I Part I we defined metabolism as the rate at which one’s body burns calories. We discussed the laws of physics in relation to weight loss and weight gain. In Part II, the differences between fat and muscle and their effect on weight loss was considered. In today’s post, the “secret” to increasing one’s metabolism will be given.

Why Increase Metabolism?

If you remember the laws of physics examined in Part I, they stated that the gaining or losing of weight was determined by the intake of calories relative to the amount of calories one was burning daily. If one was to consume more calories than burned over a period of time, weight gain would result. Taking in less calories than the daily caloric burn over a period of time would result in weight loss. The higher the metabolism, the more calories that can be consumed without going over daily caloric needs.

Increasing Metabolism

Remember also, that muscle is an “active” tissue. Muscle tissue both expends and requires calories to maintain itself. The more muscle, the more calories required to maintain and the more expended. So, to increase metabolism there needs to be an increase of muscle tissue. If one was to change their body composition (Part I) so that there was less fat and more muscle there would be an increase in metabolism and it would be easier to maintain a healthy weight.

Enough Already, What is the Answer?

The question still remains, “How do I increase my metabolism?”, which as we now see is the same question as “How do I increase lean muscle mass?”. The only way to do this comes through the process of weight training, and the subsequent recovery from this weight training.

Weight training causes small tears in muscle tissue, called microtrauma. When this microtrauma occurs, the body uses nutrients (notably protein) to rebuild the tears. As a result, the body rebuilds the tissue stronger and larger as a defense mechanism against future microtrauma (which is also why more demanding workouts are required to cause more microtrauma). This rebuilding can only take place if there are adequate nutrients in place to rebuild this tissue, and if sufficient rest is given for the change to take place (why you need breaks between working muscle groups). With the new muscle tissue there is an increase in calorie expenditure, and a resulting increase in metabolism. Again, all of this only happens through weight training.

In Part IV, this new insight into metabolism will be used to address fat loss.

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