Happy New Year! Are you ready to hit the gym? Before you grab your shiny new gym membership and hit the gym 5 days out of the week, there are several key points you need to know first for fast weight loss.
You need to calculate how well you burn calories in the first place. This is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the amount of energy that you burn even if you were doing nothing for 24 hours, and it is also the minimum amount of energy that your body needs to function including breathing. Your BMR is very important to know because it will determine how many calories you should be eating in a day for fast weight loss or maintenance.
The ugly truth is if you are short like me, you will have a lower BMR, but if you are nice and tall, you will have a high BMR. One of the best ways to increase your BMR is to add muscle.
Now let’s get to work. Imagine your basement was flooded, and I asked you to get your bucket which is your “muscle”. But unfortunately, your bucket is the size of a coffee mug. It would take you forever to dry out your basement. This is probably one of the reasons why you feel like it has been hard for you to lose weight fast.
You’re smart. Let’s make your bucket bigger by adding muscle.
Now we’re talking! You can get loads and loads of water out, and have a dry basement in no time.
Now we are ready to hit the gym. One of the biggest mistakes that I see is that most people hit the treadmill first thinking this is the best way to lose weight. Although running is a good form of exercise, and you have the potential to burn calories, your “bucket” is still too small.
To make losing weight more efficient, you must focus on lifting weights to make your bucket bigger. Making your bucket bigger will not only help you get rid of even more body fat in less time, it will raise your metabolism, AND help you keep off the weight you lost long-term.
In our office, we regularly analyze your muscle strength in different parts of your body, and we can determine your weaker areas that you can focus on first. It also calculates how well you burn calories so you can determine the amount of calories you would be able to consume daily to help you maintain your weight.
Get out a pen and paper and write this down:
- Perform weight resistance exercises FIRST, then cardio.
- Higher resistance, lower reps = bigger bucket
- Rest days in between helps your body build a bigger bucket
