ImOnDiet …

What is Metabolism?

Genetics

It’s estimated that 60 per cent of the speed of your metabolic rate is determined by your genes, as these control how much muscle you have in your body and how effectively your thyroid gland, which drives the metabolic rate, works. Studies on identical twins have shown that they have identical metabolic rates so, if your parents have a slow metabolic rate, so will you.

Gender

Men generally have slightly faster metabolisms than women, because they have lower levels of body fat and higher levels of muscle mass as part of their genetic make-up. this is important as muscle is what fitness experts refer to as metabolically active, which means that it actually burns calories to survive. This means that the more muscle you have in your body, the higher your metabolic rate.

Age

While male metabolism does slow with the age, the decline is greater for women. From the age about 35, the hormonal changes that occur in the female body to prepare it for menopause also start to affect the body’s ability to retain muscle. as a result, each year in the 10-15 years before menopause the average woman loses roughly 0.25 kg of muscle. after menopause , when hormone levels are lower. that loss doubles. This means that every decade women also see a fall in the amountcaloriesthey burnt each day.This slowdown is one of the primary reasons why weight gain often occurs in middle age.

It teaches you to eat properly

When most of us come to the end of a standard diet. the first thing we do is go out and eat all those foods we’ve been missing, which often starts the needle on the scales moving upwards again. On this diet you’ve been eating those favorite foods all along, so there’s no making up to be done. More importantly, by following the weekend eating guidelines you learn how to control yourself around these foods-and how to enjoy them without feeling guilty-forever.

You’re less likely to eat ‘invisible’ calories

The longer you’re on a normal diet, more likely it is that invisible calories creep in.They come from stopping weighing portions because you think you know how much is right, or because weight loss is going so well that you figure the odd chocolate bar won’t hurt. Eventually the calories add up. Because this diet effectively last only only five days each time. It’s much easier to avoid these invisible calories.

The role of exercise

Exercise is a vital part of any weight loss plan. It burns calories while you do it and creates a metabolic boost that means you continue burning calories at a higher rate when you stop exercising . On this diet you’ll be doing three types of exercise.

* During the week you’ll be doing stealth exercise which you’ll build into day potentially without even noticing.

* In addition, you’ll do a simple 8-to 10 minute daily toning plan to help rev up your metabolism and firm up your muscles from top to toe.

* At weekends you’ll do a little more activity as you’ll need to balance out your extra food intake, but it’ll be something that you choose to do and that you really enjoy.

At the moment you might see exercise-like most diets-as a chore, but when you realize that exercise doesn’t need to involve the gym ,nor pain and discomfort, and in some cases not even need a tracksuit and trainers, you realize that exercising can brighten up and energize your weekend, as well as power of your weight loss.

What does the diet involve?

This diet really is simple. For five days a week you follow a structured low-calorie, nutrient-rich, metabolism-boosting diet and exercise plan. Then for the two days of the weekend you can eat whatever you like. Essentially, you divide your dieting life, just as most of us divide our weeks- into weekdays and weekend days with different rules for each.

Weekdays:

Whatever diet they are on, most of dieters find it fairly easy to stick to their diet plan during the week. There’s lots of reason for this - usually too busy to cheat, if you are at work or out and about there’s no easily available fridge or cupboard of goodies to tempt you, and you probably have less of a social life during the week to derail things. The result is that weekdays are definitely more diet friendly and it’s the reason why, on this diet, you’re going to stick to an organized eating plan from Monday to Friday.