The Vader Ranger: Under The Suit

During one of our many chats, it was my osteopath who enlightened me regarding the relationship between metabolism and muscle. I found out even more by looking it up. The information on metabolism here has been gleaned from an article Do You Need to Increase Metabolism by Mary Shomon, found on About.Com. Here's the important stuff, flavoured to assist budding Vaders like me.

Body Shape - Metabasics

We get energy from the food and drink we consume. How our bodies process sustenance is termed our metabolism. While it is common to refer to a metabolism as faster or slower, it is more accurate to describe someone's metabolism as more efficient.

Metabolism is made up of several components:

• Basal metabolism - From 60 to 65 percent of calories you eat daily are spent keeping you alive and providing basic energy for life support. If you were to lay in bed all day, you would still need these calories to support basic body functions.
• Physical activity - 25 percent of your calories go to movement and physical activity.
• Thermic effect of food - About 10 percent of calories are spent processing the food you eat. For example, if you eat 2000 calories a day, you should be burning 200 calories a day simply eating and digesting your food.

The key thing is this: "To lose weight, you have to reduce calories taken in, increase calories expended, or do both." It is worth noting that there are many overweight people who don't actually take in more calories than people with an ideal body mass index.

Alright, so armed with this, what do you do about it? Increase your share of each component of your metabolism: Basal metabolism, physical activity, and the thermic effect of your food. This is what I've had to do. As basal metabolism is the most influential factor, it deserves the most focus. And the nice thing about that? You'll be killing two birds with one stone...