How many people do you know who are “on a diet”. Loads? How many of them actually manage to succeed in losing weight and then keeping it off? Not many, I bet.

I’ll never poke fun at those who try, as it takes a lot of determination and hard work to deprive yourself of the nice things in life, especially when you are accustomed to them. Losing weight is difficult, but keeping it off is probably harder still. Those who succeed in both will be the ones who have seen past ‘food’ and ‘exercise’ and have attuned themselves to their own body.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stuff yourself with all the things you like and yet still be fit and avoid becoming a ‘lard-arse’? In a way, you can. But you have to approach the subject from a different angle, and be prepared to see gradual change. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Those who have tried ‘dieting’ will quickly agree that it doesn’t really do much in the long term. The key to getting in good shape lies in your metabolism.

Metabolism is the rate at which your body produces and consumes energy and calories to keep you alive. Energy is absolutely vital – if we don’t have the juice required to pump blood around and to breathe, to move our bodies or to maintain our body temperature – we die. End of.

Energy and how our body uses and stores it 

As a species, we humans are remarkably good at managing our energy reserves. We have lots of ways of keeping it handy around the body, ready for use. Simplistically put, they are:

 As soon as we eat food, it gets broken down into its component parts:

• Simple carbohydrates break down very quickly into simple sugars (i.e. glucose)
• Complex carbohydrates break down more slowly into simple sugars.
• Proteins break down into simple amino acids
• Fat… just stays as fat.

The calories we take on are distributed as shown above. What we don’t use IMMEDIATELY gets stored or excreted. Our bodies are greedy – they try to throw nothing away when it can be used somehow. If we don’t burn our glucose immediately, it goes to glycogen. If the glycogen stores are full (which is normal after a good meal) then it goes to fat. Fat as we have seen is hard to shift.

In addition to our fuel, we need to have some free amino acids (from protein) kicking around our system so that our body can repair and build muscle tissue. If there are more than are necessary, the body strips the energy from them chemically, and throws away the waste products via the urine. [This is why, when you eat an excess of protein, your urine goes darker, unless you up your water intake.]

So, a quick summary:

The body absorbs fuel and protein through the diet and either

1. uses them immediately,
2. stores them as glycogen or fat, or
3. excretes them via the urine.

The Balancing Act

Now, how do you get the balance right? Well, the knack is in learning to fuel your body correctly. Not always an easy task.

How come some people seem to get away with eating massive quantities of junk, yet some just have to look at a cream-cake to develop an arse the size of Africa?

Everyone’s body is not the same: some need much more and some need much less.

Have you ever slept next to someone and had to kick off the duvet because they were so toasty hot in bed? I bet you any money they were probably not overweight, either. Did they eat like a horse? This person was probably gifted or cursed with a high metabolism. They eat and eat, their bodies burn it all off because their internal engine is idling very quickly. They’re full of energy for this very reason.

If your metabolism is slow, even a low intake of calories will provide more energy than you need. You might not lead a very active lifestyle. You may live in a warm, centrally-heated house so you don’t have to work to maintain your body temperature.

You’ll hear Half-Ton Mum whining that her weight is a glandular problem. Partly, perhaps, this is true. But she’s still fat because of the amount of food she shovels down her neck is out of proportion to the amount she needs.

Your metabolism and How to Change It

Many people would give a lot to increase their metabolism. Having a high metabolic rate helps you to burn fat and lose weight fast with the least amount of activity. There are several factors that affect your metabolic rate, such as the amount of muscle you have and how often you use it, the frequency and size of the meals you consume, your genes and your stress levels. Your metabolism could slow down due to:

• loss of muscle (You’re not exercising enough)
• you’re not taking in enough fuel (Your body cannibalizes its own tissue because there is not enough food to sustain it.)
• old age (and the associated reduction in physical activity)

Changing your metabolism is well within your grasp if you want to. Take a look at some of my tips which might help you to boost yours:

1. Increase your lean body mass
   Like a car with a bigger engine, you will consume more calories if you have more muscles – the location where all this energy is ‘burnt’. Working out properly with weights will give your body the ‘beef’ with which you can burn off more fat. It is a balancing act, though. You must match the amount you eat to the amount you consume otherwise the surplus can be retained as fat. Get a regular routine and make notes of what you consume where you can. When it comes to exercise, consider working out a minimum of twice a week, preferably with weights.
2. Eat your breakfast
   It is without doubt the most important meal of your day. A coffee on the go is not enough! If you put off your breakfast until late (or worse, skip it entirely) your metabolic rate drops. It has been proven that people who eat breakfast are, on the whole, thinner than those who skip it.
3. Get a good sleep
   It is during sleep that your body rebuilds itself. A good kip also leads to lower stress levels and an increased desire and ability to exercise.
4. Eat more complex carbohydrates and less simple sugars
   Sugars get into the bloodstream very quickly as they are very water-soluble and pass through the gut in no time. The body can only tolerate a certain amount of sugar in the blood before it starts to find ways to get rid of it quickly. It produces insulin which takes the glucose out of your blood stream and locks it away. This can ultimately result in you storing unneccesary fat. (See earlier.) Carbs are simply long sugar polymers. Because they are not quite so soluble, they don’t cause this ‘sugar rush’, delivering instead a steady trickle of useable energy, and so your body doesn’t have to go mad to metabolise it all in one go. The best forms are those found in wholemeal bread, pasta, potatoes and grains.
5. Eat more spicy foods
   Capsaicin and its derivatives (found in peppers and chillis) increase blood-flow and metabolism, helping you to burn more calories. Curry can be fattening – so this isn’t an excuse for ten pints and a vindaloo (see next point about beer).
6. Drink lots of cold water
   Never mind all of these posh sports drinks – you don’t need them if you’re eating a well-balanced diet. Scientific opinion varies as to how much you should drink a day but one thing is certain: you probably aren’t drinking enough. When you are fully hydrated, you actually feel wonderful and ‘right’. Try it! If your urine is darker than a very pale yellow, you are putting your body under stress. In its day-to-day existence, your body produces many by-products which are toxic to it. Your kidneys filter these out and dump them into the urine, and this uses up a lot of water. If you don’t get enough, your general health is worse. 3.0l for a man and 2.2l for a woman is the recommended amounts. Tea, coffee and beer DO count. (Yay! See this article for more detailed info)
7. Eat smaller meals and eat more frequently
   Your body then never gets the chance to put on fat because you are delivering fuel and protein little-by-little as you require it. Don’t necessarily eat until you are full. Instead of a light breakfast, sandwich at lunch and a big evening meal, look at eating 4 to 6 smaller, well-balanced meals at intervals of two or three hours. Use your common sense.
8. Don’t skip meals
   This messes your metabolism around and can actually slow it again. Missing a meal will make you hungry and you’ll want to eat more at the next sitting, defeating the whole object of what we’ve just been discussing.
9. Reduce your stress levels
   Stress of all types triggers the release of hormones in your body which can reduce your metabolism. Some people will also comfort eat when placed in a stressful situation – also bad for you!  

There – that’ll do for now. There’s plenty more to discuss on this topic, but I’d end up banging on all day.