[D286]Diet Nutrition Weight Loss

We have all heard it or even said it one time or another: "I can't lose weight because of my metabolism." It is convenient to blame our extra pounds on an abstract idea like metabolism, but let's examine the real importance of metabolism - and better yet, how you can get the most "burn" for your buck by recharging your metabolism.

In the most basic sense, metabolism includes each of the chemical and physical changes that take place within the cells of the body. Most often, however, metabolism refers to the manner in which the body acquires and uses energy from what we eat, so it really does play an important role in weight loss and gain.

Not everyone is born with the same metabolism, and our rates actually change over the course of our lives, so someone who blames their metabolism isn't necessarily making excuses. Age affects metabolism, which will slow about 5% every 10 years after age 40, and by sex, as males have a tendency to burn more calories at rest than females, and by the quantity of muscle mass you possess (more muscle generally means a higher rate of metabolism). Genetics also influences metabolism, not to mention having children, as well as whether a woman decides to breast-feed.

Regardless of all of the wild cards, the fact is that if your calorie intake surpasses your metabolism, surplus energy will get housed in the body as fat. Though many of the aspects affecting metabolic rate can't be altered, thankfully, there are methods to rev up the metabolism you're born with.

The first rule is to eat the right foods in the right quantities. When you miss a meal, your body turns on starvation mode, which slows metabolism to conserve calories, because it doesn't know when it will get to eat again. And when the metabolism slows, so does the rate at which you lose weight.

When you finally do eat after having skipped a meal, instead of using the calories in the food you've just eaten, your body transfers them to body fat to store for the next "fast." To keep your metabolism efficient, eat 4 - 6 small meals spread evenly throughout the day and try to eat close to the same times each day. Most importantly, never skip a meal.

You can also step up your metabolic rate with exercise, including both aerobic routines and strength training. Aerobic activities, such as dancing, biking and running, use more calories in the short term, while strength training will create more muscle, which improves metabolism and burns more calories in the long term - even when you're sitting still, muscle requires more calories to function than fat.

In fact, every pound of muscle uses 35 calories a day, while each pound of fat uses only 2 calories per day. Despite this, you may be surprised that the more weight you posses, the faster your metabolism is likely to run. Simply put, the extra weight forces your body work more to maintain its processes.

This is partially why it's nearly always easiest to lose weight when you begin dieting, and becomes more difficult as you go along because, when you are significantly overweight, your metabolism is already at a high rate, so that even a slight decrease in calories will lead to an immediate weight loss.

But what happens after that immediate loss, when a plateau occurs and motivation seems to go by the "weigh" side? Old compulsions and cravings can suddenly come back, and when they do, don't ignore a valuable resource - weight loss hypnosis. Hypnotherapy can actually retrain your unconscious so that, in essence, you can get rid of food cravings. When we look at why we snack, understanding why weight loss hypnosis works so successfully becomes evident.

For most of us, snacking has become a habit - perhaps you do it mindlessly when you're driving or watching TV or when you're under stress. Hypnosis can actually reprogram your thoughts to cut those associations, leaving you to watch TV or drive without feeling the need to eat.

One of the most successful weight loss hypnosis methods for ending the snacking cycle is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which relies on negotiating with the unconscious mind and making it use the same thought processes that are creating your appetite, to eliminate your appetite. NLP entails many years of study and practical experience for a hypnotherapist to learn and master, but positive results can come very quickly and seem almost magical to someone who has always experienced cravings.

NLP can be just as vital as exercise and motivation because, as you learned above, it can help make sure that you eat the right kinds of foods at the right times, and this is a key aspect of turbo-charging your metabolism. If you wish to keep your metabolism at full speed and make sure that all of your exercise and hard work aren't being wasted by surrendering to your food temptations, weight loss hypnosis and NLP can be a secret weapon to eliminate your cravings altogether.