You want to get lean. Firm your thighs. Tone your butt. Get flat abs. Maybe you’re not even so far away from your goal – but how do you lose those last few pounds and, more importantly, keep them off?
It’s all about the intensity
Well, it’s all about the high intensity training that all but guarantees to get you lean and keep you lean as long as you maintain good physical activity levels.Why is exercise done at a high intensity so effective? Well, not only does it raise your heart rate and thus increase your cardiorespiratory fitness, it also increases your metabolism. And that’s really the holy grail of being lean.
We all know that one person who eats whatever they want…
… But never seems to gain any weight. It’s like no matter how many cupcakes they eat, they can’t seem to gain a pound. Even worse are the people that complain that they eat non stop but can’t seem to gain any weight. How are they so lean? The answer here is that they probably have very fast metabolisms.
Increase your metabolism with high intensity workouts like running that will have you burning fat long after you’re off the treadmill.
What does it mean to have a fast metabolism?
Having a fast metabolism means that your body is burning fat all day long. When you’re sitting, when you’re walking, when you’re sleeping. All the time. Your body is completely efficient. It doesn’t store excess fat. It burns everything you eat as fuel.
Can I be like that?
You know what? You can become one of those people. You truly can increase your metabolism. The reason that diets don’t work is because (not only do they slow your metabolism and essentially sabotage you from achieving your goals) but they only help you lose weight while you restrict what you eat. A human being can only do that for so long. You cannot beat your body’s nutrition and energy needs. You can ignore them for a while, but it will only hurt you in the long run by slowing your metabolism and forcing you to eat even less to maintain the same weight.
What eating clean and working out with high intensity enables your body to do is to make itself more efficient – in turn, improving your metabolism.
How do I increase my metabolism?
When you exercise at a high intensity, you develop lean muscles and lose fat. This means you’ll be tapping into a different system within your body that uses your existing fat stores to give you energy and upping your metabolism. Then your metabolism stays elevated after the high intensity workout. This is known as Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (known as EPOC). Some studies say that you can achieve this after burn effect post HIIT for up to 48 hours.The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism becomes. If you are eating very clean as well then you stop getting the cravings that so often end up sabotaging a great diet and curtail your weight loss efforts. Putting all of this together will ensure a lean body for the long run.
Jon Pearlman is a former standout tennis player at Harvard, ATP-ranked touring pro, and author of The Lean Body Manual. He founded Mission Lean to share his unique formula for lean body fitness and nutrition, an approach that took over a decade to develop and perfect. He is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist.
