the music and clean the windows, hoover, dust and wash up at a brisk pace, and burn off those calories.

15 min hoovering / dusting will burn 38 extra kcal

Get Out In the Garden
Mowing the lawn, weeding and digging all count.

30 min weeding will burn 104 extra kcal

Clean Your Car
Time you ran your car through the wash? Why not wash it by hand? It's cheaper, better for the environment and a great form of exercise. Put your back into it and you'll get a better result!

30 min moderate car washing will burn 86 extra kcal

Play Actively With the Kids / Get Some Friends Together
How about heading for the park for some football, rounders, or frisbee throwing. Or dusting off the bike for a leisurely ride?

30 min recreational cycling will burn 90 extra kcal

*Based on a 40 year old female of 5’5" tall who weighs 12st 7lb and is moderately sedentary. Extra calories are those you burn on top of the calories you use for basic day-to-day living. Inputting your exercise into your exercise diary will calculate the number of calories you will burn based on your weight, age, gender and background activity level.

judz46

Thanks for all that info...certainly is helpful..I'm going too have dinner on a smaller plate tonight.

lbewley3

Bump....thanks for the great info!!

Daisygurl7

Thanks so much! I really enjoyed learning this!!

jellyfishjen

Ok, might be BUMP I'm suppose to say. :laugh: But I am so not computer comfy, So I will say this all looks like a good read and will check this out later. Thanks.

erzille

Thanks for the info!

BigBoneSista

Thanks for the info. I will be reading it all later.

ChefJenn

awesome info.. I even posted some of it to my FB friends to read!!
its amazing that just a lil movement can go a long way.

SW: 226
CW:220
GW:175

karenjoy

Thank you everyone, I have had some nice messages and a couple of friend requests, I hope some of you found this as useful as myself and my Husband did

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