Burn More Calories

How to Burn More Calories throughout the day 

You may not realise this, but there is a way for you to increase the total amount of calories you burn throughout the day. Your BMR, or basal metabolic rate is a complex way of saying the amount of calories needed to keep your body functioning at rest.  

Your BMR supports the most basic (basal) life functions such as breathing, sleeping, digesting food, circulating blood, and producing new cells. Knowing this number is important if you wish to establish a weight loss or weight gain goal (find our your BMR here).

Your BMR is responsible for over 70% of your total calories burned every day. Similar to the engine of a car, think of your BMR as your body’s engine. The larger the engine, the more fuel (calories) it requires just to keep the engine turned on and running. 

So if your goal is fat loss, it’s paramount that you optimize your body’s metabolic engine and raise your BMR as much as possible. There are two main ways to elevate your BMR: 

Lift weights

 

Muscle is metabolically expensive and requires high amounts of energy (in the form of food or body fat) for your body to maintain. This is precisely why building muscle is key for fat loss – the more muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR, and the more calories you burn all day long while doing nothing.  

One study found that 10 pounds of muscle burnt 50 calories during the day at rest, whereas 10 pounds of fat only burnt 20. This might not sound like a lot, but when you expand that amount across the whole body and not just 10 pounds, the cumulative amount of calories burnt could be a significantly higher! 

Consume more PROTEIN 

 

Without adequate protein intake, it’s impossible to build or maintain muscle. When you are looking to lose or gain weight, the focus should always be to either build or at least maintain muscle. Another reason we advocate eating more protein is that protein has the highest Thermic effect of Food (TEF).That means your body uses more energy and burns more calories breaking down and digesting protein compared to carbs and fats. 

This article was taken from T Nation