Tuesday Tip: Understanding Metabolism🤓
Despite what you might think most of your daily calorie burn doesn’t come from gym workouts. Calorie burn is driven by your metabolism (converting food cals to energy for your body). Your metabolism determines the number of cals you need to maintain your weight.
Your calorie burn consists of:
#1 60-70% Basal metabolic rate – the cals you need at rest, to survive; breathing, digesting, filtering waste, nothing more. It varies with body size (bigger = higher bmr), composition (more muscle = higher bmr), age (younger = higher bmr), genetics, hormones (thyroid hormones) and health (ill = higher bmr).
#2 10% is from food thermogenesis (digesting food). Protein requires the most to digest. 0-3 percent of fat cals are used to digest it, 5-10 % for carbs and 20-30 % for protein. But as food thermogenesis only accounts for 10% of daily burn, eating more protein will only have a small effect on your metabolic rate.
#3 20% is from physical activity – walking, workouts, and day to day activities; typing, carrying heavy loads, standing, fidgeting, shopping, singing etc.
So if you aren’t seeing the results you want, but are tracking your food right, then maybe you’re overestimating your calorie burn? There’s lots of tips out there to boost metabolism e.g. eating more frequently, or not eating late at night etc but few have studies to back them up.
Some tips which are backed by science include:
# including strength training in your workouts. Boosting your muscle mass increases your BMR and burns more calories at rest. You don’t have to lift big weights – pump classes or body weight exercises are also effective.
# increase intensity in your workouts; short bursts of intense effort increase afterburn e.g. intervals when running, swimming or cycling, or doing workouts that naturally include it like hiit/ bodyattack/ circuits etc.
#3 Eat enough protein. You’re still only contributing a little extra burn, but by ensuring you have protein with every meal you will not only burn a little more digesting, but more importantly you’ll feels fuller for longer, and you’ll have amino acids to support muscle recovery and repair.
Happy Tuesday 🤗xx
Every Step Fitness 