How To Fix Your Slow Metabolism In 3 Easy Steps

IF you are like most women over 30 or men over 45, the words “I can’t lose weight because of my slow metabolism” or "I've done everything and I just can't lose weight"have probably come out of your mouthat least once. Being a woman over 45 myself I can promise you that fixing a slow metabolism is much easier than you might think and it doesn’t involve hours of tedious cardio, "eating well", starving yourself or working out 6 days a week.

First, if you want to get rid of that stubborn fat from your butt, thighs and arms and lose those last 10 -15 lbs, you must STOP with the steady state cardio immediately.

No more walking on treadmills or outside, elipticals or steppers, period.

Conventional aerobic exercises are not very effective ways to lose weight and will train your body to STORE fat on top of inhibiting your fat burning hormones.

Study after study over the past 10 years has shown the efficacy of metabolic resistance and high intensity interval training techniques + over steady state cardio.

In the last 10 years, research has shown us two very important things about exercising for fat loss.

Lifting your body weight or heavier weights using total body movements lead to burning more calories after the workout when compared to old school lifting programs or cranking out rep after rep with a light weight.

According to A study conducted by Wilson et al. From the University of Tampa, FL, "when you add in low intensity steady state cardio you get a temporary boost in weight loss. Subjects lost a couple of pounds the first week and after that they lost nothing. This happened because their metabolism completely adjusted to that and that became their new set point to what they had to do just to maintain. Steady state cardio with a low calorie diet is terrible for fat loss and could cause muscle loss. During a low calorie diet, steady state cardio is more catabolic (muscle wasting) towards muscle as opposed to High Intensity Interval training being much more muscle sparing."

Wilson, et al. Concurrent Training: A Meta Analysis Examining Interference of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise. University of Tampa, FL. J Strength Conditioning.

The more muscles you use during an exercise, the more calories you burn during your workout and after. A study of women showed that when they used heavier weights and lower reps for compound movements they burned more calories in the hours after training. This is called EPOC. (Exercise post oxygen consumption)

Doing hours and hours of ”cardio" each week is a great way to go nowhere in your fat loss program while wasting a lot of time and most likely incurring injury. Stop worrying about exercising in a certain heart rate zone for fat loss or for cardiovascular endurance or how many miles you walk.

Unless you have nothing better to do with yourself than spend 5 plus hours a week working out with minimal results , (which, long term lead to joint damage on top of fat storage) there are far more effective ways to reach your goals.

Step 1: Forget about how many calories the machine says you’ve burned (they are rarely accurate), it's all about MAXIMUM calorie burn and EPOC

Step 2: Get off the Elliptical, treadmills and steppers for good and stop with the long walks.

Step 3: Choose the right total body exercises for your body type, fitness level and goals, exercise at the right intensity, and perform shorter bouts of metabolism-boosting interval training.

Step 4: Eat to burn more fat which is a topic for a whole other but will account for 70 ish % of your results and includes eating more protein, good fats and limiting processed foods. For more information read "Is Your "Diet" Making You Fatter? TEF, Your Fat Loss Secret Weapon"

In a nutshell, if you want to speed your metabolism and reshape your body do this:

1. Eat More Protein , more vegetables and fewer processed foods

2. Step away from the treadmills, steppers, ellipticals and long walks

3. Start an effective fitness program that includes plenty of high intensity interval training and whole body resistance training