Muscle drives your metabolism; it is your
body's most meta-bolically active tissue. You can't lose with increased muscle
and metabolism, unless you are referring to the loss of body fat. More muscle
burns more calories, and a calorie is a unit of measurement that tells you how
much energy a particular food provides to your body. Excess calories not needed
as fuel are stored as fat. Continuing the same level of activity—or non-activity—will
increase your ratio of body fat to muscle. You can reverse this process with
proper exercise and sound eating habits.
Your body stores blood sugar, or glucose,
in your bloodstream and also in your liver and muscles. Consume less sugar, and
you will naturally reduce the glucose levels in your bloodstream, liver, and
muscles. Your body will burn glucose, or blood sugar, its preferred energy
source, before it starts to burn body lat. Exercise, along with proper
nutrition, results in your body using fat as fuel more quickly during your
workout.
Your muscles are always in a state of
flux—growing and shrinking, For instance, dieters who don't get enough
nutrition, namely protein, will experience muscle breakdown, particularly
between meals. The faster the weight loss, the greater the loss of protein.
Your body will adapt to the lower calorie intake and respond with a slower
metabolism. Eventually, you will stop losing weight and your body composition
will shift to a ratio of less muscle and more fat. You can break this unhealthy
cycle. Weight training can restore muscle tissue that has been lost over the
years; proper nutrition, especially the right amount of proteins (such as
chicken, beef, fish, and eggs; and plant protein sources including various nuts
and seeds, grains, vegetables, and legumes particularly soybeans) and complex
carbohydrates (such as vegetables, oatmeal, potatoes, rice, and pasta), will
help to build and protect your muscles. The quickest way to lose weight, and
keep it off, is to build muscle, which, in turn, speeds up your metabolism.
Exercising with weights works to build
muscle by forcing your body to heal the damage to muscle cells that your
efforts create. Your muscles rebuild with protein to make the cells stronger. Exercising
the large muscle groups, such as the gluteus, legs (hamstrings and quadriceps),
chest (pectorals), and back, with progressively greater resistance has the most
potential for restoring lean body weight and raising the metabolism, even hours
after exercise. Aerobic exercise burns fat during exercise; on the other hand,
anaerobic exercise, such as strength training, utilizes fat for hours after
exercise.
You have to exercise to create an upward
spiral of health, strength, and vigor. Your most powerful exercise strategy for
optimal health must include a combination of weight training and aerobic
exercise. While aerobic exercise serves to strengthen your heart and lungs,
activities such as brisk walking, running, and swimming are not sufficient by
themselves to prevent sarcopenia and muscular dystrophy. Only exercises with
progressively challenging resistance will increase muscle mass, actually many
of the symptoms of aging can be prevented or reversed by counteracting
decreasing levels of natural human growth hormone (HGH), which plays an
important role in the regulation of muscle mass, bone density, and metabolism.
In addition to diet and sleep patterns, resistance training is probably the
largest contributor to growth hormone release in case of muscular dystrophy.
