Help me increase metabolism & lose weight

1. Yes. Doubles

2. 100x yes

3. eh, it would help just by limiting your food choices. not necessary, though.

4. if it keeps you healthy.

5. Yes. Cut out some carbs. Keep (roughly) the same intake of protein.

looks like you pressed for time as a lawyer. do some weights. Muscle burns more calories and more bioactive than fat, and you still can enjoy binging. focus more on the parts that you worried about getting injured if you increase miles. return and ask another question when you succeed. I'd be happy to be of assistance.

Welcome to middle age, buddy. It ain't getting any easier.

When I was 40 I was running 100-120 mpw and still had the belly fat. Of course, I was eating like I was still 20, too: candy, desserts, fat, etc.

I hurt my bac when I was 42 and could no longer run that mileage. I am still, almost 3 years later, struggling with a variety of relatively minor injuries, including the ame back problem. I can only run 30-50 mpw as a consequence.

A couple of years ago I finally gave in and starting doing core and lifting weights, and that's been the one thing that has kept my weight in check. Amazingly enough, it's also cut down the belly fat. Now, I lift often--an hour a day 5-6 days/week. Still, it's increased lean muscle mass, and that seems more than anything else to keep my metabolism kicking.

In the past few months I've gravitated toward kettlebells and body weight exercises a few days per week rather than going to the weightroom, and that's helped even more. There's a lot of info out there on using kbs effectively. The interesting thing about them is that they require you to use virtually every muscle in your body, even when using a relatively light weight. (At the same weight, a kettlebell feels heavier than a dumbbell.)

Anyway, that's my .02. Good luck to you.

FYI. Running more SLOWS your metabolism as does decreasing your food intake. Basically your body "wants" to maintain a certain weight / energy homeostasis. If you eat more, your metabolism goes up so that you store less as fat. If you eat less or increase your energy expenditure (e.g., run more) your metabolism slows down to conserve energy.

That said, this does not mean that you should eat more to lose weight. Cutting intake and running more will result in weight loss but it will not be due to an increased metabolism.

With VERY small variances due to other factors, losing weight is simply a matter of managing intake vs. outgo. Being a certain weight for ANYONE is simply a matter of wanting to be that weight and then taking steps (calorie intake vs. calories burned for the length of time necessary) to make it happen.

If you are too fat, then you ARE eating more per day on average than you burn. Period. So, either burn more or eat less or do a combination of both.

The only "tricks" are to help you eat less or exercise more. There are no "tricks" to get your body to burn SIGNIFICANTLY more fuel than before.

So, how to eat less:

When eating, eat protein before eating carbs. This doesn't mean you eat an egg and then some toast, it means that your first choice of something to eat should be protein, so that if you ONLY are eating one thing, you eat protein. The protein helps keep hunger at bay so that ultimately you eat less. I am NOT supporting a carb-free diet. Gotta have those carbs, but a banana at breakfast or NO breakfast is not really a good plan. How about some natural peanut butter on that banana or a handful of nuts?

How much or your diet is carbs? Americans typically eat a TON of them...sugar, bread, pasta. Cut down on those things and you'll go a long way to losing some weight.

I've had a need a few times to lose a lot of weight, and the most successful way for me is to count calories. You may feel that a half cup of ice cream is ok after a long run and a healthy dinner, but you need to ask yourself if 250 calories is worth that small dessert.

Consider that you burn ABOUT 12 calories per pound (for men); 180 x 12 = 2160. Then, give yourself another 100 calories per mile run, and then PERHAPS a couple hundred more per day IF you are active beyond just the running.

So, at a minimum you are likely up over 3000 calories a day as a need. You need to burn 3500 to lose a pound, so 500 a day.

If I were you, I'd keep running like you are but set your caloric intake to about 2500 a day and see what happens in a week. You will likely lose several pounds the first week (3-5) and then find that you struggle to lose a pound a week after that (as you aren't THAT fat). The first week is always the big one as carbs are limited and you lose a lot of water weight.

If in week 2 you lose more than 2 pounds, then up the calories a bit.

It's really not that hard. Pay strict attention to the calories and weigh yourself every week at the same time (like Monday morning for example). If you're not losing enough, lower the calorie intake. If you're losing too much, up it.

People don't lose weight because it's WAY more fun to eat what you want when you're hungry and not worry about the calories. But YOU want to lose weight, so go about it brother.

