Top Five Ways to Speed up Metabolism and Lose Weight

My grandmother, who passed away at the age of 102, came to visit me at the young age of 90. I remember distinctly walking with her into a building with several flights of stairs. As we approach the stairs, she looks at me with a grin and says, “I’ll race you!” and she takes off up the stairs. I am not expecting all of us to be that agile at the age of 90 if we make it to that age. Without knowing it, my grandmother was revving up her metabolism and taking care of some cardio.

Here are five ways to rev up your metabolism:

1. Do not cut too many calories
If you reduce your caloric intake too low which would be less than 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, your body will respond by slowing your metabolism. Your metabolism may slow by as much as 45%. Furthermore, you will be losing lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is a calorie burner.
2. Eat Breakfast
About 50% of those who are overweight do not eat breakfast. Your best bet is to eat a high fiber carbohydrate such as oatmeal. Add some raisins, fresh or frozen fruit and ground flax seed and you've got a great combination of carbs, good fats and protein.
3. Eat Frequently and Drink Water
Eating frequently can keep your metabolism going. You should eat about five to six times a day. That does not mean you have to have a prepared meal that frequently. A snack of an apple, banana or yogurt counts as one of those meals. If you allow your body to go without food for more than four hours, your metabolism will slow. This may cause you to overeat or eat unhealthy choices because you have starved your body. Stay hydrated and make water your beverage of choice. Drink lots of water.
4. Interval Training
Interval training is any type of exercise that causes the heart rate to go up briefly followed by a break. This is done multiple times to get the heart rate up and then bring it back down. Some of you will think that interval training is just for athletes. That's not true. Regardless of your fitness level you can conduct a form of interval training when walking or jogging. Listen to your body so that you don't overdo it and consult your physician to make sure you are medically cleared. For example, when going for a walk, pick that park bench or telephone pole about 100 yards or less from your starting position and simply pick up the pace to the point feel like you have increased exertion and you find yourself huffing and puffing. Once you cross the finish line, slow your pace and slow your breathing from two to 5 minutes. Then do it again. Do this 3 to 8 times depending on your fitness level and you will burn more calories and increase your cardiovascular conditioning.

5. Strength Training
Strength training will increase your metabolism because muscle, especially muscles that are exercised, burn more calories. Include muscle endurance training as well. Muscle endurance is the ability of a muscle to work continuously under fatigue. That is a healthy muscle.

YOUR ACTION PLAN:
Incorporate interval training into your workouts 2 to 3 times per week and start eating 5 to 6 times a day. Have healthy snacks available so you don't get caught slowing your metabolism by not eating frequently enough.

Push-ups: The Best Most Complete Upper Body Exercise in the World

Push-ups: The Best Most Complete Upper Body Exercise in the World
By Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret.

The push-up is hands down the best, most complete upper body exercise in the world. Here are a variety of ways to perform push-ups. A push-up demonstrates the portability and flexibility of the human body when it comes to staying in shape. From a health standpoint, you do not need one single piece of equipment or some special place to stay lean and strong. Whether it is in your living room, bedroom, hotel room, on the patio, in the yard, the break room at work or in your office, you can immediately enjoy taking care of your strength training.

600 Push-ups 30 Variations (The Health Colonel Series)

REGULAR PUSH-UP
Let us move on to the best and most complete upper body exercise in the world. It is the push-up. All right, now get down with me for this one. Let’s do it! Get down on all fours. Your feet are together and your body is straight. Your arms are a little more than shoulder-width apart and are spread in line with your chest. Go down to a 90-degree break in your elbows and come back up. Now, wasn’t that easy? Yeah, I know. For a lot of you out there, it’s pretty strenuous. That’s OK. If you find you can only go down partially, you will still be working those muscles and you will get stronger and eventually be able go all the way down. I recommend to my clients to practice the regular push-up even though they cannot go all the way down and push their body back up. This approach is better than just performing knee push-ups.

WIDE PUSH-UP
The wide (extra wide) push-up is performed the same way as the regular push-up with one exception. This time your hands are spread as wide as you can get them without collapsing. Your body is closer to the ground this time in the starting position. You will notice how the chest now enjoys a very beneficial workout along with your arms. 

TRICEPS PUSH-UP
Now get down for another great variation of the push-up. This time your hands are close together and your feet are spread about shoulder width for stability. Go down to the point where your chest is almost touching the ground and come back up. Feel those triceps work? You will notice that this one feels more strenuous than the regular push-up.

FOUR COUNT PUSH-UP
Now let’s put some real excitement into the push-up. These are regular push-ups with a twist. This time you will stop and pause between each motion. You will notice that you will get even more benefit from this strength training exercise. It’s a four count. Here we go and ONE, lower your body (pause); TWO, raise it back up (pause); THREE, lower your body (pause); FOUR, raise it back up (pause). That’s one repetition. Try five to ten reps and count them out loud. The count is one, two, three, ONE; one, two, three, TWO; one, two, three, THREE; and so on.

KNEE PUSH-UPS, 45 DEGREES
Get down on your knees for this push-up, which simply means that you will be pumping less body weight. Your legs are at a 45-degree angle. You can
actually perform all of the previously mentioned push-ups using this position.

KNEE PUSH-UPS, 90 DEGREES
This push-up position will allow you to lessen the body weight even more than the 45-degree angle push-up. The various types of push-ups described previously can be performed using the 90-degree push-up.

Please mention the author when using this article.
The author is Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret.