Good morning, this is day two of metabolism. So what are we going to get into today?
Yesterday, we talked about what metabolism is. We discussed that it’s basically calories in calories out, and how efficiently you process them. One of the things that we stated was that there are myths about metabolism. If I come to you and I go, Scott, I got a really slow metabolism. I put on weight really easily. You’re about to poke the bear, aren’t you? I’m not poking the bear. But I put on weight really easily and, I try to monitor what I’m eating. Do you buy it? Are you buying it? No? Tell me why?
No, I think probably the largest factor or impact we can have on our own metabolism and metabolic rate is in large part lifestyle. The foods we eat, how often we eat, how much we eat, how much we exercise, different types of exercise; lifting versus anaerobic. I think all of those things factor in different body styles and different genders. Gender is huge. Actually one of the biggest drivers of metabolic rate is muscle mass. Muscle takes more energy to survive than fats. Okay, you simply have more muscle mass, therefore, in the genders, men, generally speaking, have more muscle mass. Why do we have more muscle mass?
No, no, I was more like God made us that away. Okay, I thought you were saying, generally speaking, we were faster, but it’s because of our muscle mass that we’re faster. The metabolic rates are faster, not faster metabolism because we’re trying to debunk that. We’re trying to poke the bear. What I was really saying, is it’s a myth. That people in the same environment have the same process of turning the chemical production, the process of turning that over, from calorie in, to calorie out using what you need, it’s probably not much different. For you and I, the environmental factors, the other factors are body style, gender, all those other things, that’s what truly makes the difference. I would think in large part, you’re correct. I’m not a scientist and I believe people probably have some inherited genetic markers that can impact it. But I think those are small.
Do you think we use it as an excuse? Yeah without a doubt, we’re human. And if we’re not doing what we know we have to do, then we generally want to rationalize why, it’s ownership. So let’s say that I do put on weight easily. What kind of these metabolic opportunities are there?
Lack of exercise. Oh, that’s a big one. Maybe the lack of muscle building. Strength training versus anaerobic? They both have their own benefits. But strength training, I think is a little more long-term. Simply because muscle requires more energy, and you gotta keep burning because it reproduces. I mean, strength training is a process of breaking down muscles. So as it rebuilds the muscle, that’s what makes you stronger. And that calorie burn continues on long after you’re done with your workout.
But you can get similar effects with aerobics? I like to walk that’s what I do. I do a couple of miles a day. Studies have shown that if I were to increase my heart rate, which probably is around 110 on a good walk if I were to push into that 131-150 anaerobic state for as little as 13 minutes a day that I would see 13 minutes can equate to 24 hours in rising metabolic rate. So you mean ultimately by doing high heart rate type workouts you can get the long-term benefits of strength training. That’s very interesting. So you don’t have to pump me up. You can actually just go anaerobic. Yeah, without a doubt.
Anything else you can do? Yes, maybe we can go on a diet. Let’s get into diet then. We’ll do diet tomorrow. Okay, tomorrow we’ll talk about diet. Types of food, how that matters, stress, and other environmental factors. Alright, sounds good.
Thanks, guys. Email us at Snackcast@yes.fit with any ideas you have and keep moving.