Having trouble keeping the weight off or experiencing plunging energy levels? These symptoms could be attributed to a drop in your metabolism due to certain lifestyle factors.

Metabolism is the rate at which the body burns calories. Energy levels increase along with your metabolism as more body fat is being released for energy. Conversely, when metabolism and energy falls, your body will hold on to more body fat.

Here are some adjustments to your lifestyle that you can make to boost your metabolism!

Exercise Aerobically 5 Times a Week
Do this in the morning and it will help keep your metabolism elevated all day long! Primarily aerobic exercises are walking, jogging, rope skipping and cycling.

Train in The Zone for 20 to 60 Minutes Each Time
It’s not what you do but how hard you do it that counts! Training in the zone means exercising at 60% to 80% of your maximum heart rate. If you do not have a heart rate monitor, you know that you are training in the zone if you can speak up fairly clearly but would prefer not to.

Build Muscle
At least two to three times a week, add weight training or resistance exercise to your workout. Muscle burns more calories than fat, and the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest!

Don’t Starve!
Going on a restrictive diet causes your body to hold on to fat and break down muscle for energy. The less muscles you have the lower your basal metabolic rate is going to be.

Drink Big!
Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water a day. Metabolism needs water to be effectively activated.

Have Smaller and More Frequent Meals
Eating can increase your metabolism! The key though, lies in what you eat, how much you eat and when you eat. Have your bigger meals early in the day and consume 5 smaller meals instead of having 3 big ones. Also, complex, high-fiber carbohydrates such as vegetables and cereals burn more calories than simple carbohydrates. Attempt to consume at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Avoid Food 2 to 3 Hours Before Bedtime
Dinner should be your lightest meal, and some experts recommend you don’t anything after 8 p.m. The food sitting in your stomach as you sleep will not be properly digested and it will be stored as fat instead.

Reduce or Eliminate Alcohol
Besides slowing down your metabolism, alcohol is a depressant- you are more likely to adopt a “heck care” attitude towards healthy eating and regular exercise. Besides, it will have a lingering effect on your ability to have an effective and intense workout for days!

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-12-your-metabolism

What pictures come to your mind when this question is asked? Common replies from participants in my workshops range from-washboard abs, the name of some fitness center chain or even the ability to finish a marathon.

What about you? What does being fit mean to you? This is an important question because how you define fitness is going to affect your ability to sustain your motivation to exercise regularly in the long run.

Does owning an expensive gym membership equate to being fit? Most people sign up for a 2-year membership but never use the facility for more than 3 months anyway. They end up paying for the overheads for the remaining 21 months! If your fitness goal is to achieve The Perfect Body, you are setting yourself up to fail! Ask any bodybuilder and they will tell you that the perfect body does not exist! There will always be something that needs to be fixed-You can have washboard abs but your biceps are not massive enough or your thighs are still too scrawny.

Do you need to finish a marathon to be considered fit? It’s been twelve years since I did my last marathon but I still consider myself to be fit. The only reason why I trained hard for two marathons during my NS days was to earn myself a long weekend for representing my Commando Unit. Fitness was the last thing on my mind!

Movement = Energy

The term Workout suggests that exercise is work or a chore to complete and to most people, it is! Wrong! Exercise is not work! It is about movement and movement helps unleash your body’s energy. After spending most of my years dabbling in various sport and fitness pursuits, I now realize that the biggest reward that I reap from regular exercise is Energy.

No matter how busy I am, I move for at least 30 minutes everyday, not because I feel that I must but because I know for sure that when I am moving, I will feel great. I am also certain that after moving, I will have more energy for the rest of the day. I feel relaxed and calm; my thoughts become clearer, solutions and ideas come to me easily. When I’m in this state, optimism engulfs me. I feel that anything and everything-is possible,

It’s a magical experience to be in this state and the best part is that it’s free! It costs you nothing to take a walk! You do not need an expensive gym membership, finish a marathon or washboard abs to feel energized and alive. You can feel this way as soon as you start moving!

So what are you waiting for? Start moving NOW!

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-8-what-fitness

“Do 4 sets of these exercises for between 8 to 12 reps if you want to put on size!” That’s the typical advice given by most fitness experts and for most of us, resistance training or weight training often means heaving the weights quickly up and down, simply focusing on the number of the reps.

Is this the most effective way of training? Are you getting consistent muscular gains using this method?
Coming across the advices seen in fitness magazines and personal trainers indicate the best repetition range for muscle gain (or hypertrophy) is 8 to 12. However they failed to take notice that in performing each rep, they need to pay close attention to “Time-under-tension” (T.U.T.).

