Monday, October 12, 2009

What's Affecting Your Basal Metabolic Rate?

By Katherine Crawford M.S.

Increasing your BMR is the most sustainable way to ensure continual fat loss. Why? Because your BMR dictates how many calories you burn around the clock, even while sleeping.

You might be a little confused, however. After all, every single new product that hits the market claims to be the next best thing for raising BMR.

So here are some real factors that influence your BMR:

1. Age. As you age, BMR goes down. Why? Because you lose muscle mass. What's the best way to prevent this? With resistance training. A solid resistance training program will do wonders for your BMR in additional to your hormonal profile.

2. Muscle mass proportion. Having a solid base of lean muscle tissue will ensure a powerful basal metabolic rate. And if you eat enough vitamins and minerals, the mitochondria (energy producers) within your cells will work full force.

3. Coming down with a fever. Strangely, getting sick also raises your BMR, although temporarily. Having said that, please do not try to get a fever just to burn some extra calories.

4. Stress hormones. The release of stress hormones, mainly from the adrenals, will also increase the amount of calories you burn. Keep in mind, however, that over the long run stress will have a negative impact through a suppressed immune system and muscle loss.

5. Temperature. If you have to adjust to cold temperatures your BMR goes up. If you have to adjust to hot temperatures your BMR also goes up.

6. Caloric drops. If you fast or starve, your BMR will drop very fast. Probably a lot faster than you think. In order to reduce the damage from dieting, you should only slightly restrict calories and never skip meals.

Knowing what effects your BMR will bring you many steps closer to the lean and sexy body of your dreams. The key here is to ignore all the hype and to seek out reliable sources of information. After all, it's the facts that will help you reach your goal.

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