How can you increase your Basal Metabolic Rate

We have not done as much philosophy as we did in the some of the very early posts on the blog. I thought it was time to do a few posts that focus on some specific examples of how this training system is able to impact various components of fitness.

For the first one lets do weight loss. I think I have alluded to how losing weight can be impacted by this training system but here it is in one post.

If we look at the key components of weight loss it is calories. This is the one fool proof way to gain or to lose weight. I am a little rusty at this but I believe the numbers look like this; for every 3500 calories above your Basal Metabolic Rate you gain 1 pound. For every 3500 calories below your Basal Metabolic Rate, you will lose 1 pound.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body burns during a 24 hour period at complete rest. Think of it as the minimal amount necessary to maintain all of your body functions at complete rest. Thats right, you can lay there and not do a thing for an entire day and still burn calories. There are ways of determining what your BMR is. Here is a link to a calculator you can use to determine it. It is form a great site I found the other day called Shapefit.com. On the same page as the link to their calculator is some great info on BMR.

So how does your body burn calories? Well to do the daily tasks such as breathing, digesting, your heart rate, Thermogenesis (keeping the body warm) and other functions. The definition of a calorie is simply energy. Calories you eat are energy in, calories you burn are energy out. If you eat more calories (3500) than you need, then your body will store the extra energy as fat. If you eat fewer calories (3500) than you need, your body will burn fat to provide the extra energy.

If you read the article from the link above you will see a long list of other influences on your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is why losing weight can prove to be so challenging. To do it correctly takes patience, determination, and a ton of will power.

So in regards to the philosophy lets focus on just one area of how to positively impact your BMR, your muscular system. Your muscular system is one of, if not the most important component of your BMR. A higher amount of muscle mass will have a considerable impact on your BMR. So does this meant that everyone needs to go out and hit the weight room to lose weight? Well not exactly although this is a major reason so many trainers are advocates of weight training for losing weight. 

We have mentioned many times in these posts that what we are trying to teach you is how to train for efficiency. This will come as no surprise then that in order to maximize your muscular systems ability to burn calories it will require, you guessed it, greater efficiency. Muscles are composed of millions of muscle fibers. What we believe is that due to the lack of efficiency in our lives we are lacking in the amount of muscle fibers we give the necessary stimulus to for them to remain in an active state. If a fiber is in an active state than it will have a caloric requirement on order to maintain its workload. 

Here is an example of what I am saying. Lets say you do a Standing Lunge like the one picutred here. If this is the move you do every time you strengthen your lower body, your hips will get used to only need ing to supply the stimulus to the muscle fibers that are needed to provide that much range of motion. Now assume you have your front leg up on a bench and your back leg up on a separate bench. Now as you drop down your knee is no longer restricted by the floor and can therefore be taken through a greater range of motion. This in turn will put demand on a greater number of muscle fibers which in turn will generate a greater need for calories. 

Next post I will go into a bit more detail on this and give you a few more examples of things you can do to create a higher level of caloric need and in turn raise your BMR.