So what is T.U.T.?

It refers to the amount of time per rep (or set, or exercise, or workout) that the muscle is under tension. For example, if an individual takes 3 seconds to perform 1 repetition of a bodyweight squat, it is said that the T.U.T. was 3 seconds. If someone performs 10 repetitions, then the workout T.U.T. was 30 seconds.

T.U.T. is usually written using numbers like this 2010. Using the bodyweight squat as an example, this would mean that you will take exactly 2 seconds to lower yourself. The next number will mean whether you pause at the bottom or not; 0 means no pause. The 3rd number represents the time needed to raise you back to the start position which is 1 second. The last number stands for the amount of time used to pause at the top of the movement.

So what is the recommended T.U.T.?

Charles Poliquin, a strength and conditioning coach, has come up with the following numbers as a guide to help us determine our T.U.T.
1) If you train for relative strength, T.U.T. should be under 20 seconds,
2) If you train for hypertrophy, TUT should be around 40-70 seconds

Therefore if hypertrophy is what you want then a full set should last between 40-70 seconds. Like any new toy, you will want to play with right away; you should incorporate this into your next workout in the very next session. Remember that if you want to identify its success or failure, you must show consistency in its usage.

Every few weeks or so, determine if your applied T.U.T. is working well for you. So no one is the same, what works for an individual may not work for another. I may need to stay within 40-second sets and you may need 70-second sets. Muscle growth is not about magic numbers or pills, but it is about hard work and determination.

I have used this for many years and have time and time again seen the results achieved. Therefore I hope you learn from it and very soon you will be on your way to fast muscle gain in no time.

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-16-tut

Whenever I feel burnt out, catching up on some sleep or taking a day off helps a little, but not very much. What really helps to renew myself physically, mentally and emotionally are exercise and being involved with activities that were fun or educational.

1. Exercise!
2. Improve your diet
3. Pick up a new skill
4. Meditate
5. Write in your journal
6. Have a deep conversation with a loved one
7. Clear out a bunch of little tasks that you’ve been putting off

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-15-habit-7-sharpen-saw

A teacher friend of mine flinched as she was calculating how much she spends on fitness activities every month. She has a 2 year gym membership that she pays via an interest-free installment scheme and also spends $60 every weekend to get her wakeboarding fix. In all, she spends close to $200 per month and that does not include the transport and parking costs to get to the fitness facilities! With all the scary financial news out there, there is a very real possibility that such discretionary spending will soon catch up with you if it has not already…

Are there any inexpensive or even free alternatives to get fit while having fun too? Fortunately, the answer is yes! Other than jogging and walking, here are some ideas and activities will keep your hear rate going!

Trekking

The slopes of Bukit Timah Hill (The highest natural summit in Singapore) provide a challenging and fun alternative to the stationery stair climber in the gym! If you re unfamiliar with the hills, the easiest way to the summit is to get the free pamphlet from the Nature Reserve Visitor Center at the trailhead which has a simple topography map with colored routes.

Another great place to trek is at the Southern Ridges trail connecting Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hill and Kent Ridge. My favorite part of the trail is climbing up the pre-war granite steps cut into the forest at Mount Faber. A close second would be to walk on the magnificent Henderson Waves and Alexandra Arch. The experience is refreshing and the scenery is simply breathtaking!

Fitness Bootcamp

If you fancy working out as a team, make new friends and enjoy a combo of fitness activities such as kickboxing, yoga, circuit-training and obstacle course, take part in one of these bootcamp sessions that are available at almost every major park on the island. The best part about these sessions is that there is no long term money committent. You only pay when you join the sessions. Hit www.fitnessbootcamp.sg for more info.

Rope Skipping

Inexpensive, effective and convenient! For those of you want to pick up new rope-skipping styles or to simply learn the basic bounce, there are free lessons being conducted at East Coast Park every Saturday. Check out www.skipping.sg for details.

Team Sports

Most of us have got a deflated soccer, rugby ball or a Frisbee stashed somewhere. Gather a few buddies for a kick-about or a game of Touch Rugby at the nearby fields. You get to catch up with your friends and get fit all at once!

Finally, avoid the trap of “recession pounds”, weight put on by eating less healthy food as a result of financial hardship and other unhealthy activities such as smoking. Instead take this opportunity to engage in sport and fitness, which are productive activities in managing stress.

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-13-recession-proof-fitness

You’ve probably experienced this yourself…those times when you were overwhelmed by fatigue, all drained off energy, yet having to remain focused in order to finish some urgent work. Almost subconsciously,we most definitely will reach for caffine and/or some form of sugar to keep ourselves awake. Unfortuntely, this form of energy aka Sugar Dependency Cycle is not only inconsistent, it is also one sure way to put on excess weight in the long run.

