What is your metabolism and what relationship does it have to weight gain? Can you speed up your metabolism to help your body burn more calories? Hang on tight, ‘cause you’re heading for a crash course in metabolism! What is Metabolism?

The calories in your food or beverages combine with oxygen and create the energy necessary for your body to function. Metabolism is the complex, biochemical process in which your body takes what you eat and drink and converts it in to energy. Your metabolism is constantly at work, even during rest and sleep when your body needs energy to breath, circulate blood, adjust hormones, repair cells, and grow new cells.

Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories it takes for your body to perform its basic functions. It affects how much energy your body needs to do its job and helps determine the number of calories you’ll burn each day.

Many factors play a role in your basal metabolic rate. The first is your body composition and size. Larger people and those with more muscle mass burn more calories even while resting. This means overweight people usually have a faster metabolic rate than their thinner peers.

The second factor affecting your metabolic rate is your sex. Men generally have more muscle and less fat and therefore burn more calories, giving them the advantage when it comes to metabolic rate. Third, your metabolic rate changes with age. The older you are, the less muscle you’re likely to have. As a result, you burn calories slower. Besides your basal metabolic rate, the amount of physical activity you get and the way your body digests and processes food determines how many calories you burn.

While many factors go in to your metabolism, the most variable is physical activity. However, exercise also makes the most difference in the number of calories you burn, so amp up your exercise and watch your metabolism rise as well. Slow Metabolism = Weight Gain? Contrary to popular belief, a slow metabolism rarely causes excess weight gain.

While it would be easy to blame your weight on a slow metabolism, the most likely culprit behind those extra pounds is the amount of calories you consume versus the amount of calories you expend in physical activity.

When you eat more calories than you expend, your body stores that away as fat. Your metabolism is a natural process, and your body balances your metabolism to meet your individual energy needs.

This is made clear when folks jump into a starvation diet. When you don’t eat, your body slows down the metabolizing processes to conserve calories and energy to survive. You don’t have much control over your metabolism, but you can control the number of calories you burn during exercise.

The more activity you perform, the more calories you burn. You may think a thin person has a faster metabolism, but they’re usually just more active. Having a slow metabolism is rare, and it usually doesn’t cause obesity. Medical conditions such as hypothyroidism and Cushing’s syndrome may slow metabolism and lead to weight gain. But for the most part, the factors that contribute to weight gain include consuming too many calories, genetics, family history, unhealthy habits such as too little sleep or certain medications.

Jay Farrant Personal Trainer Dublin

The ABS Gym

Women seem to believe that the minute you lift heavy weights, You suddenly turn in to some bulky terminator . If you believe this, you probably still believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

Here is the truth ………..

Women lifting heavy weights will not get big and bulky . Unless your eating a serious amount of calories, on a massive body building program whilst taking steroids or your a part time power-lifter then you have nothing to worry about .

Women naturally don’t produce enough testosterone . So women naturally don’t get big . Even men who produce up to 10 x the amount of testosterone don’t get big easy so why women think they are suddenly going to get hoooge I don’t know .

The main difference between a lean physique and a bulky physique is the amount of body fat that surrounds your muscles.

The look that most people want is a result of high lean muscle mass with low body fat.  The only way to achieve this is to lift weights get strong and eat clean . Lifting pink weights for endless reps will do nothing except make you look stupid and waste your time . 

All my female clients can lift there body weight when dead lifting and the majority of them who have been training for a few months can squat their body weight . None of them are bulky . Instead they are have low body fat levels and are extremely strong for females . 

Ditch the high reps and pink weights and start lifting with intent.

Jay Farrant Personal Trainer Dublin

The ABS Gym Personal Training Studio Dublin  

So why do the scales go up for some people when they start lifting weights or performing resistance training ?

As a personal trainer it’s a nightmare trying to convince a client that the scales going up isn’t necessarily a bad thing . Of course they are always skeptical

. 

Let me tell you why you shouldn’t be a skeptical hippo .

