6 WAYS TO BOOST
METABOLISM
Six simple behaviours can help your weight loss clients increase
their metabolic rate and burn more calories, faster.
WORDS: MATT O’NEILL
hen you boost your metabolic
rate (the rate at which your body
burns energy), you burn more
calories, which is an advantage for fat loss.
Knowing the fitness, food or supplement
factors that can elevate your metabolic rate
helps you advise clients correctly and helps
them get better results. If you work with
weight loss clients – and that’s most of us –
consider the following actions.
W
1. Move more
How is metabolic
rate calculated?
Your metabolic rate is the rate at which
your body burns energy. Total daily (or 24hour) metabolic rate (TMR) is comprised
of three factors: resting metabolic rate
(RMR), thermic effect of food (TEF), and
physical activity (PA).
Resting metabolic rate (RMR) accounts
for 50 to 80 per cent of your TMR and is
the energy cost when your body is at rest
At rest, the average 70kg person burns around
1 calorie per minute. Walking burns 3 to 4
calories per minute and you’ll burn around 8 to
10 calories per minute running fast.
These figures reinforce the simple idea
that the more effort you put into moving
your body, the more calories you burn. Just
getting out of bed doubles your metabolic
rate. Walking triples it and an intense boot
camp-style session can generate a 10-fold
increase in metabolic rate.
This doesn’t mean flogging clients at
every session, but it does mean that higher
effort level training sessions, like HIIT (High
Intensity Interval Training), delivered safely,
can provide a greater calorie burn and
fitness gains in shorter sessions.
By contrast, body fat is less metabolically
active and only burns around 4.5 calories
per kilogram per day.
2. Build muscle
3. Eat more protein
Every kilogram of muscle on your body
burns around 10 calories per day at rest. It
may seem small, but over a year the energy
burning bonus from just 1kg of additional
muscle equals 3,650 calories. This is the
equivalent of about 0.5kg of body fat.
If you build and maintain 5kg of lean
muscle, your metabolic rate jumps up by
18,250 (5 x 3,650) calories. That’s 2.5kg of
body fat a year burnt up before you even
move your muscles (though, of course,
you’ll need to move them to maintain them).
Protein in food costs more energy to digest
and absorb than carbohydrate or fat. Eating
protein-rich foods like eggs, fish, chicken
and lean meat makes your body work harder
to digest and absorb calories.
This doesn’t mean you should load up
on protein supplements. You still need to
keep your diet balanced and ensure you
work within the Acceptable Macronutrient
Distribution Range (AMDR) of 15 to 25 per
cent of daily energy intake as protein.
Hard data is scarce on the actual calorie
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Thermic effect of food (TEF) accounts
for around 5 to 10 per cent of TMR
and is the energy cost of digesting and
absorbing food
Physical activity (PA) accounts for an
average 20 per cent of TMR, but can be
significantly greater in active people.