Incidental Activities

Do we all have the ability to energize ourselves instantly? Of course we do! And the best part is that it’s free and it’s not going to cause us to put on any excess weight! To summon energy, all you need to do is MOVE! When we move, we feel, and its only when we feel that we become energized and enthusiastic! The key to having more energy lies simply in how much you move everyday. You might want to try walking down the stairs instead of the elevator or to simply keep walking when you are chatting on your handphone. Health educators refer to these movements as Incidental Activities.

Consistent Energy=Success!

If you think about it, how successful or happy we are is almost entirely tied to how much energy we consistently have. It does not matter how skillful or good you are at your job or how much you know about relationships, if you are tired and struggling all the time, you will not have the juice to be at your best at work or to have a passionate relationship.

So list down 10 Incidental Activities that you can fit into your daily routine and do it. Remember! More movement equates to more energy!

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-14-instant-energy

I must confess that the advice that I am about to share with you is something that I find most difficult to follow.  Thinking and training in ways that burn fat is almost second nature for me but all these efforts come to nil whenever I feed my body sugar.

This last instalment of Burning Fat will give you important insights into the relationship between your food choices and energy levels.

Sugar Dependency Cycle

Sugar-based food creates an immediate but short-lived energy surge, and most of us are caught in a cycle where we consume repeated dosage of sugar as soon as the previous ‘high’ wears off.

Such eating patterns leave us hungry all day long and over months and years, our energy levels become inconsistent and our health suffers. It will move our bodies in the direction of releasing insulin, burning sugar, storing fat and becoming more acidic.

Energy Comes From Within You, Not From Outside Of You

Are we resigned to this dependency on sugar? How can we fuel ourselves without having to experience and these mood and energy swings?

The energy that food can provide is no way comparable to the energy that the body can release. Our bodies’ possess an innate ability to release sustained energy that can only be tapped on if we change our perception about food. The key here is to view food as a means to tap on our own vast energy supply, which is stored in body fat instead of something that we consume to refuel ourselves when we run flat.

Eating To Release Energy From Fat

1.       Consume less dense, starchy, and wheat based carbs such as breads, noodles, and cakes and more low-glycemic foods such as green leafy vegetables, fish, seeds, nuts and plenty of water. As a rule of thumb, fill your plate up with salad and vegetables first and then add small amounts of fish, grains and other meat.

2.       Include monounsaturated fats and oils to your meals i.e. high quality essential fats such as olive, flax and fish oil. Also note that food with fat tastes better than food dependant on sugar to add flavour. Such food triggers hunger pangs more frequently, resulting in more calories being consumed.

3.       Meals should be small and numerous. Never allow yourself to be in dire need of food.

Lastly, remember that natural, simpler prepared and less sweetened food gives us more dependable and sustainable energy. Recognize that the true worth of a meal comes later, when you experience how sustainable your energy becomes and not the immediate energy they give!

P.s. The strategies shared in these three byte-sized newsletters on burning fat are far from comprehensive. To learn more, I strongly recommend reading Slow Burn by Stu Mittleman.

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-11burning-fat-part-3-3

During my early days in the fitness industry, I was caught up in the gym culture of ‘No Pain No Gain’. I often put my clients in a sugar burning state through hard and fast workouts that produced quick results. The negative long-term effects of such intensed workouts have been discussed in the previous Fitness Minutes. It still disturbs me today, that I must have turned off many who sought exercise as a means to manage stress and to feel vibrant.

How you set up your training sessions, what you eat and what goes through your mind plays a big part on whether your body gets its energy from fats or sugar. These two issues of Fitness Minutes will focus on how we can burn more fat instead of sugar by making adjustments to how we train, think and eat.

Here are some useful tips that you can follow:

Warming Up and Cooling Down

Warm up slowly instead of jumping straight into the activity itself i.e. Take a slow walk before breaking into a jog. This allows your body to prepare itself to burn fats instead of sugar. Similarly, make sure you warm down by slowly decreasing the intensity of your exercise to avoid cravings for carbohydrate rich foods after your workout.

Perception

Shift focus from the outcome to being in the present i.e. Instead of being one-dimensional and focusing only on completing your workout, focus on how you feel instead-Take in all the scenery and images in front of you. How does the world or gym look? How many different colours can you see? Listen for music and sounds nearby and faraway. Allow your thoughts to drift and wonder.

