Convert fat into muscle and exercise first to improve basal metabolism

"I control my diet and even have an exercise habit, so why is my weight still going up?" Many people who are trying to lose weight ask similar questions when they can't keep losing weight. Nurses say the secret to successful weight loss is to increase your basal metabolic rate through exercise, a balanced diet and improving bad lifestyle habits.

Through exercise, you can improve your body's basal metabolic rate, help convert fat into muscle, and achieve the effect of weight loss.

Generally speaking, the way the human body consumes calories every day can be divided into three ways: basal metabolism, food processing and physical activity. Basal metabolism can consume 70% of the daily calories, which refers to the calories needed to maintain basic body functions such as heartbeat, body temperature, and breathing when the human body is at rest; food processing refers to the digestion, absorption, storage, and transportation of food, which consumes about 10% of the daily calories; physical activities such as going to work, playing ball, and walking the dog account for about 20% of calorie consumption.

Ye Xueping, a nurse in the Nursing Department of Taipei Municipal United Hospital Yangming Branch, pointed out that basal metabolism is the most calorie-consuming activity, and changing the body's basal metabolism depends on the amount of muscle. Since 1 kg of fat can only consume 4 to 10 calories, while 1 kg of muscle can consume 75 to 125 calories, how to turn body fat into muscle becomes a key to weight loss.

Ye Xueping said that the best way to increase basal metabolic rate is to exercise. In addition to burning fat immediately, aerobic exercise also produces a "smoldering effect", which continues to burn calories for up to 48 hours after exercise; weight training can also help increase muscle mass. She suggested that people can do both aerobic exercise and weight training and follow the 533 exercise principle (exercise 5 days a week, each exercise lasting more than 30 minutes, and each exercise intensity reaching a heart rate of at least 130 beats per minute) to enhance metabolism.

The second is a balanced diet. Since starvation will slow down metabolism, the body will send out alarm signals to reduce basal metabolism to maintain life needs, so you need to eat a balanced diet, drink plenty of water, and speed up the metabolism of various chemical reactions and waste in the body.

Finally, maintain a healthy lifestyle, including getting enough sleep to stimulate leptin; taking a hot bath to raise body temperature by 1 degree, which can increase metabolism by 13%; stand up and move around every 15 minutes.