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Metabolism Myths Exposed and Why Your Not Losing That Body Fat (Part 2)

By MJ Jensen

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 01Jul2008 Word count: 624 Viewed: 117 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

in the first part of this article we discussed the fallacy of diet pills and losing weight by cutting your daily intake of calories and it's effect on your metabolism. why these two myths might cause you to gain more weight then what weight loss you had achieved utilizing these myths. the next two myths we will discuss are exercise and exercise focus used to achieve your weight loss is either not enough or actually too much exercise.

Myth #3: Low Intensity Workouts. It's fair to say that any exercise is better than no exercise. So if you lead a sedentary lifestyle, then even walking around your block for 10 minutes a day is going to something positive for your body and its metabolism. True, that difference may be imperceptible to the naked eye in most cases, the bottom line is that exercise is good. Yet with this being said, some people believe that they should perform low-intensity workouts even when they could be performing more high-intensity workouts.

That is, instead of jogging for 20 minutes with their heart at the top end of their aerobic zone, they opt for low-intensity jogs that barely breaks a sweat. Low intensity workouts simply don't lead to a faster metabolism;they can't., metabolism is a process. That process is really one of two types: taking energy and making cells (anabolism), or breaking cells down to make energy (catabolism). If you don't achieve a high-intensity workout, your body can't achieve catabolism; it won't need to. And the only way your body is going to go and break down existing cells is if it needs to.

So keep this in mind as you exercise, either at home or at a gym. Low intensity workouts are better than nothing at all; and they may be necessary if you're recovering from injury, or just starting out on the exercise journey. But once you reach a level of basic fitness, only high intensity (aerobic) workouts will make a difference in terms of your metabolism. High intensity workouts force your body to find energy to help you maintain that level of exercise; and it does so through catabolism. One of the best tools to firing up your metabolism is weight lifting because of it's fast ability to fatigue muscles without spending 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Myth #4: Too Much Focus. Speeding up your metabolism and achieving your weight loss goals involved a certain degree of focus; after all, there's a lot of things competing for your attention (including that double decker bacon cheeseburger!), and you certainly need to be able to keep your eye on the goal in order to maintain your program.

Yet sometimes too much focus can be a bad thing; and some dieters understand this all too well. Remember: speeding up your metabolism is a holistic effort that includes exercise, lifestyle, and diet changes. Focusing on only one of these at the expense of the others (either one or both) can be detrimental. In fact, in some cases, it can be counter-productive.

So the myth here is that you shouldn't go all out and focus on becoming an exercise guru, and then move onto lifestyle, and then to diet. You have to integrate all 3 aspects into your life at the same time. True, based on your unique situation, you will likely emphasize one more than the others. That's fine and normal. But it's a myth and a mistake - to ignore any one of these changes in your lifestyle. It takes all three to speed up your metabolism, and to get you to your weight loss goals for the long-term.

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