There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Burn Calories While Resting
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a Method to the Madness. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Hello everybody and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Again. I'm going to give you some good news today. I'm going to teach you how to burn calories even at rest. But this really isn't anything new. This is just our resting metabolic rate that I'm talking about, and it is so important to keep healthy.
Speaker 1:I don't think many people understand that our resting metabolic rate is the main way that we actually burn our calories, our expenditure throughout the day. Our resting metabolic rate, or basal metabolic, accounts for about 60 to 70% of our caloric burn. That is a lot, of course, and roughly 15 to 30% comes from our physical activity. So we have definitely some overt control over that. As you see, the 15 to 30% we can maximize that caloric burn and get that up to 30% if we're very active individuals, and that's a great thing. And then finally we burn calories through what is called the thermic effect of feeding, or when we eat we actually burn calories because our body has to rev up to digest the calories. But that's only about tops 5%. So let's not start overeating so we burn more calories. That might be just a touch counterproductive, but the point is, the majority of caloric burn comes from our resting metabolic rate. So I don't know, to me it seems like if that's the majority of our burn, we would want to do everything we can to keep that metabolic rate as high as we can, and there is something that we can do about it.
Speaker 1:Now I know a lot of us hear all the time that our resting metabolic rate or metabolism slows down as we age. That's partly true. I was listening to a podcast a couple weeks ago. True, I was listening to a podcast a couple of weeks ago and it's a podcaster I really like and they interview guests that I really like and the guest was very, very well-meaning and very well-educated and I know what they were getting at. But at the same time they did misspeak a little bit, at least factually, on age and metabolic rate. They were talking about how we don't have any control over aging, which is true and it's aging that causes the decrease in the metabolic rate. But that isn't necessarily true. There is some truth to it.
Speaker 1:But the main reason why our resting metabolic rate lessens as we age is because we lose muscle. In fact there's a term for it, it's called sarcopenia. Sarcopenia means age-related muscle mass loss. That's the main reason why our metabolic rate slows down, because we simply lose muscle. After the age of 30, we start losing some muscle mass and that basically accelerates every decade. Unless we do something about it. Then we can maintain as much muscle mass as possible.
Speaker 1:For example, if you took I should say I would take in this bet a 70-year-old that still has a lot of muscle, we can see that. Let's say so. Let's make this very factual. We can see that by his weight at, say, being 180 pounds and he's 15% body fat. So that's pretty darn lean for that age. Or we can take the same size person, 180 pound man. Again, they're only 30 years old but they're at 30% body fat, which for that age that would be obese. So that would mean if they're the same weight and the only difference is in the body fat percentage, that means the younger one at the higher body fat percentage has a lot more body fat and a lot less muscle, because those are the two things that make up our weight. You know, of course there's bone, but the primary changes that we see that make up our weight is going to be Body fat and lean body mass, which is muscle, and of course water does fluctuate in and out on a daily level. I will take that older man with the 15% body fat's metabolism over that younger man with the 30% body fat's metabolism any day of the week. Any day of the week, because at the same weight, the 180-pound man with 15% body fat has a lot more muscle than the younger man at 180 pounds, at 30% body fat.
Speaker 1:It's simple math. Muscle is metabolic. So you can see that it's not so much age that lowers our metabolic rate, but we lose muscle. Now that's good news. I told you in the very beginning this is going to be good news because we don't have to Sure. It is harder. As people age, we lose testosterone, both men and women. Our endocrine system does start to slow down in production a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yes, these things happen, but study after study, research after research study, has shown that we can still hypertrophy, which is gain muscle mass, well well into life. A matter of fact, wayne Westcott did some studies several years back that showed that people could hypertrophy into their 90s, and hypertrophy is the opposite of sarcopenia or atrophy. It is adding muscle mass to our bodies. So we can do that very late in life. So we do have control over this. Now other studies, actually by the same person, has shown that we can bump our metabolic rate by 7% by adding muscle. 7%, that's huge. Studies have shown that when people strength train while they're dieting, okay. While they're taking off body fat purposely, so while they're dieting, all right. If they maintain their strength training regimen, they're going to maintain their muscle mass, so their metabolic rate won't take such a hit. So, as we see, the real key to all of this is to strength train.
