Ryan Singerman, DO, PPG – Weight Management & Bariatric Surgery, explains why shifting your fitness mindset could lead to wins on the scale.
In the past, we’ve talked about defining what is metabolism. So, the next question is, okay, how do I actually increase my metabolism? Or in other words, how do I increase the number of calories that I'm burning on a daily basis? Well, the key to it is actually not that intuitive.
Many people ask me, what is the best type of exercise? And they expect me to say, you need to run more, you need to swim more, you need to do more cardio. But when it comes to losing body weight, when you're doing that kind of exercise, you're only burning calories in the moment. When you stop doing that cardio, your heart rate comes back to rest and you basically stop burning calories.
It's still great for your heart health, lung health and mental health, but when it comes to losing body weight, cardio alone is not the best type of exercise. The best type of exercise is actually muscle building. Whether that is with resistance training or lifting weights, building bigger muscles increases the body's metabolic demand, because the more muscle mass you have, the more your body has to burn to keep that muscle mass up.
The other way of increasing metabolism is looking at things medically. Certain types of medical treatments can be used for people struggling to lose body weight that can actually increase your metabolism.
There are always potential side effects with any of these, which might include a racing heart rate or irregular heart rate. We have to watch out for those.
So, if you are interested in boosting your metabolism, the safest way to do it is to build bigger muscle. Then, if you're looking for ways above and beyond that, I would strongly recommend talking to your physician to ensure we can find the healthiest and safest way for you to do it.
You can see Dr. Singerman unpack more weight loss myths here.
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