If your bikini body isn't shaping up in time for your summer holiday, get to grips with your metabolism and win the bikini beach body battle once and for all. By Rachael Hannan.
What Exactly Is The Metabolism?
In its basic form, metabolism is the process which occurs in any living organism in order to maintain life. In the case of weight loss, the metabolism is the rate at which your body converts food into the energy we need to live.
The metabolism works all day, every day, to provide us with the energy we need to breathe, walk, talk and think. But it doesn't work at the same pace all day; it's in tune with your body's daily patterns. As soon as you wake, it kicks in to provide you with the energy you need to start your day. It is high first thing in the morning and remains high for approximately eight hours before it starts to slow down again, working at its lowest rate when the body is asleep. The rate at which your metabolism works is individual to your body, but it can be helped or hindered by muscle mass and dieting.
Metabolism & Muscle Mass
Metabolism and muscle mass are as synonymous as Bonnie & Clyde or Tom & Jerry. Muscles require far more energy to function than anything else in the body which means they can help burn those calories even when you aren't exercising.
One pound of fat, at rest, burns 2 calories per hour whereas one pound of muscle burns 50 calories at rest. If you take two people of equal height, the person with the most muscle mass will have the least body fat and fastest metabolism because in order to function, the body will have to provide these muscles with more energy. Ironically, the person with more muscle mass may weigh more because muscle weighs more than fat, but they will be slimmer than the person with greater body fat. And this is the answer to that bikini body.
Unfortunately, muscle mass declines as we age, which is why it is vital to remain active throughout our whole life. Whilst in our twenties, we naturally have more muscle tone than we do at any other point in our lives. When we reach our thirties, muscle tone starts to deplete which reduces the body's energy requirements. As each decade passes the metabolism decreases by 3-5%, so by the time we hit 50 there has been between a 9% and 15% reduction in the number of calories the body is burning a day.
The only way to prevent or remedy this metabolic decline is with exercise. We've been told to exercise countless times, but unless you start, the weight isn't going anywhere. But, before I lose you, listen to the good news. If you exercise you don't have to 'diet.' You can continue to eat 'normally' and still lose weight because of the way the metabolism works.
Metabolism Magic
When we exercise the metabolism increases because the muscles need more energy to do a 'work out.' When we finish exercising the tired muscles still need to replace lost sugars so they request more energy, forcing the metabolism to stay high, so in effect the body is burning calories long after the work out has finished.
This effect was measured in an American study, carried out on older adults. The researchers put the subjects on an exercise programme consisting of weight bearing exercises to increase muscle tone. After three months, the subjects had added 3 pounds of muscle, lost four pounds of fat and were eating on average 15% more calories a day without putting on weight.
The metabolic process then becomes cyclical. Once you increase muscle tone, the body always needs more energy to function so the metabolism is always working harder to provide the fuel, even when you're at rest.
Why Low-Calorie Diets Don't Work
Low-calorie diets don't work because they hinder the metabolism, slowing down the rate at which you burn calories. Scientific studies have found that low-calorie diets actually decrease the metabolic rate by 15-30%.
As soon as calorie intake is reduced, your body instinctively goes into red alert, recalling the times in our evolution when we had to hunt and gather food, without the luxury of a supermarket. As soon as calorie intake is reduced the body thinks it's hit hard times and a potential famine so to prevent starvation, the body decreases the metabolic rate and stores calories as fat instead of burning them up.
To make matters worse, a low-calorie diet encourages the body to lose water and muscle mass which is perceived by the dieter as weight loss, when in actual fact, nothing beneficial has been achieved. The metabolism is slower than it was before the low-calorie diet started, and there is less muscle mass to help burn up calories even when you are at rest.
Get Active
It's important to choose an exercise you enjoy so if you prefer the great outdoors there isn't any point forcing yourself into an air-conditioned gym three times a week. Any form of activity will increase your muscle mass from swimming, cycling and brisk walking to mountaineering, line dancing or tennis.
Pilates and yoga are particularly good for anyone with an injury or back problem because they focus on posture, balance and slow controlled movements, making them the ideal choice for anyone who hasn't been active for a while.
Your local leisure centre will have classes for these and a host of other exercise regimes to suit all tastes and levels of fitness from gentler B.L.T. (an acronym for bums, legs which tums which combines aerobic exercise with toning exercises) to aqua-aerobics, spinning or street dance, for those who fancy something completely different.
But you don't need to join a gym or an exercise class. Aim to increase your muscle mass for half an hour a day with any activity that suits you and win the beach body beautiful battle once and for all.