Speaker 1:You know, in the old days the way people lost weight was and let's just say the old days in the 70s and 80s the running boom. Okay, a big thing people were doing was dieting, cutting calories, and, yes, we have to watch what we eat, change what we eat, change how much we eat when we want to lose weight. That was true then. It's true now. I don't want to say it's always going to be true, who the heck knows but I mean, I can't see a world in which that isn't the case. So we are going to have to change how we eat. That's nothing new, but there was a huge push back in those days, in the early days of exercise, of just burning it off, just running. You know the running revolution. And running is great, great for the mind, great for the body. Walking is great, great for the mind, great for the body.
Speaker 1:The problem with that is when cardio is the only means of exercise to lose weight, then we're not doing anything for that resting metabolic rate. In fact, we are losing muscle. And if we're attaching cardio to a caloric deficit, we're losing even more muscle. So, yes, the scale is coming down, and for some people that's all they care about. But at least half of that and the only way you know is to have body composition tests done but at least half of that might be muscle.
Speaker 1:Again, I'll go back to the study. When strength training is performed during the dieting process, that is not true. Now you may not lose as much weight on the scale because you're maintaining the muscle, but that is a good thing. We don't want to lose the muscle, because what happens is this when we lose the muscle, when we diet, when we lose weight, eventually the majority of people go back to their own, their old eating styles. When they go back to their old eating styles, guess what happens? The weight starts to come back on. But now, if they haven't been strength training, it's even worse because they've lowered their metabolic rate a touch. So every time they kind of yo-yo and go up and down and don't include strength training, they're making it a little bit harder to lose again.
Speaker 1:And I don't know about you, but really strength training is so much easier to do than diet. You don't know how many people I mean almost on a daily basis, when I have these types of conversations with clients or just casual conversations while somebody's working out they'll say you know, this part's easy. Getting to the gym and working out is the fun part, man, it's that food thing that really sucks. I mean, yeah, almost everybody says that. So if we know that, if we know getting to the gym and strength training isn't really the hard part, we need to do it. It is so beneficial.
Speaker 1:Strength training is not just for people that want to bench press more weight nowadays, it's not just for people that want to be in CrossFit competitions or bodybuilding shows. It's for everybody. It is for our metabolic health. All right. So I'm giving you the numbers. I want people to understand the numbers so they can really think about their choices. So many people I mean only 25% or so of the population is doing enough cardio and strength training to get benefits. By the year 2030, we might be at a 70% overweight and obesity rate in the United States. I mean, come on, people, only 30% not overweight or obese. We can do better than that. You know.
Speaker 1:A quote I love is one by John F Kennedy, and he says the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. So what that means in this case is that too many people think that they're going to do something about it when it's already problematic and look, that is better than nothing or better than not doing it. But the best time to think about this is when we are younger, when we do have the means and the energy to get to the gym. We don't want to get into that cycle of sarcopenia. If you're middle-aged now or younger than that, it is the time to start going to the gym so you can keep your metabolic rate up, because guess what that's typically when it starts to go down.
Speaker 1:I mean, the majority of my clients at the gym are over 60, the majority because they got to the point where it's like you know what, I need to do something about it and it's great. I mean, some have been doing it their whole lives and needed a push, but many of them have not and I'm glad they're there and they've seen so much benefit. But I can tell you right now, if the sun is shining now and you're not having problems, you still need to strength train. You want to keep muscle mass on the body and whatever is stopping you? Don't let it. It doesn't have to consume your life. Research has shown that strength training two to three days a week for about 30 minutes at a time is more than adequate to put muscle mass on your body so you can keep your metabolic rate up and you can keep your strength levels up. 90 minutes a week. People. That's not asking a lot, right, and the benefits are there. We get at least a bump of 7%, along with just feeling really, really great about ourselves.
Speaker 1:All right, I did my workout this morning. I love to work out, it is a great meditation for me and I hope you'll join me in that beauty of an endeavor. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the premier garage door company in Volusia County With the best product with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout 386-222-3165.
