high resting metabolism « Diane Raymond's Blue Sky Blog

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "a calorie is a calorie," and that when weight loss is the goal, you can probably loose weight on a 1,200 calorie/day diet whether it is 1,200 Twinkie calories or apple calories. At this point, you might be thinking, "Cool! I'll go on the Twinkie diet!"Â Â Our bodies are smarter than that though, and I say, thank goodness. I know - I'm no fun at all :-). Last week at the grocery one of my kiddos held up a box of Twinkies and had the audacity to ask me to purchase them. I nearly burst a vessel in my forehead trying to restrain myself from smashing the box with......

My "go to" workout when too busy to work out

Being that it is summer, and there are vacations, kids home from school, camps, a lot of running around in circles...sometimes a workout is hard to knock out, even when intentions are high. When that happens, I have a 30-minute, total body workout that requires very little equipment, yet will leave you dripping in sweat. Wanna hear it? Here it is... You'll need:Â a set of 10 or 12lb wts (lighter if you like), a resistance tube 5-10 minute warm up @ 40-50% max heart rate Set 1: 10-14 Burpees (also called pop squats) 3-way lunges w/ dumbbells: Start with weaker leg leading. Take one lunge forwa......

Deals and Discounts - July 12: day planners, cookbooks, free coffee

Stumbled upon a few deals I'd like to pass along: 20% off planners! For all of you planners out there (you know who you are, planning each workout weeks in advance), get a head start on school year planning at MomAgenda. MomAgenda is offering 20% off small School Year books (use code: schoolyearsmom) Visit MomAgenda.com, offer expires 7.31.2011 *P.S. I LOVE MomAgenda planners. Seriously, love them - totally created by moms, for moms. Enough said. EatingWell magazine has a new book out: EatingWell 500-calorie Dinners for $22.45 (10% off the regular price). While you are planning workouts in you......

Review: Trigger Point Performance Therapy

Check out this video if you are unfamiliar with trigger point therapy... TPR Therapy, Ironman competitor Have you ever wished you could afford a personal masseuse? One who could come to your home, preferably daily, to help relieve you of the knots and muscle tightness that inevitably occur from daily workouts and, well, being a mom? In search of a solution to my IT band issues, I tried a chiropractor (not money well spent), stretching, massage therapy (therapist too gentle to release deep tissue), and my O.D. The O.D. provided the most valuable information: without proper biomechanics, the bod......

How to burn more fat

The mysterious " fat burning zone " continues to confuse many gym-goers. The theory goes something like this: working out in a "zone" of intensity that is less intense for at least 20 minutes will burn more fat calories than calories from carbohydrate. Is this true? Yes and no, but mostly no. You actually burn more calories from fat right now, sitting still, reading this post, than you do on the treadmill. That is because in the resting state, the body burns a higher percentage of fat calories. As you crank up the exercise intensity, you burn a little less fat per calorie. However, it really c......

Aug

The Benefits of Strength Training

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Until recently, the benefits of strength training weren’t clearly understood. True, lifting weights builds stronger muscles and you’ll look better in your tank top, but there are now many more fabulous reasons to lift your dumbbells. In fact, there are so many benefits, I don’t have room to list them all, so here are what I consider the “Top 5″:

1. Strength training (also called weight lifting or resistance training) helps you lose body fat. Pound for pound, muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat. This means that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn per day, even at rest. Note, I didn’t say you have to look like a bodybuilder, unless that is what you’re going for.

2. Strength training improves body image. A study from McMaster University examined the effects of a 12-week strength training program on 44 previously sedentary women and men. After the 12-week program, every participant noted an improved sense of well-being and improved body image. The women were more influenced by how they looked, whereas the men were more influenced by how they felt.

3. Strength training burns FAT! EPOC (post-exercise oxygen consumption, also known as the exercise “after-burn”) increases significantly in both magnitude and length after intense bouts of strength training. Perform a minimum of 3-5 sets of 8 different exercises, and 12-15 reps of each exercise to reap the post-exercise calorie-burning effects.

4. Strength training positively impacts resting blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that a 3-day/week strength training regimen that lasted for a minimum of six-months decreased RBP from a high-normal range to a normal RBP level.

5. Strength training prevents muscle loss. While some calorie restriction will probably be necessary for you to lose weight, you must be careful not to restrict calories too much. Most experts agree that 1200 calories/day is the lowest you should go to lose weight without dipping into your reserves for needed energy. What reserves am I referring to? Your muscles! If you start to break down muscle, unwanted side-effects occur. A Lower Resting Metabolism is one of them. According to Len Kravitz, PhD, severe calorie restriction without strength training can suppress resting metabolism by as much as 20%, resulting in a weight plateau or in some cases, weight gain as your body goes into “starvation” mode and clings to every calorie you consume in order to conserve valuable energy.