faq >> metabolism - effects and facts


Firstly, what is metaboism? Simply speaking, it is the rate at which your body burns calories to sustain life. After 20 years of age your metabolism will decrease at a rate of approximately 2 per cent every 10 years. This can be slowed with the help of weight training, good eating and consistent cardio vascular workouts. Males will have a greater metabolism than females. This can range from 10-15 per cent higher. This is because of the greater amount of muscle on a male.

Exercise can increase your metabolism, especially high intensity exercise. The highest point that your metabolism will ever be at is immediately after exercise. So when you have walked out of the gym after a hard session your metabolism is on fire and will continue for the next few hours. This is commonly referred to as the "after burn" effect.

When weight training (and eating a nutritional diet) you will be building muscle. Muscle is metabolism and requires energy just to sit on the body; this will help you to continue to burn up calories even when you are at rest. When fasting and dieting extremely you can reduce your metabolism by as much as 20 per cent.

So the secret to successful metabolism is muscle tissue! That is, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn regardless of how active you are, or how old you are. It's live tissue and it's there working for you and burning calories 24 hours a day - each and every day! Learn more about increasing muscle mass.