Your body has adapted to the lifestyle.

Change it.

Do track workouts.

Go to the track 2x per week.

Do 12-16 repeats of 400m's or ladders (400,600,800) etc.

Wipe yourself out!

You should be very tired when you do this.

The metabolism will change.

your hunger will stay the same, but the metabolism will kick it up a notch.

Flagpole,

I'm sure you're going to get slammed for your post within the next few hours, but your analysis was spot on.

I have a friend who is a diet doctor who deals with the morbidly obese variety (400+ pounders) and the reality is that it is calories in vs. calories out for the VAST majority of the population. Americans are always looking for a quick fix/easy culprit for their weight problem, but it almost always (>99% of the time) because of TOO MUCH FOOD. I am so sick of hearing people blame their thyroid condition or "slow metabolism" for their weight issue.

That's not to say that the types of foods don't matter, but calorie control is the single most important ingredient. Beyond that one should focus on cutting out simple sugars and replacing them with fruits and eating fiber rich foods.

meant to say "cutting out refined sugars"...

Best Ways to Increase Metabolism Naturally

The best ways to increase metabolism naturally, can help you reach and maintain your ideal healthy weight without resorting to risky supplements or drugs. And that's good.

Your metabolism is responsible for turning the food you eat into fuel for energizing your body. So when you increase metabolism, you burn more calories at a faster rate, even when you're sitting or sleeping. This helps make it easier to lose weight.

So, if you want to lose weight, keep it off and look and feel great, here are the very best ways to increase metabolism naturally and safely:

Get a move on it. When you exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, you increase your metabolism rate for the following 24 hours. All physically activity adds up to boost metabolism – walking further when you go shopping, taking the stairs instead of an elevator, doing more work around the house or walking the dog – it all helps.

Make more muscle. You get more metabolism mileage from muscle tissue than anything else. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, regardless of any other factor. Low protein weight lose diets cause muscle loss, but you can gain muscle and lose fat with weight training, exercise and a healthy diet. So, if you really want to boost metabolism, start a weight training program as soon as possible.

Eat many mini-meals. The longer you wait between meals the more your metabolism conserves energy by slowing down. To increase metabolism, eat 4 to 6 small meals a day, every 2 to 3 hours, beginning with breakfast. Small, frequent meals not only boost metabolism, they stabilize blood sugar, provide a steady source of energy and help keep you from eating too much later in the day.

Master a healthy diet. Make sure you get optimum protein to maintain muscle tone and eat healthy high fiber foods to keep your metabolism and energy up. You can also start adding fat burning foods that speed metabolism to your daily diet. And, to stay better hydrated, drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.

Chill out. Your body has to work hard to keep your temperature up to 98.6. So drinking ice water helps to increase metabolism. Plus, since over 70 percent of your body functions take place in water, not getting enough can cause a slow-down of all your systems, including metabolism. And as far as chilling out goes, you also need to do your best to cut way down on mental and emotional stress.

Pump up your hormones. It's important to get your intake of healthy fats and protein just right to stabilize your blood sugar and have a well functioning thyroid and glandular system. Around 25 to 30 percent of your calories should come from healthy fats. So, if you're not already doing it, consider taking omega 3 fish oil capsules as a low calorie essential fatty acid source.

Here are the main reasons for a slow metabolism:

A sedentary life style causes loss of muscle tissue,

As people age they often become less physically active,

You lose muscle when you don't get enough protein,

Skipping meals or eating less than 1000 calories a day,

Too much body fat compared to lean muscle tissue,

Lack of hormone producing nutrients leads to a low thyroid.

Horacio wrote:

Flagpole,

I'm sure you're going to get slammed for your post within the next few hours, but your analysis was spot on.

I have a friend who is a diet doctor who deals with the morbidly obese variety (400+ pounders) and the reality is that it is calories in vs. calories out for the VAST majority of the population. Americans are always looking for a quick fix/easy culprit for their weight problem, but it almost always (>99% of the time) because of TOO MUCH FOOD. I am so sick of hearing people blame their thyroid condition or "slow metabolism" for their weight issue.

That's not to say that the types of foods don't matter, but calorie control is the single most important ingredient. Beyond that one should focus on cutting out simple sugars and replacing them with fruits and eating fiber rich foods.

You are correct. Correct to bring up types of food too, because nutrition is important...not as much as simply counting calories for weight loss, but being HEALTHY is important too.

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