Turn Up The Heat

1. Move more! Nothing ruins your metabolism more than being sedentary. Get more movement during the day (stairs, regular walks)
2. Do some aerobic exercise daily. Yes, that means every single day you should do some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes.
3. Strengthen your muscles 2-3 times per week. You can increase your burn by as much as 7% by strength training. The bigger the engine, the more fuel it can burn (remember that muscle burns calories even at rest). For every pound of lean muscle you add, you can burn an additional 30-50 calories each day. That adds up, especially over a lifetime.
4. Eat breakfast every day. You have heard it before...it is the most important meal to kick start your metabolism from the overnight fast. Eat within one hour of getting up in the morning.
5. Eat every 3-4 hours. If you skip meals or go too long between meals, you will just teach your body to conserve calories, slowing metabolism.
6. Limit refined sugars and carbohydrates.
7. Eat 25-35 grams of dietary fiber daily. Fiber takes a long time to digest and actually causes the digestive track to burn calories trying to digest it.
8. Eat earlier in the day. If you eat late at night, it goes to sleep with you. Move more food to earlier in the day to burn it more efficiently.
9. Drink water. Women should get 72 ounces and men 100 ounces of total fluid daily (try to get most noncaloric from water).
10. Don't "Diet". If you decrease your calories too much, your body will "starve" and your metabolism will try to match the low number of calories coming in, taking energy from your muscles along the way.

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Metabolism 101

• Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): the number of calories it takes to keep your body going without any movement (brain function, heart, lungs, muscle, etc)
• Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): the number of calories that your body actually burns digesting food
• Physical Activity (PA): the number of calories you burn moving around all day during your normal activities
• Thermic Effect of Exercise (TEE): the number of calories you burn doing planned exercise

1. Gender: Men tend to have a faster metabolism (burn more calories) than women. Ladies, do you think this isn't fair? What do men have more of than women? See number 2.
2. Muscle Mass: The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn all day long. Muscle is metabolically active 24 hours per day. If you have more muscle, you will burn more calories while you sit at your computer reading these blogs, drive in your car, and most importantly, you will burn more calories while you sleep. How awesome is that?
3. Age: The number one reason people's metabolism slows as they age........they lose muscle. See number 2 above!
4. Heredity: Some people are just genetically gifted with a faster metabolism than others. They can eat a lot more calories than most people and not gain weight. If you are one of these people, thank your parents for good genes!

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