Understanding Metabolism
Your body’s metabolism is responsible for converting the food you eat into usable energy for your body to operate normally. The process of metabolism is complex. When trying to figure out how to burn calories, you must first figure out how many calories your body needs to function optimally. The number of calories your body needs is dependent on your basal metabolic rate. This is the minimum number of calories your body needs to perform all its primary tasks. Everyone’s basal metabolic rate is different and is affected by a few different factors. Your body size, your sex, and your age all affect your basal metabolic rate. If you are larger or have more muscle mass, then you will burn more calories without having to exert yourself. Men naturally have more muscle mass than women, which tends to make it easier for men to burn more calories. As the human body ages, it will ultimately decrease in muscle mass, which means your metabolism will naturally slow down with age.
Increase Metabolism to Easily Burn More Calories
When learning how to burn calories, there are two ways you need to be aware of that can increase your body’s metabolism naturally. The first is by doing the one thing we think we should avoid when trying to burn more calories. Eat more! The process of consuming, breaking down, and using the food sources we eat needs calories to operate. This process is called thermogenesis. It has been shown that as much as 10 percent of the calories we eat are used to help perform this digestive process. While eating more may not be the best choice for those looking to burn more calories with the goal of losing weight, there is a second way you can naturally give your calorie-burning potential a boost. The second way we can burn calories is through physical activity. Most people, when figuring out how to burn calories, will eventually realize that in order to burn more calories, they must increase their physical activity. The simple fact is, that the more physical activity you perform, the greater number of calories your body will burn.
How to Burn Even More Calories
Perform Regular Cardiovascular Activities
Moving your body requires the use of your muscles. When your muscles are being used, they require energy from the calories you consume to continue to move. As the length of time, intensity, or speed of your movement increase, the number of calories burned will increase. The general guideline for the amount and type of activity to help people burn calories to maintain or lose weight is to perform at least 30 plus minutes of light to moderate activity. This could include activities like, walking, cycling, hiking, and swimming. If it’s too difficult to add outdoor activities to your regular exercise program, adding a piece of home exercise equipment could make exercise more convenient.
Add Some Resistance Training
Earlier I stated that the more muscle mass you have the greater your basal metabolic rate will be. In order to increase your muscle mass, you must perform resistance training activities. Weight training with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or weight machines is all great options to choose from when looking to build some calorie-burning muscle. You can see results from as little as one to two resistance training sessions per week. If you are new to resistance training, start with one or two sets of fifteen repetitions per set for each major muscle group. Use a light weight at first and focus on good form before increasing the weight and number of sets you perform. Check out our YouTube channel for more in-depth instruction and full-length follow-along workouts.
Increase Your Daily Activity
If you are struggling with putting together and executing an exercise program to help you burn more calories, start with increasing your daily activity. There are many ways you can stimulate your body’s metabolism through everyday activity. Parking further away from your office, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, using a standing desk, or planning walking meetings are all great ways to incorporate more activity into your day. In general, if you spend most of your time sitting then you are going to have a hard time figuring out how to burn more calories.
Running
If you are confident in your body’s ability to perform running activities safely, there are few ways to burn more calories. Running requires a significant amount of lower body strength and endurance to perform well. If you can run comfortably for more than 30 minutes, you will have the potential to burn hundreds of calories.
HIIT Training
High-intensity Interval Training or HIIT is a training method that is performed by increasing your heart rate to a high level for a short amount of time followed by a period of recovery time. You can perform HIIT training with a variety of different movements or equipment. There are many ways to perform HIIT training. A good place to start would be to go up a flight of stairs as fast and safely as you can and then walk back down. Try to complete this activity for 10 minutes. By performing HIIT training you can burn many calories in a relatively short amount of time.
Whether your goal is to burn calories for weight maintenance or weight loss, figuring out how to burn calories can be tough. Fortunately, there are many ways to incorporate activity into your daily schedule to help you increase the number of calories you can burn throughout the day. As with any exercise or activity program, it is important to check with your doctor before you begin.