Breathing

Avoid any forced expulsion of air and breathing by expanding your chest. Breathe low comfortably i.e. feel your belly expand as you inhale and exhale slowly.

Go Slow

Can you speak out loud as you are exercising? If you are panting too heavily to do so, you are probably training in your sugar-burning zone where sugar becomes the primary source of fuel. You need to bring your heart rate down to the fat burning zone. If you are running, that may mean having to slow down to a brisk walk instead.

I used to be pretty embarrassed with the idea of walking especially when middle-aged women and seniors are running past me! But I remind myself that exercise should not be about how much pain one can take or to boost my own ego, it should be about creating more energy and to simply move comfortably!

I’m running and doing other exercises more slowly than before but it’s fine because I am looking forward to every opportunity to move. Also, that doesn’t mean that I can’t go fast when I need to. In fact, my timing for my 2.4km run is once again sub 10minutes! The last time I clocked such times was during my NS days! I can now speed up without working any harder.

For the next issue of Fitness Minutes, I will be sharing tips on how to make food choices that help to burn fats. Meanwhile, go slow and have fun!

source: http://www.vitagefitness.com/content/fitness-minutes-10-burning-fat-part-2-3

“I don’t feel energized after exercise, in fact I feel really tired!” is a response that I got from a reader of the previous Fitness Minutes. Variations of the same question pop up very often during my workshops.

What about you? Do you often feel lethargic after exercise? Do get into a ‘slump’ where you have difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly? Do you often crave for sugar-rich foods or caffeine almost immediately after leaving the gym?

If you have answered yes to the above questions, you are likely to be training and eating to burn sugar instead of fat. Read on to find out what exactly I’m talking about…

Burning Fat vs. Burning Sugar

For most of us, as long as we have the energy to complete our workout, it doesn’t matter where this energy comes from. This may surprise many of you; it DOES matter where your body gets its energy from, especially if you often feel weary or exhausted after exercise.

Our bodies draw its energy from two systems-the fat burning aerobic system and the sugar burning anaerobic system. Throughout evolution our ancestors have relied on the anaerobic system for survival i.e. to run from-or to run after-other animals. It’s an emergency system designed to quickly mobilize energy to flee or to defend yourself.

The problem today is that we put ourselves in sugar burning states all the time. When you are constantly on the go, it is tempting to take shortcuts in the form of harder and shorter workouts. We also want results FAST and often subscribe to the No Pain No Gain philosophy of training. It is so common to see fitness enthusiasts who rush to the gym for a fast and intensed workout; take a quick shower before zooming off to the next appointment in the blink of an eye. This often results in a sharp drop in blood sugar levels, causing you to lose concentration, feel dizzy and, in extreme cases, blurry vision. In the meantime, the lure of carbohydrate and sugar-rich foods that provides an immediate blast of energy also becomes more appealing. Over time, such routines can stress you out and wear you down.

On the other hand, when you set your body up to burn fat, you begin to activate a more sustained and almost inexhaustible form of energy. You become less susceptible to frequent energy highs and lows and feel even more energized and at ease after exercise.

In order to burn more fat instead of sugar, we not only have to be aware of how we physically train, what goes on in our heads and our food choices are equally critical. I will be elaborating more on how we should manage and fine-tune our mind, body and nutritional choices in order to draw more energy from fat instead of sugar in the next two issues of Fitness Minutes.

No time for regular exercise?

Not having time is the number one reason/ excuse that we give ourselves for not exercising regularly.

Even that cannot be a valid reason because exercise actually saves you time. Yes! You heard me right. Exercise is a bargain and there is nothing you can do for twenty minutes a day that is going to reap you more benefits!

Most people equate success to hard work and not to health and regular exercise. Little do they realize that health and regular exercise can actually help them to work harder and be successful. Regular exercise saves you time and as a result you become more efficient sand successful. Here is how…

• Your quality of sleep improves. You need to sleep less and also spend less time in the day feeling tired and unproductive!
• Your health improves and you spend less time falling sick. Exercise is known as the “miracle cure”.
• Our thoughts and minds become less cluttered after exercise allowing room for more creativity and innovation. Better and more efficient ideas to complete tasks translate to less time spent on work!
• Exercise produces endorphins a.k.a. Happy Hormones! We cannot possibly be at our most efficient when we are unhappy.
• Exercise is a great stress buster! A regular 20-minute run will add extra years to your life! Trying to beat stress through unhealthy activities like smoking and drinking not only helps you to spend more time being a patient, it also causes you to become even more stressed.

Last and most importantly, we want to work hard and be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. What is the point of working so hard at the expense of our health and end up spending all the money on medical bills?