Muscle Building

Lean muscle mass is largely responsible for the rate of your metabolism. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat because muscle tissue is extremely active even when you are resting. The greater your ratio of lean body mass is to fat, the faster your metabolism runs and the more calories you burn. If you want to increase your metabolic rate, you need to increase your lean body mass. And, if you want to maintain your metabolic rate while restricting your calories and losing weight, you need to maintain your lean muscle mass.

So how do you maintain and/or build your lean body mass? Strength training! Strength training can provide up to a 15 percent increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control. With Strength Training you can expect to experience a number of benefits, including:

• Injury prevention through correction of muscle imbalances
• Delay (or even reversal) of muscle mass loss experienced with aging
• Decrease in total cholesterol and improvement in the ratio of good to bad cholesterol
  (lowering the risk of heart disease)
• Increased bone density

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise significantly boosts your metabolism. A regular exercise routine-three times per week for at least 30 minutes per session-will greatly accelerate your weight loss progress. Most importantly, by exercising, you will receive all of the associated health benefits that come along with it. Foremost, it is a boon to the cardiovascular system. By mixing both aerobic activity with strength training, you give yourself maximal benefits.

Aerobic exercise helps you to lose weight and boosts your metabolism in three ways:

1. It heightens your metabolism during your exercise period and burns a significant number of extra calories. A typical 45-minute aerobic exercise period burns 350 extra calories.

2. If the exercise is high-intensity (meaning it causes significant increase in your heart rate and respiration), your metabolism will remain elevated for an extended period of time, which means you will continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate after you have stopped exercising.

3. Aerobic exercise maintains lean muscle mass, which is the key during your weight loss phase.

The key to your aerobic exercise program is to find exercises you enjoy since you’ll be more apt to do them. You should do it three times per week for at least 30 minutes per session. Below is a chart showing various exercises and how many calories you will burn in a one-hour session.

Type of Exercise Duration of Activity Calories Burned aerobics, general One Hour 422 bicycling, leisurely , <10 mph One Hour 281 dancing, aerobic general One Hour 422 gardening, moderate activity One Hour 352 golf, walking (no cart) One Hour 281 health club exercise, general One Hour 387 jogging 5 mph (12 min. mile) One Hour 493 rowing, stationary, light effort One Hour 493 running, 7 mph (8.5 min. mile) One Hour 809 stair/treadmill, general One Hour 422 swimming laps, freestyle-moderate One Hour 563 walking, 2 mph, slow pace One Hour 176 weight lifting, light/moderate One Hour 211