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We've all heard it or even said it before: "I'm not able to lose weight because of my metabolism." It is easy to blame our extra pounds on an abstract idea like metabolism, but let's examine the real importance of metabolism - and better yet, how you can get the most "burn" for your buck by recharging your metabolism. In the most basic sense, metabolism encompasses each of the chemical and physical changes that occur within the body's cells. Most often, though, metabolism refers to the process in which the body gets and uses energy from food, so it really does play an important role in weight loss and gain. Not everyone is given the same metabolism, and our rates actually change throughout our lives, so someone who blames their metabolism isn't necessarily making excuses. Age affects metabolism, which will slow about 5% every 10 years after age 40, and by sex, as males typically burn more calories at rest than females, and by the quantity of muscle mass you possess (more muscle generally means a higher rate of metabolism). Genetics also affects metabolism, not to mention having children, as well as whether a woman decides to breast-feed. In spit of all of the wild cards, the simple fact is that if your calorie intake exceeds your metabolism, excess energy will get housed in the body as fat. Though some of the factors affecting metabolic rate cannot be helped, thankfully, there are ways to rev up the metabolism you're born with. The first rule is to eat the correct foods in the correct quantities. When you skip a meal, your body turns on starvation mode, which slows metabolism to keep calories, because it doesn't know when it will get food again. And when the metabolism slows, so does your weight loss. When you finally do eat after having skipped a meal, instead of using the calories in the food you have just taken in, your body converts them to body fat to keep for the next "fast." To keep your metabolism efficient, eat 4 - 6 small meals during the day and aim to eat close to the same times every day. Most importantly, never skip a meal. You can also step up your metabolic rate with exercise, including both aerobic routines and strength training. Aerobic activities, such as biking, dancing and running, use more calories in the short term, while strength training will create more muscle, which improves metabolism and burns more calories in the long term - even when you're resting, muscle needs more calories to function than fat. In fact, each pound of muscle uses 35 calories per day, while every pound of fat uses only 2 calories per day. Despite this, you may be surprised that the more weight you posses, the faster your metabolism is likely to run. Simply put, the extra weight makes your body work harder to maintain its processes. This is partly why it is nearly always easiest to lose weight when you begin dieting, and is harder as you continue because, if you are significantly overweight, your metabolism is already at an elevated rate, so that even a minor decrease in calories will yield an immediate weight loss. But what happens after that immediate loss, when a plateau occurs and motivation seems to go by the "weigh" side? Old compulsions and cravings can suddenly come back, and when they do, do not ignore a valuable resource - lose weight hypnosis. Hypnotherapy can actually retrain your unconscious mind so that, in essence, you can eliminate food cravings. When we examine why we snack, realizing why weight loss hypnosis works so successfully becomes evident. For many of people, snacking has become a habit - maybe you do it unconsciously when you're watching TV or driving or when you are under stress. Hypnosis can actually reprogram your thoughts to stop those associations, leaving you to drive or watch TV without feeling the need to eat. One of the most successful lose weight hypnosis methods for ending the snacking cycle is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which relies on negotiating with the unconscious mind and making it use the same thought processes that are creating your appetite, to eliminate your appetite. NLP requires many years of study and practical experience for a hypnotherapist to learn and master, but positive results can come very rapidly and seem almost magical to a person who has always suffered from cravings. NLP can be equally as essential as exercise and motivation because, as you read above, it can help make sure that you eat the proper kinds of foods at the right times, and this is a chief aspect of turbo-charging your metabolism. If you wish to keep your metabolism at full speed and make sure that all of your exercise and hard work are not going to waste by giving in to your food temptations, weight loss hypnosis and NLP can be a secret weapon to eliminate your cravings once and for all.
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Alan B. Densky, CH has worked with clients for weight loss and appetite control since 1978. Visit his hypnosis website to watch his Free hypnotherapy videos, or learn about his exclusive lose weight through hypnosis CDs or his powerful video lose weight by hypnosis DVDs.
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