Muscle Mass: The main reason you might gain “weight” on the scales is your gaining muscle. When you start performing resistance training your body quickly adapts and gets stronger . One of the side effect (A good one ) is that you gain muscle . When I say gain muscle I talking about small amounts of muscle . You wont suddenly wake up huge one day after lifting a few Dumbbells . This added muscle will eventually give you the lean look once the body fat is down and the muscle is visible.

Another benefit is that muscles takes up less space than fat, So your extra “weight” doesn’t necessarily mean you will be a larger size.

In fact, once you start training you should become smaller, even if you maintain your previous weight. Instead of using a scale to determine if your losing body fat, have your body fat tested regularly or measure your body at certain areas to see if it’s going down in the right areas .

If you see that you’re losing inches, then you know you’re on the right track.

Regular exercises such as squats,press ups,dead-lift’s ,step ups ,chin ups and sprinting will encourage the growth of lean muscle and fat loss

Exercise such as low intensity cardio (Jogging etc ) wont have a positive impact on muscle growth and had no metabolic effect post training .

While it may piss you off to see the scales going up after starting an exercise routine, it shouldn’t stop you from exercising and shouldn’t get you down .

You may just be building muscle faster than losing body fat which is always a good sign for ANY person man or women

This can be especially true if you’re genetically prone to building muscle fast. The key is to ensure your training is fat loss focused alongside your diet .

Eating cake every day and lifting weights will lead to getting big (and

Summary

Lift Weights and forget the scales instead concentrate on body fat and measurements

If your weight stays the same and you drop inches or body fat then you should be pleased.

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As a Dublin personal trainer myself I have put together a quick list to show what to look for when looking for a personal trainer .

Education: Your personal trainer must have done some type of training through a professional organization. Knowledge of how your body works is important since they will be responsible for your safety and will be in charge of your training and nutrition.

Even know eductation is important don’t pick a personal trainer just for his qualifications . You can never substitute experience and I know many personal trainers and coaches who are less “qualified” than me ,but know more than me from experience.

The same goes for me their are plenty of personal trainers out their with different courses and classess under their belt ,but again that doesn’t count for shite if they haven’t got the expereince and a good track record .

Good communication skills: Try and do a little spying on your future Personal Trainer , If He/She works in a Gym or health club ,Then go and see what their like with their current clients.If they are shouting thinking their on some TV show or acting the idiot then start looking elsewhere.

First aid and CPR trained: A Personal Trainer should be CPR and First aid Trained Period . If not then they haven’t bothered themselves to get Certified or haven’t renewed their Certification.

Monitoring .Will your progress be monitored ? Does Your Personal Trainer record what you are doing in your workouts ? Does He/She have a record of all your measurements etc . All these are basic things a Personal Trainer should be doing and if they aren’t then stay away . If they haven’t got a program and some basic measurements then they clearly don’t have a clue and amateur.

Word of mouth.This is a great way to find a good Personal Trainer . A Personal Trainers reputation speaks volumes about them. Ask friends, family and fellow gym buddy’s about who they’ve worked with and trained . Look for testimonials about their experience with past and present clients including how long it took them to reach some of their clients goals.

Appearance. Is your Personal Trainer in good shape ?  If not , then the chances are their not going to know how to get you in shape . If the Personal Trainer is looking good then chances are He/She has tried and tested a lot of training methods and will know all the tricks and tweaks to get your body into shape.

Experience. How long has the Personal Trainer been personal training ? The more experience they have the better for you . You don’t wan’t your trainer trying things out on you and learning his trade . You want quick results and somebody who had delivered them time and time again . Obviously you will pay more for a more experienced personal trainer , but as the saying goes if you pay peanuts you get monkeys .

Make your money an investment not a gamble . Pick a good trainer and not an antelope .

Yours truly

Jay Farrant

Certified Personal Trainer & Specialist in exercise Theraphy .

Former Army PTI & FSMS Physique Athlete .

The ABS Gym Dublin