Why More Exercise Isn’t Making You Lose Weight
Promoting a healthy metabolism is more important than exercise for weight loss.
Every year, thousands of Americans make weight loss one of their New Year’s resolutions. They join gyms, they read diet books, and some even sign up for meal planning services. But by February, most of these individuals will have given up on their goal.
Does this sound like you? Don’t give up on your goal just yet! You may just need to change your approach.
Exercise Is Not the Key to Weight Loss
In order to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. In other words, you need to burn more calories than you are taking in. Most people assume that the best way to burn more calories is to get more exercise.
This is not actually the case.
The vast majority (60 to 80 percent) of the energy you take in from food is used to keep all the systems in your body functioning—in other words, this energy is used by your metabolism. Another 10 percent of your energy will be spent on digestion, and physical movement accounts for just 10 to 30 percent of your body’s total energy expenditure. Exercise is a small subset of physical movement.
Yet many people give exercise much more credit than it deserves. This can lead to compensatory behaviors that will make it even harder to lose weight, like treating yourself to a donut or skipping your evening walk because you worked out yesterday.
So, the implication here is that it is really hard to exercise your way out of a weight problem. Cutting calories and eating a healthier diet should be your first move when trying to lose weight. But you also need to pay close attention to your metabolism—that energy hog that is using 60 to 80 percent of the calories you take in each day.
How to Boost Your Metabolism
Every decade after you turn 40, your metabolism will slow down about 5 percent. If you want to ramp things back up again, you need to restore your body chemistry to a more youthful balance. This can be achieved through hormone replacement therapy. Balanced hormones will make it easier to put on lean muscle, and muscle helps boost metabolism because it burns more calories than fat.
Making changes in your diet can also help boost your metabolism. Always eat breakfast to get your metabolism going in the morning. Focus on high-protein foods and foods like salmon that contain plenty of omega-3s. Eating five or six smaller meals rather than two or three large ones can also help. If you really want to supercharge your metabolism, try one of our injectable nutrient formulas. Whatever you do, don’t cut calories too drastically as this can encourage your body to go into storage mode and actually lower your metabolism.
Don’t Stop Exercising
Although exercise may not be the most effective way to lose weight, exercise is really important for your health. It also supports a healthy metabolism by helping you maintain lean muscle. So don’t stop working out! Just don’t depend on exercise alone to help you lose weight and stay in shape.
If you would like to learn more about hormone replacement therapy, injectable nutrients, and other anti-aging treatments from Renew Youth, please contact us today.
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