Let’s say for discussion’s sake, I order an entire pizza. Yep, a whole pie – just for me. You watch me eat the first seven slices. Then as I grab the 8th, I pause and ask you:
“How many calories do you think are in this slice of pizza?”
Your response, I hope, would be something along the lines of: “Uh, it really doesn’t matter, Jon. You just ate SEVEN. The eighth one doesn’t really make too much of a difference.”
This is exactly how I feel when people ask me “How many calories does this workout burn?”
It’s never even occurred to me to ask how many calories a particular workout burns – the thought never enters my mind until someone asks. The reason, I hope is obvious at this point: because just the way that one slice of pizza was a very small portion of the whole, that one hour of exercise is a very small part of the whole day. In fact there are 23 other hours in the day, so anyone who implies there is real importance to the number of calories burned during a workout doesn’t really get the “big picture” concept. And as usual, if it comes from an exerciser who doesn’t know better – no big deal, that’s why we’re here. But if a fitness professional has discussions with you about how many calories their workouts burn, you need to get another fitness professional.
Instead, your focus MUST be on THE IMPACT YOUR WORKOUT HAS ON YOUR METABOLISM. If your workout can raise your resting metabolic rate, then you will be burning more calories over 24 hours every single day. I think you’ll agree that’s probably a better focus than to just worry about doing a workout that burns “X” calories, but doesn’t do anything to raise your metabolic rate (RMR).
So then the obvious question is “What can raise your metabolic rate?”
For the sake of simplicity and this article, you’ll need to focus on three things that you can do to raise your resting metabolic rate:
1. Exercise intensely. Yes, I understand intense is a relative term, but you need to find what’s intense for you and you need to get there. A good rule of thumb is if it you think it’s enjoyable, it’s probably not intense. Frankly, in most cases it should be God awful. But this kind of misery reaps rewards: this rise in intensity forces your resting metabolism to rise along with it. Your body is going to start processing and utilizing energy very quickly and very efficiently to meet the demands you’re placing on it in the gym.
2. Exercise consistently. Once in awhile won’t cut it. That’s just beating the hell out of yourself for no good reason. Only when you exercise consistently will your metabolism adapt, rise, and stay risen.
3. Eat often. Notice I didn’t say “Eat A LOT”. I said eat OFTEN. When you ingest calories your body uses them quickly. By eating frequently you’re sending a message to your metabolism that it’s going to continue getting calories and it will respond by continually burning calories. It’s only when you don’t eat often enough that your body stops burning calories (more on this later).
So today’s take home messages kids: Worry about how many calories your metabolism burns over 24 hours, not how many your workout does in one. Workout out consistently and intensely and eat often.
Following these tenets may never get you to being an uber calorie burning machine like a high level athlete, but it will increase your own RMR. Even a slight increase of 25 or 50 calories per day adds up to A LOT of calories not getting stored on your waist over the course of the year.
Stay tuned for part 3 where we’ll discuss habits to avoid that will lower your metabolism. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what may be on the list?
Don't worry, there won't be any more pizza references.
No comments:
Post a Comment